New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-05-03
SIR WALTER BESANT.


With Predatory Note by 5. Squire Sprigge
Octave. pp. xvii, 2s4 Dodd, Mead & co.
The late Sir Walter Besant came of a middle
class family and glad of it. holding that a
destined to be a writer of imagination,
sympathy and observation should ask to be
born neither in the lowest ruck nor in the up
per levels" He was born at Portsea one Of
the three divisions OF that old town OF Ports
mouth, in a suburb of which Dickens first saw
the light. He appears 10 have had happy
boyhood. His parents We're kind, and to his
mother especially ne refers with tenderness.
From her, he believed, he inherited such powers
fitted him TO become novelist, and she en-
couraged him in his study of the numerous eX-
ceilent books that in the house. She
great story teller, and he listened TO her
fascinating recitals his innate taste for romance
was fostered. Churchgoing was imperative in
his circle. He never could listen 10 the sermon,
but would bury his face in his hands and go
of in dreams and imaginations." He was
town boy, and observes that the things Of
nature the birds. the flowers. the trees. the
woods. the stream, the creatures, were not, so
to speak part of me" He shortsighted.
and, as he put il, ''slOwsighted" also. He
thought in those early years that when he grew
up he should be a clergyman; his mother was
delighted with the idea, and time went on
he was very nearly committed to this career.
But there are many pages in this book to show
that he could not subscribe to the dogmas OF
the church. and it is plain that he always re-
garded the diversion of his life into other cham
nels nothing less than providential escape.
He had poeticaI ambitions. TO the end he main
tanned that there nothing in the world so
entirelv desirable poetic life" "Of all the
men of our century, he says Il would rather
have been Tennyson than any other man what
ever
His first studies completed. he sent to a
London suburban school, later went up to Kings
College, and after successful work there pro-
ceeded 10 Christ's College. Cambridge. There
he made friends with several brilliant men,
among them Charles Stuart Calverley. He won
the first prize in the famous examination in the
'Pickwick Papers set by the noted parodist
At Cambridge he enjoyed stimulating COM
partnership with clever talk, and he never
ceased TO be grateful for his whole uni
versity experience Il widened his mind, he
says, lin every imaginable way" and taught
him the necessity of thorough study. After
Cambridge came wanderings on the Continent
and a short period of terror over the question
of his being ordained. He felt more and more
convinced that he was not meant for the church,
and, an opportunity arising for him to obtain
a colonial professorship. he seized it with joy.
He went to Mauritus, 10 serve in the royal col
lege and stayed for six years. He sketches in
entertaining fashion his busy life there and the
human oddities with whom he came in contact;
but his most suggestive words in this chapter
of his autobiography bear upon the broad re-
suit Of his sojourn in the colony. After six
years of life in such place. he maintained, If
q man takes TO literature, he can never become
a prig; nor, if he takes to politics, can he ever
become the advocate of a ruling class; nor can
he pursue the old narrow views of ecclesiastical
religion. He becomes more human; he has
Iaas he humanity
there is no caste that is common, and none that |
is unclean The unclean and the common are
individual, and not general" He went home on
furlough and wrote a book on early French
poetry, receiving his share of the profits
thereon the sum of lis. Sd, or IS. Id. he
could not remember which when he came to
write his recoIlections. Ee never went back to
Mauritius. In London he obtained a post as
secretary to the Palestine Exploration Society,
and held it for eighteen years at salary ade-
ouate to his needs. This work left him with
plenty Of time in which to follow up the fair
literary success which, in default Of cash, the
volume of French poetry had procured for him.
Some of his stories about the cranks and
frauds with whom he brought in contact
as secretary amusing enough. One of these
bores wanted the society to send out an ex-
petition to Ararat for the recovery of the Ark,
which. he said. would be found imbedded in ice
and snow on the top of the mountain only
waiting to be revealed by the blowing up of the
ice with dynamite. But Sir Walter soon passes
from these anecdotes to the record Of his de-
velopment as an author. He makes an inter
esting confession of faith. Referring to the
GOSPEL of form and the gospel Of substance, in
literature and art, he says: For my own part
have always belonged the crowd who read
the story in the canvas, and this whether l am
studying picture, poem, drama, or a novel.
II is the story that | look first" He
never Indifferent 10 form, but he remained fixed
in the conviction that the first and most i'm
portant thing is to have clear story, with
strong characters" He thought that he had
secured this when he wrote the book which he
confesses he liked best of all those produced in
collab oTation with James Rice, The Chaplain
OF the Fleet" and who could disagree with him?
That is a remarkably interesting novel the one
for which with Children Of Gideon" and "AlI
Sorts and Conditions OF Men" it is perhaps
safest TO prophesy long life. Besant was not
a great creative artist. Speaking Of his method
of composition. he protests that it did not in
clude waiting till the inspiration came" and
adds that is only another name for prolonged
idleness under a nonsensical pretence." In
spiration, in fact, is hardly the word TO apply
to any of his performances But he put genuine
imagination into his books-imag ination of the
sort which means the investiture of a character
in a novel with Individually human traits, and
the exposition of the development of that char
acter under the stress of events having a much
of the naturalness of life of the charm of
romance. The people in his books certainly
living people to him. Writing of his fertile pc
riod from forty-six to sixty-four he says:
From middle age l became old: but l never
ceased TO rejoice in my work; find every novel
there was year-the most delightful
had fall with hero