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8 ^ T H? M Ii E A D E B. [#<* ' 2$&, Sat...
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THE NEWCOMES. The. Newetmes:, Memoirs: o...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Tenntsok Is The Subject Of The Magazines...
cerwA bsra certain- sleepy sweetness , which : people who know about these things SSer t ^ Te : very divine , bit wMch at least haa ^ othmg of the brightAMell ^ ent repose which , la the charm of : the Madonnas of Munllo . Compare any of Raphael ' s most famous Tlrmns ; even with those of men whom critics hardly dare to name in the a me itBeath , attd : try i * it bet possible to evade thisconclusion The-Madonna della Seeciolav and , a ^ Bbly-Family by Andre a del Sarto , hang aide by side m the Pitti . The mere execution of the Utter is not so perfect , the Virgin has little , certainly , of the insipid : divinity , the inexplicable , imperturbablBj unaccountable content of tne otlfer , Zt can any honest man deny that it reveals mo «> v ^ e * _ intuitions ^ and ininto human natureand richer and poetic appreciation or
aighteflner glimpses , more that mysterious union of the human and the infinite life , which all Christs , and Mad & nnas , and Holy Families are imperfectly meant to indicate ? In short , to tell the ' plain truth ,. there is only one of Raphael ' s works whichever gave me any-very high " idea , of genuine- power , a work little known , but when known called me vOttbn-or Ezekiet" A majestic figure , like old Homer ' s , " with thunderous brows andllips intense , '" is anpported by an . eagle , whos & talons are fixed , in a bull and a winged Eon : far beneath this group , and under the gathered clouds , lies the sleeping eartL alow , desolate , and mournful shore , in the distance the dimpled sea , in the foreground one solitary , forlorn , cheerless chesnut - the whole forming a very grand ani noble Homeric rendering of the Israelite ' s vision of bis God .
Can the writer have present to bis mind such marvels of art as the Triremipb . of Galfctea , the . Madonna di San Sisto , and the Cm-toons ? The following we- extract for its serious conclusion : — r love Raphael , and no one who has read his history can fail to do so . All honour , to . sweetness and purity , but sweetness and purity do not altogether constitute- power and imagination . All honour to the kindly and gentle-hearted man ,, but genius , is not merely goodness , and the best man is not always the best artist . So many sentimentalists in these days of rose-coloured cant -would identify the two , that it is very needful to maintain a sturdy protest against that emasculated system the and but and divinel
which refiises- to , recognise rough mysterious , poetic y appointed , inequalities of our human nature and our social life . No better sign of the practLcaT faithlessness and : unbelief of . the present generation could be desired , than the fastidious and , effeminate anxiety of the orthodox to reconcile the undeniable and impracticable facte of fife and conduct with certain preconceived notions and theories regarding the Divine Government . Having no faith in the inherent truth and veracity of God ' s laws * they are fbreed to discover some excuse , extenuation , or palliation far them , under the eover of which they may , with a judicious reserve and qualification , provisionally consent- to accept them . They will learn some day to their cost , with a certain astute pagan , that it is a matter of much indifference to the world whether they-will believe in it or not .
8 ^ T H? M Ii E A D E B. [#<* ' 2$&, Sat...
8 T H ? M Ii E A D E B . [ # <* ' 2 $ & , Saturday , ^
The Newcomes. The. Newetmes:, Memoirs: O...
THE NEWCOMES . The . Newetmes :, Memoirs : of a . Most Respectable . Family- Edited by ~ Arthur Pendennis , Esq . Bradbury and Evans . THflPbUoeophieai Novel is-a very natural amusement of our Age , and there Are signs , we think , of the likelihood of its influence increasing . Already , in Tiftx . Thackeray ^ s hands , it has done much to supersede the Romance . The fact is inevitable , and presents a . phenomenon for which it is easy to account . Ouirniodiern life demands description and expression in Art , and our modern life is essentially different from the old life , the traditions of which ( changing in ; their aspect every age , but always surviving ) form the basis of the romantic ideas of Europe * vtfhat we . call our Civilisation has , a life of its own quite distinct from the life that found expression in the stories- which supplied Shakspeareand which only a generation ago had * still a vitality for
, Scott . It must have its exponents ^ and , its exponents must be more or less of its own colour—keen , calm , shrewd ,, cultivated , observant . It must have its fiction , and its fiction must be like itself ^ -inquiring and practical . Romantic stories , we are happy to say , there must ever toe ; but the old charm of the " story" cannot be looked for in the scene * of " society" —or , at least , what is most characteristic of society is what it affords to the philosopher rather than to the story-teller ; The child-Hire pleasure of knowing " what bccomeff" of the story-teller ' s figures cannot be felt as vividly as if action ¦ were ; -wfcat action" used to be in the old days-. We watch them with a different kind , of interest . The " Young Lochinvar " might find it . as hard to win Miss Graham of Netherby as ever , but in what a different way he would go to work ! Sir Jamea would not receive him with his hand on , his sword , " though his hostility would perhaps be harder to bear than the old chief ' s .
