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Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes (née Belloc; 5 August 1868 – 14 November 1947), who wrote as Marie Belloc Lowndes, was a prolific English novelist, and sister of author
Born in
Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. ...
.
Active from 1898 until her death, she had a literary reputation for combining exciting incidents with psychological interest. Four of her works were adapted for the screen: ''The Chink in the Armour
''The Chink in the Armour'' is a 1912 novel by the British writer Marie Belloc Lowndes.
Film adaptation
In 1922 it was made into a British silent film '' The House of Peril'' directed by Kenelm Foss and starring Fay Compton
Virginia Lilian ...
'' (1912; adapted 1922), '' The Lodger'' (1913; adapted several times), ''Letty Lynton
''Letty Lynton'' is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film starring Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery and Nils Asther. The film was directed by Clarence Brown and based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes; the novel ...
'' (1931; adapted 1932), and '' The Story of Ivy'' (1927; adapted 1947). ''The Lodger'' was also adapted as a 1940 radio drama and 1960 opera.
Personal life
Born in Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it ...
, London and raised in La Celle-Saint-Cloud
La Celle-Saint-Cloud () is a commune in the Yvelines department of the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is a western suburb of Paris, from the center.
Population
Transport
La Celle-Saint-Cloud is served by two stations on ...
, France, Belloc was the only daughter of French barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and givin ...
Louis Belloc and English feminist Bessie Parkes. Her younger brother was Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. ...
, whom she wrote of in her last work, ''The Young Hilaire Belloc'' (published posthumously in 1956).
Belloc's paternal grandfather was the French painter Jean-Hilaire Belloc, and her maternal great-great-grandfather was the theologian/philosopher Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted ...
. Her mother died in 1925, 53 years after her father.
In 1896, Belloc married Frederick Sawrey A. Lowndes (1868–1940).
Career