Victorian Literature Part 3

Another novelist of about equal status with Trollope in mid-Victorian fiction is =George John Whyte Melville (1821-1878)=. Major Whyte Melville is the novelist of all lovers of the hunting-field, and strangely enough he fell a victim to the very sport which he had done so much to picture. He was killed by a fall from his horse. Whyte Melville's hunting novels include "Katerfelto" and "Black but Comely."

He also wrote historical novels, of which "The Queen's Maries" and "The Gladiators" were the most popular, and he had a pretty gift of verse.

Literature has rarely produced a more picturesque figure than =Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)=. The son of a famous Scottish engineer he was destined, like his great countryman Sir Walter Scott, for a Writers.h.i.+p to the Signet. He took, however, to literature instead, and died at forty-four in Samoa,--where he had gone for his health,--after a remarkable literary achievement. With a style not always rigidly grammatical, but always impressive and distinguished, he shone in many branches of literary work. He wrote travel pictures like "With a Donkey in the Cevennes," which were incomparably superior to those of any contemporary; his plays--written in collaboration with Mr W. E.

Henley--had a power of their own, and one of them, "Beau Austin,"

although not accepted by the public, is probably the greatest contribution to the drama of the era. As a critic of life and of books Stevenson has also an honourable place. I know of no better treatment of the one than "Virginibus Puerisque," or of the other than "Some Aspects of Robert Burns." He has given abundant pleasure to children by "A Child's Garden of Verses," and in "Underwoods" he has scarcely less successfully appealed to their elders.

It is as a novelist, however, that Stevenson fills the largest place. He is the inheritor of the traditions of Scott, with the world-pain of his own epoch superadded. Men and boys alike have found "Treasure Island"

absorbing, while men have also pondered over the widely different powers which are displayed in "The New Arabian Nights" and "The Master of Ballantrae," "Prince Otto," and "St Ives." "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" is a parable which has thrilled us all.

Stevenson delighted to call Mr George Meredith his master, and the two men were friends of years. =George Meredith (1828- )= began his literary career in 1851, with a volume of poems, one of which, "Love in a Valley," is still an unqualified joy to all who read it. Mr Meredith has published several volumes of poems since then, and all of them have their loyal admirers, but it is as a novelist that the world at large appraises him.

His concentrated thought and vivid pa.s.sion have gained for him the t.i.tle of the "Browning of novelists." Each of his books in turn has had its ardent partisans among cultivated and thoughtful readers. "The Shaving of s.h.a.gpat" appeared in 1856, and "Farina" in 1857. "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," which appeared in 1859, is by many considered Meredith's best novel. It treats, with subtle humour and profound philosophical insight, of the problem of a youth's education, and is full of truth to life. "Feverel" was followed by "Evan Harrington"

(1861), while "Rhoda Fleming" (1865), "The Adventures of Harry Richmond"

(1871), "Beauchamp's Career" (1876), "The Egoist" (1879), "The Tragic Comedians" (1881), and "Diana of the Crossways" (1885), have each of them abundance of readers. Merely to enumerate George Meredith's novels is to call to the memory of all who have read them a widening of mental and moral vision. The rich vein of poetry running through the books, their humour and imagination, place their author in the very front rank of English novelists. "I should never forgive myself," said Robert Louis Stevenson, "if I forgot 'The Egoist,' which, of all the novels I have read (and I have read thousands), stands in a place by itself. I have read 'The Egoist' five or six times, and I mean to read it again."

Others have spoken with equal enthusiasm of "Sandra Belloni," with its sweet singer Emilia; others of "Beauchamp's Career," with its aristocratic Radical, now generally understood to have been intended for Admiral Maxse.

