The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-04-18
WILMINGTON. n. C.
TUESDAY, APRIL IS, 1898.
GLANCE AT A GREAT
III

$1,000
England insist that Balzac, the
Frenchman, was "the very greatest Of
all modern novelists." We do not be-
1ieve it, although the distinguished
men of the Faber say it. We can
muster a strong array Of distinguished
men who believe that Walter Scott
was first, of which we can have no
doubt. Without hunting, as the evil
dence happens to be on u desk, we
find this in The New York Saturday
Review Of the 18th instant: Looking
over Palgrave's criticisms, we find the
very highest appreciation Of Scott, for,
with Gladstone and Newman, he held
Scott as occupying a place in English
literature second only to Shakespeare"
Professor Francis Turner Palgrave
was a poet, author of books, a literatus
of distinction, and Professor of
Poetry at the great oxford University
from 1885. He thought THE Bride of
Lammermoor," SCOTS masterpiece.
Gladstone held this opinion too, and
"Kenelworth" he put next. With this
opinion many able critics and cultured
readers do not agree, as we could show
if necessary. The truth is Scott was
such a marvellous writer of such in
comparable originality that there are
a half dozen or more of his many nov
els that are preferred by one critic or
some man of force or by anoSner critic
or reader, of equal gifts and discern
ment. Guy Mannering," 1.-The Anti
quarry" The Heart of Midlothian"
"Ivanhoe," "Kenelworth," the one al
ready mentioned as the favorite of
some, "Waverly," "Quenten Durward,"
n one or two others have special ad-
mirers each, and cultivated minds can
be found that are particularly m
ed of some one Of the whole. We have
never been able to settle down fully
TO one novel as the greatest, preferring
so much SO many. The Scotch novels
1re all fine. Six or seven are mastery.
Son,st, mes We are much inclined to the
view that The Antiquary" is supreme,
but when we read Guy Mannering"
our faith or taste quavers. When we
nave read afresh THE Heart of Mid
lothian or some other Of the mimi
table Scotch series, we waver in choice,
far so many are of SURPRISING inter-
est, originality n dramatic power.
And so it is when we read the most
picturesque and wonderful ~"1vanhoe,"
such a rich creation of genius and SO
unlike any thing else that had appear
ed in the world, or when we read the
vigorous "Kenelworth," not altogether
equalling the other, as we think now,
we have been so fascinated that Tor
the time We became forgetful OF the
rich Scotch books, so replete with
beauties and so rich in incident, and so
complete in their gallery of portraits
drawn to life, and of such perennial
freshness and n%aturalness. But what
an unapproached gallery of char
acters that far that or any
other fctive master after the greatest
of all poets and painter, shakespeare,
ssthe oceanic" We have more than
.once ayerred in these columns that
since Shakespeare Scott was par eX-
cellence the greatest creative mind in
literature (begging the fascinated crit
les pardon who a worship to Bal
zac.) He taught not only the world
how to write a novel of rich and unique
qualities FULL of incident and descrip-
tion and character and power and dra-
matte force, and yet thoroughly hu-
manized, with such delightful by-way
reflections that none had caught before,
but he taught the modern world how
to be Momeric in poetry without imi-
tation. He is really the d~iScoveTer OF
the genuine historical omanc Read
those before him and behold how the
magnificent pictorial and dramatic gen
5iuS of the great Scotch Magician added
new life and filled his canvas with
scenes and adventures and aclors such
AS the world had not before dreamed
Of. So, after ffty-five years of reading
: of Scott, and knowing something of all
the masters in the world of the novel
up to within a 1ustrum, we cling to the
view expressed that Scott is beyond the
foremost genius in his craft. The crit
les of the last quarter Of a century
= damn Scott's style. But how much he
produced n how rapidly. Two Of
his novels were written when a great
physical sufferer, and Gladstone's ia
vorite was produced when he really
knew but little Of it, and remembered
nothing of his work when it was COM |
pleted. This is the most astonishing
and most memorable literary achieve
ment in literary history. There is an
other thing to be mentioned-his prob !
ably two create p1oidctions, Guy
Mannering'' and The Antiquary'-I
are not historical, or very remotely so.
So it is with another charming Scotch
story-''St. Romans We'll" Let us
add tina "Quenten Durward" is beyond
fair question one of his greatest sue
cesses. tits an historical novel of the
first rank-greater to us than even