An Oxford graduate in literary translation
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1852, Allinson entered Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1872. The contemporary university register records his bachelor’s degree in 1877 and master’s degree in 1882. His later working life is less fully documented than his extensive list of translations, which appeared under several forms of his name.
He translated French writers including Alexandre Dumas and Anatole France, along with historical works, children’s books and volumes of the Fantômas detective series. Some earlier commissions came from publishers specialising in erotic literature. His own The Days of the Directoire, published in 1910, turned to French history after the Revolution. He died in 1929. The breadth of the bibliography gives a clearer picture of his professional range than the limited surviving personal record.
Michelet in English
The held title page reads The Sorceress: A Study in Middle Age Superstition and promises a complete translation from Michelet’s French by A. R. Allinson. It is the text catalogued here under the broader title Satanism and Witchcraft. Allinson’s role is to carry the historian’s argument into English; the book does not establish that he shared every belief or historical judgment it contains.
Michelet’s introduction presents the sorceress as a healer and a figure created by social despair, while the later chapters turn to persecutions, possession cases and trials. Allinson’s English carries the historian’s heightened rhetoric and sympathy for women accused of witchcraft. Readers encounter Michelet’s argument through this particular English translation.
