The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1889-10-11

Collins one can casi y see hat his method aud
that uf lis school was d natural evolution
from that Of those immediately preceding
them beginning with the accession Of
Charles II we have the wildly extrayagapt
ami lcentiDus school in which Claude Duval
was Il pnp1&ar hero aul all the fine gentle
men were iilertines After this came that
GTl ,f Intense scntiucntaltv Of urtlent
".usl,T '.swctrin. eternal friendship and
all Tint Sdrt Of thing, which lasted three
Quarters Of century, nnd was satirixe,l near
y as much longer. III tie early days Of John
Wesley al Tie reading Young people were
saturated with this sort Of thing, and CORE
spondeli with each other in'ier tho names of
"SNtFanll"rf md 'raineHa + "Clo,is,n
'G!u!ssA" and '.louzD.'
Every iS~laln Of sentiment had an extra
nanlt, and of course many without senti-
nlcut adopted fic fashion. Queen Anne VAS
"Nirs Freeman to her correspondent and
her intimate friends were Mrs. Morley and
Mrs Mc5Aatm" John Wesley was a Clean,
der, and wrote gushing letters ii Il ME
lissat' About the time of the American
Revolution this style OF novel bad reached
tile last phase Of fori,iness and corruption and
was satirzed on the stage and in tho 'scomics"
til! even Kitchen girls were ashamed of it.
Then sentiment ran to the czaltation of tile
domestic affections for a long period-thu
period Of Children OF the Abbey etc. The
fathers We're ton'er than ali fathers before
ttIen, the daughters .'called heaven to wit
hess9on the slightest provdcation, husbands
sank irsemSible on tEc graves Of their wives
and wives fell and expired on the cottins Of
their huson.his And this style still ruled
wien NiiHle Collins made his advent III
literature.
lie was the son of tie eminent rustic
n pylE tb,.,
ers name being added, his full name was
NllAam Wilkie Collins Born III London in
january, lS2l, and taken from school at an
early age to be put in the tea trade, he
changed MS Whole plan OF lie on coming of
age ana began 10 study law. In lSis he
wrote an hilectlonhte biography Of his fntLer,
Which was SO Well recelve't that he changed
MS plan again, hnd thcneeforth was devoted
entirely |" literature. The lawyer reading
some OF his productions can easily perceive
thr elect Of law studies on tho writer's mind
and perceive at the same time that the study
was not thorough enough to save him from
some serious blunders. In Man md Wife"
Tor Instance, the plot Is most ingeniousIy
built up on les,a! techncalities, yet the points
be makes are certainly 'bad law" England
aiit Scotland were ut that time pretty hurl
on wlEes, it must he confessed, but nothing
IKE - hlri rs tile novelist makes out.
That schp1! OF fiction in which plot out
ranks All else III Importance WAS already de-
vei"png RAPIDLY when Nilke Collins began
tn "rlte, he soon brought it to something
near Perfection Tho Dead Secret was i'll
the highest style Of the new school, ard the
pntslration i'll 1850 Of The Woman in
" hiie" actually seemed to mark era
III fiction. As it came ont Sa,rially the sue
ccssTc numbers were eagerly looked Tor bv
n!i reading England, and III America a mill
ion Young hearts were rs profoundly moved
as most people were the previous year by the
successive dispatches of tho Franco Austrian
war. Thereafter there appeared to be no
improvement in construction Of plot, though,
as n matter OF course, there will long he Il
question as to the comparative merits OF his
e;'riy and later novels, us it is Il matter of
taste. II isntercsting therefore to discover
how lie built u? such Il complicated scheme,
ana he once explained it fully in II letter to
IN American lady,
His general plan was to get the central idea
FIRST In The Woman i'll White" this plan
WAS n criminal conspiracy by people i'll good
society, amt not otherwise criminal, and
the Keynote was the robblng OF a woman Of
her right 10 II name and title. This done,
he wrote the climax first. Similarly Mrs.
Stowe wrote tho dying scene Of Uncle Tom
1irse ana lhea ou,'e tle story 70 H. M'- I"l-
.,'i' so' i'i's' VI us Ih.'' ucte,s III hl,iu,
.noesno 'o,s "ini nsl. =. v ~ nliu 'lle other
"o!i'i'' ..en =. up "'i,i was eoh.cii-
p.t, aoeilsl pun "ei ''s nc snss anne
o".l.ti ,r' 'T1 op's'ts ~ u .s ily 'ie
,' " - 'eN " .ae 'it'o WIN
"nt.A ~ a'.'i i''leh1itsts' ,.iieeu m "i
i: .lcn "nu .ni'th AaiH aie Aau'liiai. ine
,'''AAc' ~ .o's ''i't e4iHesllS ~ ioi i'u-
!ato al ,lsai i"'s a.'I apin'.is .ne quesl
ar .''eai s"s .'o'a 81" ~, souise
ao'u NJ i.t ~, "'t a'ison. uel .on'e
'u'"t's t"'o VIZ i!ta,,, i!4nu, "na w oAte! A.
o,s' ia' a.'o.e nuteuo'o tn"il tuc one i''s
I'M ~, - s ne ,Ao.ls0I ~ hs , 'iln
~. 49,, M ',;rs, ".s :. .,T. urs sy wv
a"sne aet Mei.;.a: .ny :. tlnu i"i u.'.c, ihe "9
MI a :" nieH - us i.os' iopuths now,
aa s uaua4 sa ~ sui ~ I.ls, iulse ' uliy VI
,l4.'.' na,I e'o. w n.o puo,e io' ~ l,ls.er