The Arkansaw traveler. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1882-1???, 1885-03-14


uow unlike to those of modern days
uow few of the present generation have
...sr re id them. Some of us elderly peo-
ple recall the faraway days, when books
we're more rare in homss and public
libraries but little known, with what de-
l;ght we pored over the fascinating pages
~ Anne Radcliffe's romances, Anna
porter's historical novels and Goldsmith's
. Vicar of Wakefield" while we wept
over the pathetic tale of paul and Vlr-
ginia."
Forestn was the first romance or novel
we remember to have read, and we will
therefore devote our present sketch to
her. gather our material from various
sources and weaving it together after a
fashion of our own. All works Of fiction
were forbidden fruit in my fathers house,
bat with not a dozen volumes on the
bookshelf and those religious works be-
yond our comprehension and possessed
with an insatiate hunger for reading, is 1t
any wonder that | found "stolen waters
are sweet and bread ea'en in secret is
pleasant" Spite OF the wickedness and
tine protest of conscience that romance
0GIQ INC Cu(ndntCd 9AQ OA tAC QHf CAOG
of curiosity and expectation with its mys-
teries, thrilling adventures, haunted
rooms and shadowy forms unto the end,
and the explanation of them, so different
from what had been expected, so r..uch
like ga step from the sublime to, tn.
ridiculous "-all so commonplace, with
out the least element of the supernatural
though now it would be very disap-
pointing and unsatisfactory, did not,
think, mar our enjoyment or make US any
the less eager to explore The Mysteries
of Udolpho," though more full of horrors,
strange noises and ghostly forms, which
had an effect to make US hide our heads
under the bedclothes, and start with
alright at every noise during the solitude
of the night.
Mrs. Anne Radcliffe. was born in Lon.
don July 9 1864 the daughter of William
and Ann Ward. She was respectfully
born and connected, well educated and
beautiful. At the age of twenty-three
she married William Radcliffe, grad
uate of Oxford and student of law. He
soon after marriage abandoned his law
studies and became proprietor and edi-
tor of the English Chronicle. Mrs.
Radcliffe published her 6rst novel when
twenty-five years old. 1t was entitled
"The Castles of Athlone and Dunbayne."
The scene was laid in Scotland during
the remote and warlike times of the
feudal barons, but did not attempt to
portray either the peculiar manners or
scenery of the country. 1t gave little
promise, we are told, of her future popu-
larity, though it contained few germs
of that taste for the wild, romantic and
mysterious, afterwards so marked in her
works. The following year she gave 70
the public her "Sicilian Romance"
which was more characteristic of her
peculiar genius. "This work DISPLAYS"
said Walter Scott, "the exuberance and
fertility of her imagination. Adventures
heaped on adventures in quick and bril-
liant succession, with all the hairbreadth
charms of escape or capture, hurry the
reader along with them, and the imagery
and scenery by which the action is re.
lieved are like those of a splendid ORR
entail tale. Still, this work had marked
practiced author. The scenes were in
arti6cially connected, and the characters
hastily sketched without any attempt at
individual distinctions being cast in the
usual mould of ardent lovers, tyrannical
parents. with domestic ruffians, guards
and others who had wept or stormed
through the chapters of romance without
much alteration in their family habits or
features for a quarter of century before
Mrs. Radcliffe's time. However, the
praise my be claimed for Mrs. Radcliffe
of having been the first to introduce into
her prose fctions a beautiful and fancifui
tone of natural description and impress
sive narrative, which had hitherto been
applied exclusively to poetry. Fielding,
Smollet, even Walpole, though writing
upon an imaginative subject, are de-
cidedly prose authors. Mrs. Radcliffe
has a title to be considered as the first
poetess of romantic 6ction-that is, if
actual rhythm shall not be deemed es-
sential to poetry"
"The Romance of the Forest" which
appeared in 1891, placed the author at
once 10 that rank and pre-eminence in
her own particular style which she ever
after merited. 1t was considered far
superior to her previous works. A ruined
mansion, gloomy forest, banditti, vii
lains. haunted rooms. are wrought into
the story-ex remedy sensational, of
course.
In 1898 Mrs. Radcliffe visited the
scenery OF the Rhine and of the lakes Of
Westmoreland, and soon after published
"A Journey Through Holland" and
" The Mysteries of Udolpho." Such had
been the popularity of =" The Romance
Of the Forest that the publisher felt safe
in offering what was then considered an
unprecedented sum OF $500 for the man
uscript. The title was fascinating. and
those who had had a taste of Mrs. Rad
ciiffe's mysteries. however unsatisfactory
in their solution, were eager for mese, and
the volumes dew from hand to hand
when the family was numerous +; studies
were neglected, work huriedly performed,
and the midnight oil burned low, while
curiosity was wrought to the highest
pitch as chapter after chapter of thrilling
incidents and mysterious shapes and
sounds were eagerly devoured- between
the romance and the mysteries there is a