Mr Meredith dedicated his volume of "Poems" of 1851 to =Thomas Love Peac.o.c.k (1785-1866)=, who, perhaps, more than any other writer influenced his own style. Peac.o.c.k was born at Weymouth, and he was mainly self-educated. In 1804 and 1806 he published two small volumes of poetry, "The Monks of St Mark" and "Palmyra." In 1812 he became acquainted with Sh.e.l.ley, and the two were intimate at Great Marlow where Peac.o.c.k lived in 1815, and later. Peac.o.c.k's novels "Headlong Hall"

(1816-1817), "Melincourt" (1817) and "Nightmare Abbey" (1818), which have been two or three times reprinted within the last five or six years, gained no commensurate attention on their appearance, although one of them was translated into French. In 1819 Peac.o.c.k became a clerk in the India House, and married a Welsh girl, Jane Gryffdh. "Maid Marion" appeared in 1822, "Crotchet Castle" in 1831, and in 1837 "Paper Money Lyrics and other Poems." All the novels I have named, and they are his most famous, belong to the pre-Victorian period, but "Gryll Grange," his last novel, was published in 1861. Peac.o.c.k is interesting as a novelist and for his relations with other famous men. He was, as I have said, the friend of Sh.e.l.ley, and he was the father-in-law of Mr George Meredith. Added to this he succeeded to James Mill's post at the India House, and vacated it for James Mill's son, John Stuart Mill.

To R. L. Stevenson we undoubtedly owe much of the impulse to the modern romantic movement, which adds every day an historical novel or a story of adventure to our libraries. It has given us Stanley Weyman, "Q" (A.

T. Quiller Couch), "Anthony Hope," Max Pemberton, and Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Another Scotsman, =George MacDonald (1824- )=, whose "Robert Falconer," "David Elginbrod," and "Alec Forbes of Howglen," have charmed nearly a generation, had less influence than might have been thought upon the younger Scottish writers, who have made Scottish scenes and Scottish dialect so marked an element in many popular works. James Matthew Barrie, for example, had written "A Window in Thrums," before he had read one of Dr MacDonald's books. Mr Barrie was probably influenced, however, by John Galt (1779-1859), whose "Ayrs.h.i.+re Legatees" and "Annals of the Parish" were written before the Queen began to reign.

A writer whose most striking book was published sufficiently long ago to justify its inclusion here, was =Joseph Henry Shorthouse (1834- )=. His "John Inglesant" gained for him a reputation which his "Sir Percival"

did not sustain. Mr Shorthouse has written nothing since "John Inglesant" so beautiful as his "Little Schoolmaster Mark," a singularly poetical conception of abnormal childhood.

The best stories for children have been written by =Lewis Carroll (1833- )=. This is the pseudonym of the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a lecturer on mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford, and the author of several mathematical text-books. In "Euclid and his Modern Rivals" and "A Tangled Tale," Mr Dodgson has succeeded in combining his taste for science with a rich humour, but his fame rests upon his remarkable fairy-stories, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," published in 1865, and its sequel, "Through the Looking-Gla.s.s," which appeared in 1872. Men and women, quite as much as little children, have found pleasure and entertainment in these happy efforts of a genius as individual as anything our age has produced.

I have purposely all but ignored many writers of fiction who are still actively engaged in literary pursuits. The daily journals bring their achievements sufficiently to the front. But literary workers owe so much to the untiring zeal of =Sir Walter Besant (1838- )= in their behalf, that at the risk of inconsistency I mention his "All Sorts and Conditions of Men," a story which not only sold by thousands, but had a practical influence such as is rarely given to poet or novelist to achieve. The writer dreams of a wealthy heiress devoting her time and money to purifying and elevating the East End of London. She builds a Palace of Delight, and devotes it to the service of the people. In May, 1887, the dream was realised, for the Queen opened just such a Palace for the People in the Mile-End Road. How far this inst.i.tution, the outcome of a novelist's imagination and the generous subscriptions of philanthropists, has achieved the regeneration of the London poor, history has yet to record. Sir Walter Besant wrote at an earlier period twelve novels in conjunction with =James Rice (1843-1882)=, a collaborator of singular humour and imagination. Of the books written conjointly, "Ready Money Mortiboy" and "The Golden b.u.t.terfly" are the most popular.

