He contributed for many years to the Christmas numbers of The Gentleman's Magazine,[1] and sold many short stories to newspapers.
[2] Francillon's review "George Eliot's First Romance (1876)" defends Daniel Deronda from early critics.
He notes that as a romance it differs in kind from Adam Bede or Middlemarch: "It lies so far outside George Eliot's other works in every important respect as to make direct comparison impossible.
[4] Along with Swinburne, Francillon, belonged to Thomas Purnell's literary club "Decemviri", and was an early member of the neo-Jacobite body known as the Order of the White Rose.
[citation needed] Francillon married a daughter of the composer John Barnett, who was also a goddaughter of Franz Liszt.