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J^^^^M^^a^^^a^Ma^aMMM ^^Mlaw 8fc THE LEA...
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J^^^^M^^a^^^a^Ma^aMMM ^^Mlaw NOVELS ANI>...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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J^^^^M^^A^^^A^Ma^Ammm ^^Mlaw 8fc The Lea...
J ^^^^ M ^^ a ^^^ a ^ Ma ^ aMMM ^^ Mlaw 8 fc THE LEADER , [ No . 44 , 0 , Atjwst 28 . 1858 .
J^^^^M^^A^^^A^Ma^Ammm ^^Mlaw Novels Ani>...
NOVELS ANI > NOVELISTS . Novels aad Novelist * Jrom Elizabeth to Victoria . By J . Cordy JeafFreson , Author of " Crew Rise , " & c 2 vols . Hurst and Blackett . Ix was with considerable eagerness that we cut open the leaves of this promising book ; having long desired to peruse a Tbistory of the rise and progress of that remarkable section of English literature , the three ^ voluvne novel . We were , ho wever , doomed to he disappointed in this particular , and perhaps peculiar wish , for Mr . Jeaffreson ' s book is , literally , -what its title announces it . Of novels and novelists , there is a great deal of miscellaneous and entertaining matter ; aud if an author be ouly i ) OUJid to fulfil his title , it may not be just to Co > n 4 emu him for not having done what he never professed to do .
, Nevertheless , , with so much knowledge of the -subject , and with such evident reading up to it , we must regret that the author did not fill a manifest ^ jap in-our national literature . The modern novel is as importaut an invention and work of art as the Crrecian drama , and deserves as minute and critical -a record- Its effect on the manners aud morals of * he people is important ; and when considered in afejDQOst modern tor m , of the penny journals , it he-Hjbmes no unworthy subject of consideration to the anoralist and the legislator . The English , Shakspearean drama is unrivalled ,
told the same may almost be said of the modern aovel as perfected by the genius of Scott . The Germans , with Goethe at their head , have certainly produced some fine novels , and the ^ French novelists , arepugnant as their morals and sentiments in many ^ respects are to ours , have yet shown , great and varied -talent ;; but inon * direction— -that of the histqricalrihey certainly derived their impetus from our side < tf the water , and Rousseau , at the head of the sentimental school , did not publish his Helohe until
. twelve'years after the finish of Richardson ' s Clarissa Marlowe . Madame de la Roche , esteemed one of flie founders of the modem German novel , did not ¦ Commence her eareer . . qntil ten years later ; thus , in every stjle , the EiigKsh seem to have set the example , lie Sage , indeed , had imported somewhat earlier the romance of character and adventure from Spain , . and to him maisfc be attributed the honour of forming the style of the Fielding and Smollett novel ; a form \* hieh , however varied , is still the basis of 4 he fictions of our most celebrated living novelists .
Mr . Jeaffireson is like many of our English historians , who scorn the earlier part of history as indistinct and barbarous , and who rush with impatience to modem and well-defined times . His very « eantv introduction scarcely alludes to the novels of ^ Elizabeth ' s age , or the romances of Sydney and his Imitators ; nor in his very brief notice of Robert 'Greene does he repair the omission . He is very imperfectly informed on the subject , and apparently 4 akes his information from the lives in Zardner ' s Cy--clopcedia , which are a mass of misinformation and prejudicial misinterpretation . He speaks with the ¦ arrogance of a patron of the lives of our early writers
, and certainly with a defective relish of their works . He considers them profligates , and refiroaches them with feasting ana debauchery , . ralfchotigh they could only occasionally have indulged In what would now be thought very humble iare and very harmless excess . Dried haddocks and Hhenish wine surely do not merit the castigation of -an age that demands turtle and Roman punch . The author is evidently not at all at home in this period of our literature , and taking a leap of more '• tbaa half a century , he lights on Charles the First ' s June and the Duchess of Newcastle . In tliis leap lie vaults over the life of a very important person amongst English novelists—no less a man than John Barclay , who was bom in 1582 , and died in 1021 , -. and who wrote a regular historical novel under the
name pf Argenis , or the Loves of Polliarchits and Argentr It certainly was composed in Latin , and yraa written with a purpose , and that a heavy one , -the aim being "to set forth a royal institution both * f a king- and his kingdom ; " and lie introduced < under feigned names living political celebrities of England and the continental states . Nevertheless , * o popular was it , that it went through several editions ; was reprinted at all the foreign presses , and was translated into English by two important men of tile time ; namely , Sir Thomas lc Grys and Kingsmill Long , Esa ., the latter version being adorned with as many plates as any modern novel now published in parts . As Mr . Jeaffrcson is heedless of auch an author , wo are not surprised at his entirely passing over all translations : even those of the
