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310 pages

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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. From what is said in the Introduction to the Monastery, it must necessarily be inferred, that the Author considered that romance as something very like a failure. It is true, the booksellers did not complain of the sale, because, unless on very felicitous occasions, or on those which are equally the reverse, literary popularity is not gained or lost by a single publication. Leisure must be allowed for the tide both to flow and ebb. But I was conscious that, in my situation, not to advance was in some Degree to recede, and being naturally unwilling to think that the principle of decay lay in myself, I was at least desirous to know of a certainty, whether the degree of discountenance which I had incurred, was now owing to an ill-managed story, or an ill-chosen subject.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	23 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819918868
Langue	English

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INTRODUCTION - (1831.)
From what is said in the Introduction to theMonastery, it must necessarily be inferred, that the Authorconsidered that romance as something very like a failure. It istrue, the booksellers did not complain of the sale, because, unlesson very felicitous occasions, or on those which are equally thereverse, literary popularity is not gained or lost by a singlepublication. Leisure must be allowed for the tide both to flow andebb. But I was conscious that, in my situation, not to advance wasin some Degree to recede, and being naturally unwilling to thinkthat the principle of decay lay in myself, I was at least desirousto know of a certainty, whether the degree of discountenance whichI had incurred, was now owing to an ill-managed story, or anill-chosen subject.
I was never, I confess, one of those who are willingto suppose the brains of an author to be a kind of milk, which willnot stand above a single creaming, and who are eternally harping toyoung authors to husband their efforts, and to be chary of theirreputation, lest it grow hackneyed in the eyes of men. Perhaps Iwas, and have always been, the more indifferent to the degree ofestimation in which I might be held as an author, because I did notput so high a value as many others upon what is termed literaryreputation in the abstract, or at least upon the species ofpopularity which had fallen to my share; for though it were worsethan affectation to deny that my vanity was satisfied at my successin the department in which chance had in some measure enlisted me,I was, nevertheless, far from thinking that the novelist orromance-writer stands high in the ranks of literature. But I sparethe reader farther egotism on this subject, as I have expressed myopinion very fully in the Introductory Epistle to the Fortunes ofNigel, first edition; and, although it be composed in an imaginarycharacter, it is as sincere and candid as if it had been written"without my gown and band."
In a word, when I considered myself as having beenunsuccessful in the Monastery, I was tempted to try whether I couldnot restore, even at the risk of totally losing, my so-calledreputation, by a new hazard - I looked round my library, and couldnot but observe, that, from the time of Chaucer to that of Byron,the most popular authors had been the most prolific. Even thearistarch Johnson allowed that the quality of readiness andprofusion had a merit in itself, independent of the intrinsic valueof the composition. Talking of Churchill, I believe, who had littlemerit in his prejudiced eyes, he allowed him that of fertility,with some such qualification as this, "A Crab-apple can bear butcrabs after all; but there is a great difference in favour of thatwhich bears a large quantity of fruit, however indifferent, andthat which produces only a few."
Looking more attentively at the patriarchs ofliterature, whose earner was as long as it was brilliant, I thoughtI perceived that in the busy and prolonged course of exertion,there were no doubt occasional failures, but that still those whowere favourites of their age triumphed over these miscarriages. Bythe new efforts which they made, their errors were obliterated,they became identified with the literature of their country, andafter having long received law from the critics, came in somedegree to impose it. And when such a writer was at length calledfrom the scene, his death first made the public sensible what alarge share he had occupied in their attention. I recollected apassage in Grimm's Correspondence, that while the unexhaustedVoltaire sent forth tract after tract to the very close of a longlife, the first impression made by each as it appeared, was, thatit was inferior to its predecessors; an opinion adopted from thegeneral idea that the Patriarch of Ferney must at last find thepoint from which he was to decline. But the opinion of the publicfinally ranked in succession the last of Voltaire's Essays on thesame footing with those which had formerly charmed the Frenchnation. The inference from this and similar facts seemed to me tobe, that new works were often judged of by the public, not so muchfrom their own intrinsic merit, as from extrinsic ideas whichreaders had previously formed with regard to them, and over which awriter might hope to triumph by patience and by exertion. There isrisk in the attempt;
"If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim."
But this is a chance incident to every literaryattempt, and by which men of a sanguine temper are littlemoved.
