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874 TH E LE A D E U. [No. 440, Ait&ust 2...
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KOVELS AND NOVELISTS. Novels emd Novelis...
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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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874 Th E Le A D E U. [No. 440, Ait&Ust 2...
874 TH E LE A D E U . [ No . 440 , Ait & ust 28 , 1858
Kovels And Novelists. Novels Emd Novelis...
KOVELS AND NOVELISTS . Novels emd Novelist * from Elizabeth to Victoria . By J . Cordy JeaiFreson , Author of " Grew Rise , " & . c 2 vols . Hurst and Blackett . It Afas with considerable eagerness that we cut open the leaves of this promising book ; harm " long desired to peruse a history of the rise and progress of that remarkable section of English literature , the three-volume novel . We were , however , doomed to be 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 in after ; and if an author be only bcJund to fulfil his title , it may- not be just to con-• deara . him for uot having doae 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 important an invention and work of art as the ¦ Grecian drama , and deserves as minute and critical 4 V record . Its effect on the manners aud morals of ¦ tie people is important ; and when considered in ats most modem form , of the penny journals , it be-¦ jBOmes no unworthy siiDject of consideration to the anoralist and" the legislator . The English Shakspeareaa drama is unrivalled ,
• aaLtt the same may almost we said of the modem aiovel as perfected by the genius of Scott . Tlie ^ Germans , with Goethe at their head , have certainly produced some fine novels , aa & tlie French novelists , repugnant as their morals and sentiments in many respects are to ours , bave yet snown . great and varied talent ; but in one direction— -that of the historical—* hey certainly derived their impetus from our side of the water , and Rousseau , at the head of the seniimental school , did not publish his Heidise until
twelve years after theiiuish of Richardson's Clarissa . JSarloice . Madame de la Roche , esteemed one of "the founders of the inodera German novel , did not commence her career until ten years later ; thus , in -every style , the English seem to have set the example . JLe Sage , indeed , had imported somewhat earlier the romance of character and adventure from Spain , and to him must be attributed the honour of formrag the style of the Fielding and Smollett novel ; 41 form which , howerver vaTied , is still the basis of the fictions of our most celebrated living novelists .
Mr . Jeaffreson is like many of our English historians , who scorn , the earlier part of history as indistinct and barbarous , s , nd who rush with impatience to modern and well-defined times . His very scanty introduction scarcely alludes to the novels of Elizabeth ' s age , or the romances of Sydney aud his imitators ; nor in his very brief notice of Robert ^ Greene does he repair tlie omission . He is very -imperfectly informed on tlic subject , and apparently takes his information from the lives in Lardner ^ s Cy-¦ clopeedia , 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 reiproaches them "with feasting and debauchery , ^ although they conld only occasionally have indulged an what would now be thought very humble lare < and very harmless excess . Dried haddocks and Rhenish wine surely do not merit the castigation of * ux 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 Jfchau half a century , he lights on Charles the First's tune and the Duchess of Newcastle . In this leap me vaults over the life of a very important person * raongat English novelists—no less a . man than John Barclay , Vho was born in 1582 , and died in 1621 , = and who wrote a regular historical novel under tlie
name of Argenu , or the Loves of Polliarchi ( $ and Argents . It certainly was composed in Latin , and was written with a purpose , and that a heavy one , the aim being "to set forth a royal institution both of a . king and his kingdom ; " and he introduced ¦ under feigned names living political celebrities of England and tho continental states . Nevertheless , ao popular was it , that it went through several editions ; was reprinted at all tho forei gn presses , and was translated into English by two important men oftlic time ; namely , Sir Thomas lc Grys and Kingsmill Long , TS & a ., the latter version being adorned ¦ with as many plates as any modern novel now published in parts . As Mr . Jeaffreson is heedloss of fiueh an author , we are not surprised at his entirely passing over all translations : even those of the
Spanish novels UfAlfarache ' and Bon Quixote . That they had an effect on our literature there can be no doubt , but so intensel y dramatic was the age , that it used up almost all ioreign novels more especially for its plavs . From the eccentric Duchess of Newcastle we pass to Mrs . Belm , of . whom we have a very pleasant notice .. We next light on . the undoubted father of the modem 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 Robinson Crmoe and Family Instructor ' -he must have read /'
The names of Richardson , Fielding , and Smollett are indelibly fixed in our literature as the founders of our modem prose fiction ; and although Defoe has claims of priority , yet the judgment of the multitude is right ; for these three writers decidedly laid the foundations of the sentimental , the adventurous , and the satirical novel . Tlie 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 arave it a settled form . Scott was very