Spanish novels IfAlfaraehe and Don Quixote . That they had an effect on our literature there can be no doubt , but so intenselv dramatic was the age , that it used up almost all foreign novels more especially for its plays . From the eccentric Duchess of Newcastle we pass to Mrs . Behn , of whom we have a very pleasant notice . We next light on the undoubted father of the modern English novel , Daniel Defoe ; for as Mrs . Barbauld says , in her Memoir of Richardson , " If from any one he caught his peculiar manner of writing , to him it must be traced whose Mobbison
Crusoe and Family Imfntctor he must have read . ' The names of Richardson , Fielding , and Smollett are indelibly fixed in our literature as the founders of our modern prose fiction ; and although Defoe has claims of priority , yet the judgment ot the multitude is right ; for these three writers decidedly laid the foundations of the sentimental , the adventurous , and the satirical novel . The only other type . of a general kind—the historical—was confirmed , if not founded , by Scott ; and he was not perhaps , strictly speaking , its originator , though his genius certainly moulded it into a distinct
class , and gave it a settled form . Scott was very justly proud of lus position as a novelist , and manifested it in writing the biographies of the great novelists ; -but satisfied as he was with his position as a writer . of prose fiction , ho was prouder of being a Scotchman , and this he has shown in his comparison between Fielding and Smollett ; and Mr . jeaffreson carefully points out the egregious errors of this literary parallel , . "We quite agree with him when he says Smollett , in genius , -was below Fielding , but a more amusing writer . With Sterne , the author has used all the severity now the fashion to sliow this singularly line writer . One of our subtlest critics ( Leigh Hunt ) has j ustly said the character of Uncle Toby is unrivalled in
* i / k - r " ? * «« Pised one ; it is not devoted to the fabncaUon of indelicate and dangerous love-stort capable onl y of amusing silly women , and tickling 5 sensuality of vicious men ; and no longer is it fiv l over to the guardianship of the meanest writers of sterile imaginations and gross instincts ; but it talJ , under its cognizance every subject that interests the intelligence or arouses the affections of man It 1 , had a har < l battle to fight , and is not yet " without it . enemies , but even its bitterest foes are indebted to it for happy hours and mental guidance . No owe now can affect to disdain tlie novel as a light and pernicious forni of literature fit only for the frivolous ; for it tredts S TZ & b ' j ?™** *?* luci < ! > th 0 *»»* » nportant
. - topics . The wisest thinkers , the most laborious scholars and the most adroit politicians combine to use it as the best means of appealing to the intelli gence of their fellow-men . It is most catholic and engrossing , appealinc to every variety of mental conformation , ami attractin g to itself authors of every school of thought , and style " No one is left unconsidered . Statesmen avail themselves of it to propound their theories on governm ent moralists to illustrate their opinions , churchmen andnoehurchmen . to bring into the field' the forces of polemical contention , classical students to paint the deeds of fallen empires and the manners of peoples long since swept from the family of nations , and cities long since buried in
the earth . The pedant can no longer growl at " the lightness"" of" trashy fiction , " for in the productionsof novelists are works pedantic , and dull , and heavy enough to please the stupidest and most pompons Doctor " Divinity to be found in Oxford . Nor can the slug ^ n blockhead any longer concenl his shame at his indolence in not perusing the literature of his age under an assumed contempt for the minds that produce it , for the writers of these long-traduced tales are found ; imon" $ t the leading men of every department of intellectual activity- ^ lawyers , physicians , clergymen , men of science , statesmen : indeed it would be difficult to find
a dozen men of any note in the kingdom who have not at some time or other made some attempt hi the novelist ' s art . Novels are now the poems of the tiiiie—prosepoems , and they are composed by the authors who in atiy previous age would have expressed their thoughts in verse , counting their fingers anil courting the nfuae . . The folloAving is a truth , and a daring ; one considering the fashion of- the time , ou the influence of what is now termed "light literature " : — The iufluence of a grent author may . be . divided and placed under two heads—liis influence on his art , andhis influence on those he addresses who cannot materially , at least immediately , affect that art ; the impression made by him on . literature , '' and * that ' produced on the
the language ; and the extreme delicacy of lus feeling and . observation seems to be disregarded llowa-days On account of the indecency of his thoughts aud language . One mi g ht as \ yell deny Teniers fineness of touch because lie painted brutish boors ; and this Mr * jeaffreson himself acknowledges in a line or two , after abusing him through forty pages . Thirty-five pages are given to Goldsmith , and seeing : tliatvve have had within twenty years three elaborate biographies of hiin , we cannot say it is new reading . The estimate is however sober , and lias a right tendency ; for , as a miscellaneous writer , and even as a poet , we agree with Mr . Jeaffreson in thinking he has been , very much overrated by a set who patronise and pet him as " poor Goldsmith . " - ' Perhaps the most interesting and novel of these biographies is that of Thomas Hold-off , one of the noblest men and cleverest dramatists the last
