Mr Jones’ defence: a re-appraisal of the works of Henry Arthur Jones

Newton, Jeremy Nigel (2022) Mr Jones’ defence: a re-appraisal of the works of Henry Arthur Jones. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

Abstract

Henry Arthur Jones (1851-1929) was a prolific English dramatist of the fin de siècle. A contemporary of Wilde and Shaw, Jones at his peak had greater commercial success and critical acclaim as a playwright than either of them, but his reputation diminished rapidly after his death. The last book solely about Jones was published in 1932, and such critical attention as Jones has received since the mid-twentieth century has tended to be hostile: his plays about the Woman Question were received particularly badly by second-wave feminist commentators, and successive critics have perpetuated the assessment of Jones as typifying a certain kind of late-Victorian misogyny that hardly merits detailed analysis. However, signs have emerged of a revival of academic interest, with several of Jones’ individual plays being discussed in recent works about the theatrical representation of illicit female sexuality, Victorian perceptions of marriage, theatre and evolution, and the influence of John Ruskin. In this thesis, I undertake a broader reappraisal of Jones, by considering the writing and reception history of a selection of plays addressing important cultural themes – masculinities, religion, socialism, the Woman Question and imperialism – and demonstrate how Jones developed a subversive dramaturgical strategy that enabled him to articulate critique within the framework of ostensibly conventional narratives. This strategy was part of a wider reformist challenge that Jones undertook against the institutions of the theatre, particularly the actor-manager system and the censorship, championing the primacy of the dramatist. Although his input into debates about nation and theatre would manifest in increasingly pro-imperialist and pro-establishment ways in the latter part of his career, I conclude that Jones should be viewed as a significant figure in the development of the English stage, whose plays both reflect and critique the changing cultural landscape and social mores of fin de siècle Britain.

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