The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-01-28
R OF SUBSCRIPTION.
OLLA-PODRIDA.

to the Observation-Disclosures, n
they sat up la-e to read his enormously
long novels. II is IA so popular and
so much enjoyed was he by the English
people, that at blacksmith shops the
neighbors would gather to hear the
workmen read Richardson's "Parmela'
OF "Clarissa" to them. He was q busI-
ness man until old. and then o to
story writing. He long ago ceased to be
attractive to all but a few people in the
last three generations who read Rich
ardson to ascertain what he wrote
about and wherein lay the allurement
for their fathers. Now. after SO long
a time, there is a revival Of this first
chief novelist of England. He will be
revived possibly to the selling Of a
few thousands of the new editions, but
it is doubtful if he is again generally
read, although beyond lair question a
writer Of real parts, of marked gifts in
Il certain way, and OF much more Im-
portance to lovers of literature in 1902,
tina many Of the novels of h last sew
eral years hat have reached a sale re-
quiring six figures to express the num-
Der OF copies sold. We think the
following from The New York Bookman
about expresses a fair estimate of this
newly appreciated author, who after
being practically dead as a writer is
alive again, and will entertain readers
who relish long stories of a sentiment
tai and not cleorly a kind: Rich
aTdson is undoubtedly one of the great
est names in the history of English lit
erature in the eighteenth century; a
novelist who possessed tenderness and
sympathy to a marvellous degree; who,
in short. knew The human heart and
wrote of it in a manner that won the
unstinted admiration OF his day
An English writer in the famous
London Academy" one of the -four or
five admirable literary weeklies of that
great city, tells this of the effects pro-
duced by Richardson in the past when
he was h vogue among all writer's
then Of fiction, ~eclipsing a greater gen.
ius and novelist, Harry Fielding:
In the days when it was a case of
Homer and Richardson with Shake
speare somewhere at the foot of this
dual throne), Richardson's novels were
read aloud in the family circle. At the
pathetic passages the hearers would
retire to their rooms to weep, and the
reading was continued after they had
regained command of themselves. We
laugh at that; we must. We laugh also
when We remember that Richardson,
after fifty years OF respectable ana
lucrative trading, began to write Pam
ella. not in the least at the bidding of a
creative impulse, but upon the sugges-
ton of two enterprising booksellers,
who wanted "a volume of familiar let
tiers as patterns for illiterate country |
WRITER'S
This critic thinks that readers will
now begin but be repealed by ''the mo-
notony, the narrow view, the appalling
of theme, the unremitting pietism.
the vast masses OF triviality." He
thinks many a reader will begin bit
abandon the effort in despair. \ por
trait of the old writer painted in 1850,
represents an imposing face. rather
handsome. Inc personality.
- = =
What a strong, intellectual face
Balzac had, lie was BORN at Tours,
France, and his portrait in the Museum
at Tours shows what an impressive
face was his if something He
Is the greatest novelist of his country,
say the critics of the present day. We
read only his "Pere Goriot," regarded
as one o. his ,ery bast. 1t Was to us
disappointing and impure, as are most
all he wrote and ne was a most prolific
writer of fiction and also a playwright
We would rather have written Hugo's
Les M~iserabiles'' h a dozen "Pere
Gariols." Poor Taste and nonsense
will his extreme admirers say, spe
cially those who regard him as the very
gr-..,-st novelist of all the world and
all time, and even a greater genius
thar Shakespeare What an hahuci-
nationi
!. = =.
We read q cri.i ?i;In, able ami %er'vt1,
some month, or two on Professor
George Saintsbury's The Earlier Re-
Nuisance" and it was in the main de-
predatory. We have rea several vol
umes by this English critic during the
last fifteen years. de is certainly Il
writer of very remarkable attainments
and very wide reading. He is really
encyclopedia, and to us unusually en-
tertaining. We have not yet seen his
last book, Int if we Ike we shall: read
il. We never saw a book by him that
did not reveal a full mind, while hi
style is often slovenly. He is a man
OF genuine qualities-indrr en6ent. bold
forceful. widely accomplished. We re-
fer to him here because our recent
reading gives Us confidence that his
little work is important and instructive,
of real merit. Mr.. William Barry
writes in the New York Bookman Tor
OF this little work in size Il
appreciates in excellence. He writes
and as to the first part we fully agree
with him being informed: I'VE can
never apen a tock by Professor Saint
bury without feeling astonished at his
wide and yet minute reading, his hy-
illness and vigor his robust Judgment.
~ - cfxon q sttsp maSterfui. anil on |