ecugreat commonwealth of readers . How highly we esteem Mr . Dickens , as one who has made the noblest use of his abilities for tho furtherance of the great ends of life , the foregoing pages must ' 'have shown . But we arc by no means prepared to say that his genius , fruitful though it has been of good to mtuiklnrf , hn . n not been productive of some harm to literature . Of course au artist is not to be lield responsible for the extravagances ami follies of his imitators ; but still , if he call into life n swarm of moan copyists , who perseveringly insult fjooil taste , they must be regarded ns part of the evil effects of \ ua intellect . Oue butl consequence of 31 r . Dickens's gonius is a crowd of feeble scribblers , who , by cockney vulgarisms and a pert affectation of smartness , li . ivo contributed not a little to vitiate the' stvle of our current
tury produced . Godwin is underestimated , and Beckfovd overestimated , according to our notions ; and it may be here remarked that the author seems to have an objection to view writers in relation to the effect they produced , scarcely distinguishing those who founded a type and created a school from those who merely blossomed aud died . In this view , Horace'Wai pole's Cudle of Of ran to , was more important than Mrs . lladcliffo ' s Mysteries of Vdolpho , and Mrs . Hay wood ' s ' Jielxr / Thoughtless than Madame D'Avblay ' s Evelina . lJut the system
literature . This was to be expected , 'raking a strong hold of the mind of the nation , u TiiAwick " excited to a morbid degree our love of the ri « lioulous ; the novelty of its humours so captivated our inia . , iuations , that , for a time , the risible wns the only siiU- «! ' life wo cured ubout ; under the fascination of the mighty vizard we went about into kennels , mul beorshop . s . uul thcutrcs , hunting for " churactyrs , " " seeing lift-, " . " ^ inly ing human nature-, " and in our predetermination to fiml "life : " very grot estate and funny , and ridiciil'iiis , we genernlly failed to lieod the stern and solemn msmiuistations of thut which wo took so much Iroubhi t <> f ? ° > search of . Wliat wonder then that to satisfy s « ch a general craving for nequaiiUnncc with '" llar-h" noeioty , to
of selection m these volumes ( if system Ihcrc be ) is a mystery , and the admissions , especially in the second volume , are as puzzling ns the omissions . Some of the authors crammed * m half-page notices cannot feel complimented ; and in a case like that of G . P . 11 . James , whatever we may think of hid quality , we should like to know more of so prolific and popular a writer ; and a critical analysis . would have been interesting to show with wlint superficial qualities a writer may affect a whole generation and set tlie writing fashion of his day .
a act of scribblers , hearing about the same ivlulion accomplished authors tliat tlie practitioners of ' tliimblerig " and the keepers of botting-hou .-eti do t «» tlm | inlneiaa members ol" the ! turf , arose to chronicle in . ^ iing phrnseology the proceedings of " fast" men mul comic blackguardism . Hence ciune a taint of low-luwiling , j ° current literature , that is being washed aw . iy , Imt willi nev « rtlicles » , rcmnin for many a day . lhnu'st , M-nsiuI * - men , with good lioatls and information worth impaitnig , felt that it was right , immediately they touk Huh' p ^ ru in their hands , to be funny—to stniiii at tin" U ' " ' wit which produces laugh tor . It wuh Mic ^ sjiiiu ! »» conversation ; jaunty tnlking , dreary ptms , wcintillutions <> * fcelilo ridicule , to which Egyptian darkness w . H I ' " " f ( -rnblc , and small juki ' H , hiding thft povortv of tneir diinenaions under exaggi'vatiniiH of cNprc . ^ inn , viinxa into fashion . What ia ho dull as n bad pioiMi "' ' W ' 0 "
The author seems to have exhausted himself on the three great novelists of the ago , Dickens , Thackeray , and Buhvcr ; for after their notices , lie huddles up his task , not improbably without an intention of bringing out ji supplementary volume , or an enlarged edition . These throe biographies are the licst of tho volumes ; and , indeed , there is suoli a dift ' erence in parts of them , from scvcntl of tlic
other notices , that it leads us to suspect that more than one hand has been engaged on the work , lie is discriminating with Mr . Thackeray ; jusfc to Sir L ytton Bulwer : aud eulogistic with Charles Dickens . In this last biography is some of the beat writing in these volumes , and some of the oddest notions ; and wo shall therefore give an extract or two from it . The following is a just estimate of the present position of novel writing : —¦
tecliny ? It would be unjust to the author , nfl . « rMin foregoing extract , not to append his estimate of Dickens a genius : — It would bo ridiculous in a work of this kind to flt '
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28081858/page/18/
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