Pa.s.sing from the acknowledged masters in imaginative literature, one turns to a crowd of popular and interesting writers who have charmed and delighted mult.i.tudes of readers. Foremost among these are Lever and Marryat. =Charles Lever (1806-1872)= was for some time editor of the _Dublin University Magazine_, but his Irish stories, "Charles O'Malley"

and "Harry Lorrequer" are his chief t.i.tle to fame. That the rollicking humour of these books still commands attention is proved by a recent luxurious re-issue of them.[9]

Another Irishman, who won the affections of Irishmen as Lever won their laughter, was =William Carleton (1798-1869)=, who was born at Prillisk, county Tyrone. He was the youngest of fourteen children. His equal knowledge of Irish and English gave him an intimacy with the folk-lore and fairy tales, which make up so large a part in the lives of the poorer among his countrymen, and "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry" (1833) and "Tales of Ireland" (1834), were the result. His romance, "Fardorougha the Miser," appeared in 1839, and he treated in 1847 of the horrors of the Irish famine in his "Black Prophet." Carleton has for many years ceased to be read in England, but he shares in the revived interest in Irish literature, which has taken the place of interest in Irish politics. =Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873)= also made a great success with "Uncle Silas" (1864) and "In a Gla.s.s Darkly"

(1872).

=Frederick Marryat (1792-1848)= ran away to sea several times before his father, a member of Parliament of great wealth, consented to his being a sailor. He was a successful and popular naval officer before he was twenty-one. He was thirty-seven years of age when he wrote his first novel, "Frank Mildmay," the success of which led him to adopt literature as the profession of his later life. Of his many novels, of which "Mr Mids.h.i.+pman Easy" and "Peter Simple" are perhaps the best, several appeared in the _Metropolitan Magazine_, which Marryat edited for four years. Not only is Marryat the most delightful of writers for boys, but it is interesting to note that both Carlyle and Ruskin during long terms of illness solaced themselves with his wonderful sea-stories.

A writer who gave much healthy pleasure to schoolboys was =William Henry Giles Kingston (1814-1880)=, who left behind him one hundred and twenty-five stories of the sea. Another writer for boys, =William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882)=, was the son of a Manchester solicitor. The majority of his thirty novels treat of historical themes.

The best of them, "Old St Paul's," "The Tower of London," and "Rookwood," have been translated into most modern languages. Scarcely less popular for a time was =G. P. R. James (1801-1860)=, who also dealt freely with history. Thackeray burlesqued James so skilfully that he has already become a tradition. He was British Consul in Virginia, and afterwards at Venice, where he died.

Living English novelists of well-deserved popularity, are Mr Hardy, Mr Black, and Mr Blackmore.

=Thomas Hardy (1840- )= made his earlier fame by "Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874). He made his later popularity by "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" (1892). Between these books came two stories greater than either--"The Return of the Native" (1878) and "The Woodlanders" (1887).

One must read those books to appreciate how very great a novelist Mr Hardy is, how full of poetry and of insight. The Dorsets.h.i.+re landscape which, under the guise of "Wess.e.x," he has made so familiar, will be cla.s.sic ground for many a day to all lovers of good literature.

Although =William Black (1841- )=, who was born in Glasgow, has written numerous stories about the West Highlands of Scotland, he has no affinity whatever to the new Scotch school. He made his first appearance as a novelist in 1867 with "Love or Marriage," and almost every year since he has published a story, over thirty novels now bearing his name.

Black has recognised the value of the picturesque back-ground afforded by West Highland scenery, with its accompanying incidents in the outdoor life of the deer stalker and angler. He has given us some real characterization in "A Daughter of Heth" (1871), in "Madcap Violet"

(1876): while "Macleod of Dare" (1878) is perhaps the best thing he has written.

=Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825- )= has written many interesting novels, but it has been his perverse fate to live by only one of them.

"Lorna Doone" was published in 1869, and although received coldly at first, finally achieved great popularity: and visits to the Lorna Doone country, as that part of Devons.h.i.+re is called, make part of the travelled education of every literary American. As a master of rustic comedy he stands unexcelled in our day, and the merits of certain other novels--"The Maid of Sker," "Christowell" and "Cripps the Carrier"--may some day become more fully recognised.

Not less popular than the novelist of locality--for this description may surely be applied to Mr Hardy and the two other writers I have named--is the novelist of sensation. =William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)= was the most prominent exponent of that School. "The Woman in White," which appeared in 1860 in _All the Year Round_, took the town by storm, but Count Fosco would be p.r.o.nounced a tiresome villain to-day. With "The Moonstone" and "The New Magdalen" Wilkie Collins secured almost equal success. Although it has been affirmed that a new Wilkie Collins, that is to say a novelist of pure sensation, might even now have a great vogue, it is quite certain that the actual Wilkie Collins has lost the greater part of his.[10] Another novelist who presents himself as little more than a name to the present generation is =Samuel Warren (1807-1877)=. He was a doctor, and, like his h.o.m.otype, Mr Conan Doyle half a century later, studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh.

His "Pa.s.sages from the Diary of a Late Physician" began in _Blackwood's Magazine_ in 1830, and was well received, but a still greater success attended his "Ten Thousand a Year," which appeared first in the same periodical.

Time has dealt unkindly with Samuel Warren: it is yet to be seen how time will deal with another popular favourite, =Mrs Henry Wood (1820-1887)=, who was born in Worcesters.h.i.+re and made the city of Worcester the centre of many of her stories. The "Channings" and "Mrs Halliburton's Troubles" are her best novels and they have had a well-deserved popularity, for Mrs Wood had a splendid faculty for telling a story. Her even more popular novel, "East Lynne," will probably survive for many a year as a stage play.

Next to Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot the most distinguished woman novelist of the era is =Mrs Gaskell (1810-1865)=, who, as Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson, married William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister of Manchester. Mrs Gaskell's first literary success was "Mary Barton," the story of a Manchester factory girl. "Ruth," "North and South," and "Sylvia's Lovers" were equally successful, but the two books which are certain to secure immortality to their author are "Cranford" (1853), and "The Life of Charlotte Bronte" (1857). "Cranford" is an idyll of village life which is sure to charm many generations of readers, and not a few artists have delighted to ill.u.s.trate its quaint and fascinating character studies. "Cranford" has been identified with Knutsford in Ches.h.i.+re. Mrs Gaskell's biography of her friend Charlotte Bronte has probably had a larger sale than any other biography in our literature.

Many causes contributed to this--the popularity of the Bronte novels, the exceptionally romantic and pathetic life of their authors, Mrs Gaskell's own fame as a writer of fiction, and the literary skill with which she treated the material at her command.

Other women writers who have had a large measure of fame, and are now well-nigh forgotten, are Mrs Marsh (1791-1874), who wrote "The Admiral's Daughter" and "The Deformed," Mrs Crowe (1800-1876), who wrote "Susan Hopley" and "The Night Side of Nature," Mrs Archer Clive (1801-1873), who wrote "Paul Ferroll," Lady Georgiana Fullerton (1812-1885), the author of "Ann Sherwood," Mrs Stretton (1812-1878), who wrote "The Valley of a Hundred Fires."

