The Adventures of Hugh Trevor

First published in six volumes in 1794 and 1797, Thomas Holcroft's The Adventures of Hugh Trevor is one of the boldest and sharpest novels of the radical decade. It follows the son of a poor farmer's son and a proud clergyman's daughter, as he is buffeted between the workhouse and the drawing room: apprenticed, abandoned, brutalised, rescued and patronised in turn.

Brave, curious and hopelessly susceptible to flattery, Hugh trusts the institutions he has been taught to revere—school, Church and the dream of Oxford, gaming rooms, the law and finally parliament—and each betrays him in turn, with the satire growing steadily darker as the gap between the world's professions and its practices widens.

Holcroft drew on his own rise from stable boy and shoemaker to playwright and political radical, and wrote the novel amid the repression that followed the treason trials of 1794. Yet beneath the biting satire of establishment virtue runs a stubborn faith that human beings can improve, and that institutions may be judged by their conduct rather than their rank.

Fast, pacy, and often shocking, the novel is unsparing in its dissection of establishment virtue.

Volume I — Published 19 January 2027

• The opening two volumes of the original, together with the Preface, Biographical Introduction, Editorial Note and Introduction to the series.
• Paperback, 340 pp., £14.99 (ISBN 9781916937444)
• Ebook £4.99 (ISBN 9781916937451)

Volume II — Forthcoming

• Original volumes three and four.

Volume III — Forthcoming

• Original volumes five and six.

Our classics are produced as comfortable reading editions, with compact A-format paperbacks, readable type, standard paperback paper and, where appropriate, the original volume structure restored. They are designed to make classic literature feel fresh, accessible and a pleasure to read.

Find out how P-Wave Classics are published as books to be read today, not monuments to be endured.

The Adventures of Hugh Trevor first appeared in six volumes, in two instalments separated by the political crisis of 1794. Modern printings have tended to compress it into a single block, losing the rhythm of the original publication. This edition returns the novel to three volumes in the order it was first encountered, with notes and an introduction for the general reader.

Thomas Holcroft (1745–1809) was an English dramatist, novelist, translator, and political radical whose work combined Enlightenment ideas with sharp observation of social inequality. Born into poverty and largely self-educated, he worked as a stable boy, shoemaker, actor, and journalist before establishing himself in London's literary and theatrical world. His best-known play, The Road to Ruin (1792), became a lasting stage success, while The Adventures of Hugh Trevor (1794–97) drew on his own experience to examine education, ambition, and the formation of character. Once prosecuted for high treason, Holcroft is now recognised as a major voice of the radical 1790s.

L. A. Davenport, born in Cork, Ireland, in 1973, is a novelist and short story writer whose works include The Nucleus of Reality, Escape, and No Way Home. A graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he brings extensive experience in medical journalism to his insightful and engaging fiction and non-fiction.

Learn more about L. A. Davenport and his writing at Pushing the Wave.