justly proud of his position as a novelist , and manifested it in writing the biographies of the great novelists ; but satisfied as lie was with his position as a writer of prose fiction , he was provider of being a Scotchman , aud this he has shmvn . in his comparison between Fielding and Smollett- ; -and Mr . Jeaffreson carefully points out the egregious errors of this literary parallel . We finite 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 seventy now the fashion to show this singularly fine Writer . On . e of our subtlest critics ( Leigh Hunt ) has justly said the character of Uncle Toby is unrivalled in
tlie language ; ami tlie extreme delicacy of his feeling aud observation seems to be disregarded no \ ya-days on . account of the indecency of his thoughts and language . One / -might , as well deny Tehiers fineness of touch because lie painted brutish boors ; and this Mr . Jeaffresoii himself acknowledges in a line or two , after abusing him through ' .-forty pages . Thirty-five pages are given to . Goldsmith , and seeing that we have had within , twenty years three elaborate biographies of him , we cannot say it is new reading . The estimate is however sober , and has a right tendency ; for , as a miscellaneous writer , ; md 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 Uiese biographies is that of Thomas Holproft , one of the noblest men and cleverest dramatists the last century produced . Godwin is underestimated and Beckford 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 ami created a school from those who merely blossomed and died . In this view , Horace Walpole's Castle ofOfiv /) i / o , v , 'm more importattt than Mrs . Radeliffe ' s 3 r ? jntfi > 'i <* s of
Udolpho , and Mrs . Hay wood ' s Relxy Thoughtless than Madame D'Arblay ' s Evelina , But tlie system of selection in these volumes ( if system there be ) is a mystery , and the admissions , especially in the second volume , arc as puzzling as the omissions . Some of the authors crammed in half-pngc notices cannot feel complimented ; and in a case ; like that of G . P . R . James , whatever we may think of liis 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 what superficial qualities a ' writer may affect a whole generation and set the writing fashion of bis day .
The author seems to have exhausted himself on the three great novelists of the age , Dickons , Thackeray , and Bulwcr ; for after their notices , he huddles up his task , not iniprobubly without an intention of bringing out a supplementary volume , or an enlarged edition . These , three biographies are the best of the volumes ; and , indeed , there is such a difference in parts of them , lioin several of the
other notices , that it leads us to suspect Unit more than one hand has been engaged on the work , lie is discriminating with Mr . Thackeray ; just to Sir Lyttou Bulwcr : and eulogistic with Charles Dickens . In this last biography is some of tho \ a wr ^ . S ni these volumes , and some of the oddest notions ; and we shall therefore give an extract or two from it . Tho following is a just estimate of the present position of novel writing : —
. t , , ; . * ° " ? er a des P ««« l one ; it is not devoted to the fabrication of indelicate and dangerous love-storS ? capable only of amusing silly women , and ticklinc th * sensuality of : vicious men ; and no longer is it ffiv ™ over to the guardianship of the meanest writers of sterile imaginations and gross instincts ; but it takes under its cognizance every subject that interests thn intelligence or arouses the affections of man . It ha , had a hard battle to tight , and is not yet without its enemies , but even its bitterest foes are indebted to it for happy hours and mental guidance . No one now can affect to disdain the novel as a light and pernicious form of literature fit only for the frivolous ; for it treats with masterly strength and lucidity the most important topicsThe wisest thinkersthe most
. , laborious scholars and the most adroit politicians combine to use it as the best means of appealing to the intelligence of their fellow-men . It is most catholic and engrossing , appealing to every variety of mental conformation , and attractin g to itself authors of every school of thought , and style * No one is left uncohsidered . Statesman avail themselves of it to propound 1 heir theories on government moralists to illustrate their opinions , churchmen and nochurchmen to bring into tlie 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 fa m ily 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 productions of novelists are works pedantic , and dull , ami lieavv enoii"h
to please the stupidest and most pompous Doctor of Divinity to be found in Oxford . Korean the sluggish blockhead any longer conceal 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 arc found ; amongst the lending men of every .. . department of intellectual activity—lawyer * , physicians , clergymen , men of science , statesmen ! -indeed it would-ho diflieult toUnfl a dozen men of any note in the kingdom -who . have not at some time or other made some attempt in tlie novelist ' s art- Novels are now the poems of the time— -prosepoems , and they are composed by the authors who in any previous age would ,-have ' expressed their thoughts in verse , counting their fingers ami courting the muse .
