Portrait of Jane Loudon

Jane Loudon

English science fiction writer and botanist

Lived
1807–1858

Updated September 2026

Free to read

All free classics

About Jane Loudon

Jane Loudon, also known as Jane C. Loudon, or Mrs. Loudon in her publications, was an English writer and early pioneer of science fiction. She wrote before the term was coined, and was discussed for a century as a writer of Gothic fiction, fantasy or horror. She also created the first popular gardening manuals, as opposed to specialist horticultural works, reframing the art of gardening as fit for young women. She was married to the well-known horticulturalist John Claudius Loudon, and they wrote some books together, as well as her own very successful series. Loudon is famous for her gothic novel The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827).

Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Authors like Jane Loudon

Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers, free texts from Project Gutenberg. Last updated September 2026.