An African Millionaire Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay

After leaving his professorship in 1876 he returned to England where he turned his talents to writing gaining a reputation for his essays on science and for literary works. A 2007 book by Oliver Sacks cites with approval one of Allens early articles Note-Deafness (a description of what became known as amusia published in 1878 in the learned journal Mind). Allens first books dealt with scientific subjects and include Physiological Æsthetics (1877) and Flowers and Their Pedigrees (1886) He was first influenced by associationist psychology as expounded by Alexander Bain and by Herbert Spencer the latter who especially espoused the transition from associationist psychology to Darwinian functionalism. In Allens many articles on flowers and on perception in insects Darwinian arguments replaced the old Spencerian terms leading to a radically new vision of plant life that influenced H.G. Wells and helped transform later botanical research. On a personal level a long friendship that started when Allen met Spencer on his return from Jamaica grew uneasy over the years. Allen wrote a critical and revealing biographical article on Spencer that was published after Spencers death. After assisting Sir W. W. Hunter with his Gazetteer of India in the early 1880s Allen turned his attention to fiction and between 1884 and 1899 produced about 30 novels. In 1895 his scandalous book titled The Woman Who Did promulgating certain startling views on marriage and kindred questions became a bestseller. The book told the story of an independent woman who has a child out of wedlock. Owing to his concern with these subjects Allen was associated with Thomas Hardy whose novel Jude the Obscure (1895) was published the same year as The Woman Who Did.