The following-is-a truth , and a daring on 6 considering the fashion of the time , on the influence ; of what is now termed "light literature" : — The influence of a great author may be divided and , placed , under . two heads---his influence on his art , and his influence on those he addresses who cannot materially , at least immediately , rUl ' eet that art ; the impression made by him oil 'literature , and that produced on tlie great commonwealth of renders . How highly we estecin Mr . Dickens , as one who has made tho noblest use of liis abilities for the furlIterance of the great ends of life , the
foregoing-pnges ' must lisivc shown . But we are by no means prepared to say that his genius , fruitful though it has been of good to mankind , hn . s not been productive of some harm to literature . Of course an artist is not to be held responsible for the extravagances and follies of his imitators ; but still , if he call into life a -swarm of mean copyists ' who pcrscveringly insult g < iod ta > te , tliey must be regarded as port of the evil . effects of his intellect . One bad consequence f > f Mr . Dickens's geniiis is a crowd of . feehle scribblers , who , by cockney vulgarisms and a pert affectation of smartness , have contributed not a little to vitiate the stvle of our current
literature . This was lo Le expected . lakin & a strong hold of the mind of the nation , " riekwicV excited to a morbid degree , our . love of the ridiculous ; the novelty of its humours so captivated our imaginations , that , for a time , the risible wad the only tide of life wo cured about ; under the fascination of the mighty wizard wo . went about into kennels , and beer-shops , nnd theatres , hunting for " characters , " . " scoing lid' , '' " i-lurtying human nature ; " and in our predetermination ti > find " lifu" very grotesque nnd funny , and ridiculous , 'we generally failed to heed the stern ami solemn manifestations of that which we took so miu : h trouble to go in search of . What wonder then that to . snii .-IY stich a general craving for acquaintances with '" flui-h" .-ociety , a set of scribblers , liearing nbout . the sainc illation to accomplifilied authors tlmt the practitioni'r . s of " tl .
iinblcrig" an < l the keepers of bettiiig-housod < h > 1 <» tl » patrician members of tho turf , arose , lo chronicle in . slii » ft ' phniBcology the proft'edings of " fust" men antlj : oniic bl / icl < j ( unrdi . siii . Jlonco came a tnint of low-brwiiing 10 current literature 1 , tlmt is being washed HWiiy , 1 ml will , nevertheless , reninin for ninny u .. ilny . Iloucst , . ~>» -tisil > lo midi , with good heails nnd information worth iinpJU"t « ii & felt tlmt it w « . i right , immediately Ihoy took their pens in thuir hands , to lo funiij- —to titrnin ., { it tlint land ol wit -which produces laughter . It was ( I ' m sjimo in conversation ; jaunty talking , dreary puns , scintilhuunis <> l fcehlo ridicule , to -which JCgy |> t * iiin dnrkiu ' . s . i w : ia I'W " fcrable , nnd email jukoa , liiding tlie povoiiy of their dhncnaions under exaggerations of expn'SHidU , < : 'i » into fnsliioi ) . What is so dull as a bail piece of pyrutecluiv ?
It would ho unjust to tho . author , after 1 ho foregoing extract , not lc append liis estimate of JJiekcns s genius : — It -would bo ridiculous In a work of this kind to at-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 874, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28081858/page/18/
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