The Dickinson press., 1896-12-26
REApE,S BEST NOVEL.
Circumstances Which Suggested 'Ths
Clolster and the HEARTH

0ircumstanoes Which Suggested sTha
Cloister and the Hearth"
Charles Reade was nothing if not
oombative. II am very quarrel
some, or other writer's are very spir.
itless," he once wrote to a friend.
The Cloister and the Hearth, 4" his
literary masterpiece and most en-.
during success, was the outcome Of
. dispute with an editor.
When in Paris, Mr.. Reade picked
up two stout old volumes on the
"Inns cf the Middle Ages" They
we're orammed with curious knowl-
edge and information. and as he
turned them over it struck him
that they would yield ample mate.
rial for a story depicting life at the
end of the fourteenth century.
He carried them home, made a
careful digest of all they contained
and with the notebook before him
began a story which he called IA
Good Fight. !" The opening chapters
were sent to the editor of Once a
Week, who printed them in his
magazine, not, however, before he
had nodded them to his own liking
by a free use of the blue pencil.
Charles Reade objected to this dry
nursing" as he termed it. and ad-
dressed a peremptory order to the
editor, with the ultimate result that
he was requested to wind up his
story as quickly as possible. He i'm
mediately reversed his catastrophe,
made his hero and heroine happy
and thus without loss of time put an
end to the narrative.
He had hoped to make IA Good
Fight" his most remarkable novel,
and, despite the unfortunate affair
which had out the story short, had
no intention of renouncing his am.
bition or of wasting the enormous
supplies of material he had collect.
ed. At Oxford he continued his OK.
plorations into medi@val literature,
recast what he had already written
and added much more. The result
was "The Cloister and the Hearth. -
For information concerning her.
mits Charles Reade ransaoked Mag
dalen college library and Bodleian,
and before he finished had read the
lives of 500 famous eremites. The
work almost wore him out. Very
early in the course of his labors he
vowed that this should be the last
time he went out of his own age.
The point on which the story Of
1.-THE Cloister and the Hearth" !" turns
Gerard 8 remuneration of Margaret
for the ohuroh-was prefgured in
the authors own life. Had Gerard
married Margaret he would, accord.
ing to his belief, have lost his soul.
Had Charles Reade married the wo'
man he loved he would in all proba.
bility have starved. Poverty, not
religion, kept Charles Reade from
happiness. In drawing Margaret the
author is said to have had an un.
known lady in his mind, and the
personal feeling which he infuses
into his description of Gerard's sell
exclusion from home and love is per-
haps due to the fact that he himself
passed through similar crisis.
Dame Catherine, the dwarf with
the big voice, the little cripple Kate
the Burgundian soldier, are all en-
tirely imaginary characters. Mr.
Reade had always tho poorest opin
ion of his own powers of imagina
tion and invention. Indeed, so muot
did he dread wanting and lacking
interesting and useful facts that hi
filled many volumes with paragraphs
out from newspapers, extremely
few of which proved of the slightest
value.-Philadelphia Ledger.