The Prophet of Number One Thousand Berkeley Square is a neat little gentleman who lives with his grandmother, reads Marcus Aurelius and studies the stars through a great telescope — until his dealings with Malkiel the Second, the almanac-maker he reveres, turn a hobby into a public trade in prophecy. Hichens made his name at twenty-nine with The Green Carnation, an anonymous satire on Wilde so exact it was withdrawn after the trials; this 1901 farce mocks the séance-going upper classes with real venom under the silliness. Fifty-three plates, from Goya to Grimshaw, catch the gaslit streets and harbors of the world the Prophet moves through.