All these are now little more than names to us, but not so =Anne Manning (1800-1879)=, whose "Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell"

will long continue to be read. It is an effective presentation of Milton and his first wife. =Mrs Norton (1808-1877)=, "the Byron of poetesses," as Lockhart described her, wrote several novels, "Stuart of Dunleath" and "Lost and Saved" being perhaps the best known in their time, but she lives now mainly in George Meredith's "Diana of the Crossways." =Dinah Mulock (1826-1887)= (Mrs Craik) may still be ranked among our most popular novelists, although her best and most successful book, "John Halifax, Gentleman," was published in 1857. The memory of =Julia Kavanagh (1824-1877)=, although her "Madeleine" was enthusiastically greeted on its appearance, has all but faded away. Miss Kavanagh's "Woman in France in the 18th Century," "English Women of Letters," and "French Women of Letters," were handsomely got-up books, and are still to be found in many old-fas.h.i.+oned libraries.

Two of the most popular writers for children were A.L.O.E. and Mrs Ewing. A.L.O.E. or A Lady of England, was the pseudonym of =Charlotte Maria Tucker (1821-1893)=, who after many years of successful literary labour, went out to India for the Church Missionary Society, at the age of fifty-four. Miss Tucker's most popular stories were "Pride and his Pursuers," "Exiles in Babylon," "House Beautiful," and "Cyril Ashley."

Scarcely less popular was =Mrs Ewing (1841-1885)=, whose mother, Mrs Gatty, edited _Aunt Judy's Magazine_. It was in this magazine that Mrs Ewing's "Remembrances of Mrs Overtheway" made their appearance.

Another writer of great popularity, =Mrs Charles (1828-1896)=, secured an immense success with "The Schonberg-Cotta Family," "Kitty Trevelyan's Diary," and other books of a semi-religious, semi-historical tendency.

It is a natural a.s.sociation, not derived from similarity of name, to mention =Maria Louisa Charlesworth (1819-1880)= at the same time, because Miss Charlesworth's "Ministering Children" had an enormous success with the religious public of England,--the public which supports Missionary Societies and Sunday Schools.

I might easily devote many pages to the living women novelists who have impressed themselves upon the era; but that scarcely comes within the scope of this little book. There are, to name but a few, Mrs Lynn Linton, Mrs Humphry Ward, Ouida, Miss Braddon, Miss Marie Corelli, Miss Olive Schreiner, Miss Rhoda Broughton, Edna Lyall, Lucas Malet, Miss Charlotte Yonge, Miss Adeline Sergeant, Mrs Macquoid, Mrs Alexander, Mrs W. K. Clifford--names which recall to thousands of readers many familiar books and some of the happiest hours they have ever spent.

With the name of =Mrs Oliphant (1828-1897)=, who has recently died, I may fitly close this survey of Victorian fiction. Mrs Oliphant struck the note of the era alike in her versatility and in her lack of thoroughness. She was so versatile that she once offered to write a whole number of _Blackwood's Magazine_, a publication to which she was for years a valued contributor. And she would have done it with fair effectiveness. That she wrote good fiction is now generally acknowledged. She wrote also biography, criticism, and every form of prose. Her "Makers of Florence" has been a popular history,--it treats of Dante, Giotto, and Savonarola,--as her "Life of Edward Irving" has been a popular biography. She wrote many other books apart from her fiction, "A History of Eighteenth Century Literature," a "Memoir of Princ.i.p.al Tulloch," biographies of Cervantes and Moliere, and a volume on "Dress." But she was not a good critic, nor was she a very accurate student. It is upon her novels that her fame will have to rest. "Salem Chapel," a skilful delineation of a minister and his congregation, has been compared to George Eliot's "Silas Marner." "Pa.s.sages in the Life of Margaret Maitland" (1849) was her first novel and "The Lady's Walk"

(1897) her last, and in the intervening years she probably wrote sixty or seventy stories, each of them containing indications of a genius which, with more concentration, would have given her an enduring place in English fiction.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Charles Kingsley's novels and miscellaneous writings are published by Macmillan & Co., in twenty-nine volumes. Henry Kingsley's novels have been recently issued by Ward & Lock in twelve volumes.