Skip to content
Robert Orange — cover
Get your copy
Aeneas Press edition Victorian

Robert Orange

Being a Continuation of the History of Robert Orange

by John Oliver Hobbes 1867–1906

The book, and the century it came out of.

A Catholic convert stands for Parliament, is loved by two women and married to neither in any way the Church will accept, and must decide what he owes his faith when it costs him everything else. Pearl Craigie wrote as John Oliver Hobbes, converted at twenty-four, and knew the collision she was describing from the inside; her epigrams were compared to Wilde’s, and she died at forty-one. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Martineau, Doré and Carpeaux among them.

One afternoon during the first weeks of October, 1869, while wind, dust, and rain were struggling each for supremacy in the streets, a small yellow brougham, swung in the old-fashioned style on cumbersome springs and attached to a pair of fine grays, was standing before the Earl of Garrow’s town residence in St.…
The first sentence of Robert Orange
A note on this edition

Robert Orange, by John Oliver Hobbes, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 264 pages
Reading time
about 5 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501004085
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

The Last Day in the Old Home, Robert Braithwaite Martineau
The Last Day in the Old Home Robert Braithwaite Martineau 1862
Studio in the Rue de Furstemberg, Frédéric Bazille
Studio in the Rue de Furstemberg Frédéric Bazille 1865
Landscape, Samuel Bough
Landscape Samuel Bough 1875
Wagnonville Castle, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
Wagnonville Castle Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot 1875
The Seine at Port-Marly, Piles of Sand, Alfred Sisley
The Seine at Port-Marly, Piles of Sand Alfred Sisley 1875
Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket, James McNeill Whistler
Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket James McNeill Whistler 1875
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Robert Orange as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Robert Orange as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Robert Orange, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501004085, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Robert Orange?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. John Oliver Hobbes's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 264 pages, which is roughly about 5 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
Robert Orange
$6.99
Buy the ebook