Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-05-03
MISS M. E. BRADDON.
THE NOVELIST MRS. JOHN MAX
WELD At HER HOME.
How the Popular Author Of LADY Aud
ley's Secret" and Other Works Per-
forms Her LAbor--At IichAeld
House, Richmond.
London Cor. Chicago Nswnl

London Cor. Chicago News1
And at last we have ascepded to the first
noor, my hostess and myself, traversing an
old wainscoted staircase and landing, and
sitting down In large, square room with an
outlook upon long, trim George l. garden
This Is my workshop she says; "the
usual sort Of thing, suppose; lots Of books
of reference. a somewhat disorderly desk.
This block Of shelves is full of French works
bought, by the way, almost the whole Of
Tom Taylor's French library. Here Is an
American edition Of Dickens, with the green
covers Of the original monthly parts Of Pick.
wick. Here are Scott, George Eliot, Lamb,
Stael, and host Of old comedies, the Gus
tomary dict .onaries, and 80 on"
We walk about the room as she talks, and
note the thorough, business like character
Of the place-plain, solid book shelves, desk
that might have been made for merchants
Office, chairs for ease and chairs for work,
no piano, no guitar-a workshop, and at the
same time u comfortable room, and with q
bright, cheerful fire burning on q bright,
cheerful hearth.
"These are very commonplace books" says
my hastess, taking from shelf one of sew
eral mall volumes. u don't do anything in
this way as systematically as our friend
Sala, nor on the elaborate plan Of poor
Charles Reade."
She handed me a volume. Il was full of
carefully written extracts from books and
newspapers.
"Anything that strikes me very much dur.
ing my reading preserve in this way"
the fire, something about your working
day."
"My idea of perfect and pleasant day, n
she says, "is to devote the whole Of it 10
writing and reading; when say the whole
of it ! mean from breakfast at 10 say until
dinner at Z, with intervals of strong tea, and
sometimes a little luncheon. l can do this
four days during the week and enjoy it, and
get through lot Of work, II have the other
two for riding, and more especially for hunt
ing"
"Now," said I, "let US talk about the
method Of story telling. remember many
years ago discussing this subject with Mrs
Henry Wood. She told me her system Of
beginning and working out story was of
the most methodical character. First she
sketched her plot, then she elaborated il and
set forth her characters, then she divided it
into three parts for three volumes; then she
divided up her volumes into chapters and
allotted each chapter its incidents; 80 that
finally she sat down to work knowing ex-
actly what she had to do, how much for
each chapter, and so on, without any par.
ticular mental strain. 1 think Trollope
worked very much in the same way. Now,
how do you begin and how do you finish.-
tell me as IL l were that same intervie wer
under editorial instructions we talked of at
the outset"
xan fhav,v veI,
hands and looking into the fire. Il am not
as systematic as Mrs. Wood, nor can write
exactly to measure as Trollope did Some
times when get a special order, as do now
and then from the newspapers or maga-
zine, find myself literally without an idea
in my head. My mind is blank; quite
empty. as one may say. Then, all Of sud-
den and unexpectedly, an idea comes, the
germ OF story. For example, Henry
Dunbar'-I thought of that story as was
driving into the city one day to meet my
husband-thought Of it in the street in
cab; but the germ Of it had
been probably already in my mind,
suggested by police case had
read in the memoirs Of French
detective. Have you read Carpenters
physiology Well, he explains how the
brain works Oh its own account; how it has
a sort of double action, and will, as il were
debate and work out theme while we are
unconscious, so to speak, of it, operations.
am sure have had many experiences Of the
truth Of this theory. When have got my
germ, and it has developed into any thing
like shape, may make skeleton plot, de-
scribe the character, note the Incidents and
sketch out the general idea. That done l
begin my copy for the printer, and work at
fstr otfrht t,,f ~ tt,.ia 4
velopments occur as | go along, changes
long as | adhere to the general plan accept
these changes, and find that the whole
scheme works out correctly"
"Will you show ME skeleton"
She goes to her desk and hands me a small
memorandum book.
"There is lshmael,' my last novel; tho
skeleton occupies seven pages"
They were closely written pages and had
been marked through, bit by Bit as re-
porter marks his note book after transcript
tion.
May copy half Of the first pager
"lf you care to take the trouble"
did care. and here it is.-the first half
page Of the skeleton of Miss Braddon's
latest, and not the least popular of her nov-
els:
lSHHAEI.
A man OF forty years in Paris-rich, cul-
tivated, handsome, of powerful frame, ex-
traordinary energy, courage, audacity. No
one knows who he Is, but-supported by his
large wealth, he reaches great success in
society. A wOman-lovely, imprisoned
but past the bloom of grlhood-patricia
etc.-falls madly in love with him-for a
time he avoids her, eTen to discourteousness
at last in passionate scene he reveals his
love.
She is happy-he not-he plans to take her
to South America, or some French colony
She is willing to resign Paris friends, coun-
try, for his sake. On their wedding morning
ho is wounded-or before wedding.
~ wrote Lady Audley's Secret without
skeleton pot. wilhou. single note" con
tinues my hostess when hand back to her
the plot Of '!shmael." al read 'The Woman
in White and it so excited me that felt
my mind ut work in new direction
wrote Lady Audley' as a novel construc-
tion. Then had to divide it into as many
stages as was necessary for three volumes
Ey the way, We were speaking Of Trollope.
Wei, he took great pains to find out the rate
at which he wrote on an average-how many
words an hour My curiosity was thus
aroused as to how much he did, and found
that when am at work write quite as fast
as Trollope. That is q very trivial matter
but 1t will interest some people"