I may illustrate what I mean, by the feelings ofmost men in travelling. If we have found any stage particularlytedious, or in an especial degree interesting, particularly short,or much longer than we expected, our imaginations are so apt toexaggerate the original impression, that, on repeating the journey,we usually find that we have considerably over-rated thepredominating quality, and the road appears to be duller or morepleasant, shorter or more tedious, than what we expected, and,consequently, than what is actually the case. It requires a thirdor fourth journey to enable us to form an accurate judgment of itsbeauty, its length, or its other attributes.
In the same manner, the public, judging of a newwork, which it receives perhaps with little expectation, ifsurprised into applause, becomes very often ecstatic, gives a greatdeal more approbation than is due, and elevates the child of itsimmediate favour to a rank which, as it affects the author, it isequally difficult to keep, and painful to lose. If, on thisoccasion, the author trembles at the height to which he is raised,and becomes afraid of the shadow of his own renown, he may indeedretire from the lottery with the prize which he has drawn, but, infuture ages, his honour will be only in proportion to his labours.If, on the contrary, he rushes again into the lists, he is sure tobe judged with severity proportioned to the former favour of thepublic. If he be daunted by a bad reception on this secondoccasion, he may again become a stranger to the arena. If, on thecontrary, he can keep his ground, and stand the shuttlecock's fate,of being struck up and down, he will probably, at length, hold withsome certainty the level in public opinion which he may be found todeserve; and he may perhaps boast of arresting the generalattention, in the same manner as the Bachelor Samson Carrasco, offixing the weathercock La Giralda of Seville for weeks, months, oryears, that is, for as long as the wind shall uniformly blow fromone quarter. To this degree of popularity the author had thehardihood to aspire, while, in order to attain it, he assumed thedaring resolution to keep himself in the view of the public byfrequent appearances before them.
It must be added, that the author's incognito gavehim greater courage to renew his attempts to please the public, andan advantage similar to that which Jack the Giant-killer receivedfrom his coat of darkness. In sending the Abbot forth so soon afterthe Monastery, he had used the well-known practice recommended byBassanio: -
"In my school days, when I had lost one shaft, Ishot another of the self-same flight, The self-same way, with moreadvised watch, To find the other forth."
And, to continue the simile, his shafts, like thoseof the lesser Ajax, were discharged more readily that the archerwas as inaccessible to criticism, personally speaking, as theGrecian archer under his brother's sevenfold shield.
Should the reader desire to know upon whatprinciples the Abbot was expected to amend the fortune of theMonastery, I have first to request his attention to theIntroductory Epistle addressed to the imaginary CaptainClutterbuck; a mode by which, like his predecessors in this walk offiction, the real author makes one of his dramatis personae the means of communicating his own sentiments to the public,somewhat more artificially than by a direct address to the readers.A pleasing French writer of fairy tales, Monsieur Pajon, author ofthe History of Prince Soly, has set a diverting example of the samemachinery, where he introduces the presiding Genius of the land ofRomance conversing with one of the personages of the tale.
In this Introductory Epistle, the authorcommunicates, in confidence, to Captain Clutterbuck, his sense thatthe White Lady had not met the taste of the times, and his reasonfor withdrawing her from the scene. The author did not deem itequally necessary to be candid respecting another alteration. TheMonastery was designed, at first, to have contained somesupernatural agency, arising out of the fact, that Melrose had beenthe place of deposit of the great Robert Bruce's heart. The writershrunk, however, from filling up, in this particular, the sketch asit was originally traced; nor did he venture to resume, incontinuation, the subject which he had left unattempted in theoriginal work. Thus, the incident of the discovery of the heart,which occupies the greater part of the Introduction to theMonastery, is a mystery unnecessarily introduced, and which remainsat last very imperfectly explained. In this particular, I was happyto shroud myself by the example of the author of "Caleb Williams,"who never condescends to inform us of the actual contents of thatIron Chest which makes such a figure in his interesting work, andgives the name to Mr. Colman's drama.
The public had some claim to inquire into thismatter, but it seemed indifferent policy in the author to give theexplanation. For, whatever praise may be due to the ingenuity whichbrings to a general combination all the loose threads of anarrative, like the knitter at the finishing of her stocking, I amgreatly deceived if in many cases a superior advantage is notattained, by the air of reality which the deficiency of explanationattaches to a work written on a different system. In life itself,many things befall every mortal, of which the individual neverknows the real cause or origin; and were we to point out the mostmarked distinct