George Alfred Lawrence (March 25, 1827–September 23, 1876) was a British novelist and barrister.
He was educated at Rugby and at Balliol College, Oxford, and in 1851 married Mary Kirwan. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1852, but soon abandoned the law for literature.
In 1857 he published, anonymously, his first novel, Guy Livingstone, or Thorough. This gained a great popularity, and he went on to write more novels of a similar type. Lawrence may be regarded as the originator in English fiction of the beau sabreur type of hero, great in sport and love and war.
On the outbreak of the American Civil War he went to America with the intention of joining the Confederate Army, but was taken prisoner and only released on promising to return to England. He traveled much in later years and died in Edinburgh.
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It is not a pleasant epoch in one's life, the first forty-eight hours at a large public school. I have known strong-minded men of mature age confess that they never thought of it without a shiver. I don't count the home-sickness, which perhaps only affects seriously the most innocent of débutants, but there are other thousand and one little annoyances which make up a great trouble. If there were nothing else, for instance, the unceasing query, "What's your name?" makes you feel the possession of a cognomen at all a serious burden and bar to advancement in life.
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