What worldly , intrigue I—what plotting!—but it would all be carried on in drawing-rooms and dining-rooms , and Lochinvar would lay his plans at a > club > and . so forth . Ib would never do for a ballad . But in our complex and artificial life it would call into nlay emotions , and produce : incidents , full of mattes foe observation , What it lost in romance it would gain ; in philo * sopbyv and if . Thackeray did ) not make a wonderful "story" of it , he would make'it ' deeply interesting in his own way . That way is not the poetical or the romantio one , —and a novelist who possesses these tendencies usually hx o . u » days makes off to the Past ,, like Hawthorne , with hia . . Puritans , or to the Sea ,, like Melville with his Mazdi , or to Tittle ,, nooka .,, of country life and the haunts of unsophisticated poor people liken ; most wome »~ -or to Chaos , like the mob of novelists—or somewhere * at leaaft ,, out ojP the-, hearing of the roar of Charxng-oross . But if ? you
stay / in town and paint professedly the every-day men and women , what are you to do ? Will you take the high Disraeli road , and be biting and mysterious -with uaoonrfaced sybils , and young gentlemea who never talk but in epigrams ? This last is- a way o £ getting people to listen to your doctrines who would never buy them , in , » pamphlet , and far be it from us in these times , to sneer at anything readable , But we are talking , now , of novels as novels . The problem being to paint English life—as it rides about , talks , speaks in parliament , and . so forth—not subordinating life to a story , but making the story out of the life—how are you to do it ? The light of common day , is to be full about you . Your page , ia to . smack of the day on which-it appears oa fully as , the Times newspaper . We say that you must do . it like Thackeray ; that it is because Thackeray does it with such reality that peoploi listen to him—and that , this * is at once * the reason why h « is praised aoad why he . ia censured . He is a novelist of the workL There is . ? ha , ' sanw difference between a book of his and of Bulwer ' s , for instance , aa thare > isrbetweei * a hall and a masquerade . The figures at the boll are- good , rest * people- ; at the masquerade there ia life enough , and brilliancy and
pleasure , but everything is somehow unreal . Sir Edward ( for whom we have nothing but kindness , and whom we : honour as a real man of letters—a class not increasing , we fear ) seems to be coming round to our opinion . In his latest works he is much more real and truthful , and he has given his reputation a fresh lease in consequence . Let us not be met , hereabouts , by a cry to the effect that there is romance everywhere if you look for it , anE by some vague nonsense about the Ideal . Thank God , tliere is romance still extant—the human heart being still here , and the planet bowling along in safety . But is our public life beautiful ? Look into its speeches and despatches , talk to its members , and then ask whether the Fairy Queen or Vanity Faer be * the most natural result of its inspiration . Take up the last Blue-book , and compare it with the Elizabethan documents in Murdin or Haynes ; look at the faces from the " Strangers' gallery , " and compare them with the faces in the folios of Lodge's , Portraits . You will see , then , what is meant by one age being
more prosaic than another . A man must paint what he sees . Our society is prosaie , and requires a satirical painter . After all , Truth is the noblest thing ; and as Life is , so must Art be . The value of Thackeray's writings is in their truthfulness , so that one studies the persons introduced as parts of the age in which we live . In short , reality'is his characteristic , and though we undoubtedly purchase it by the loss of some qualities which attract us in other writers , yet it is so very important a point that we are content to pay the price . It is a point of great moral importance—since the influence of fiction is in proportion to the credibility it carries with it . What matter how lofty , pure , spotless a being you profess to make your ideal character , if the reader does not , believe in his existence ? He will make no permanent impression on your reader ' s mind but in proportion as he thinks him a real personage . Hence it is that most children ' s , books are so ineffably useless : the little reader seeing that " the good boy" is a supernatural character , finds his . humanity unimpressed by him , and does not consider himself bound by his laws .
Nunquam aliud Natuea aliud Sapientia dicet , is a line of old JuyenaFs which every novelist ought to cherish as the motto of his order . But now for The Newcomex . It is not so good a story , not so exciting a narrative as Vanity Fair , nor do we think it probable that any novel of the writer ' s will equal that one in story . There is a boldness , too , about Vanity Fair which we miss here . The writer seems to be conscious of his increased fame and responsibility , and to be somewhat more subdued and quiet . The satire is less prominent and conspicuous . We might say of the satirical element : — And pray how was the Devil drest ? Qh , he was dressed in bis Sunday ' s best .
The crack of the flagellum is not heard , though the implement is by no means thrown away . The whole picture is of a quieter and more decent kind of life . The Bohemians ( though honourably represented by the portly and jolly figure of Fred . Bayham ) play no great part in the work . Instead of a wicked grandee we have a foolish one—and so on . It is a deliberate and designed representation of " respectable" life—of that kind of life which discharges all the social and conventional duties according to the traditions of England , —which has its moral defence to make for even its selfishness—Which pays its debts , believes , and says its prayers .
We cannot therefore , expect the dramatic excitement of a book with Beckies and Rawdon Crawleys in it j but what we lose in drama we gain in analysis . Mr . Thackeray is a great artist , and knows that the story should grow out of the characters , and that to fit your characters to a story is to imitate the art of a street Punch . A little artificial fellow tumbles his puppets through a score of gambols , and thinks that we shall be so dizzy with the movement as to forget that they are made of wood . We are interested in what Hamlet does , because he is Hamlet . Our modern life carries on its loves , and hates , and schemes—its tragedies and its destinies—in
drawing-rooms and back parlours , in " chambers , " and in broughams . Dc you expect from its . doings the kind of excitement which you have in the stories of the Cid , of the Crusaders , of the Scots ballads , of Burger's Leonora f Be it distinctly understood that plot is not required by the philosophical novel . What is the plot of Don Quixote ? The Newcomes then takes up that life which , of all lives ever led on this earth , is outwardlv the most commonplace , and makes it glow with human interest . Here is the genius of Thackeray ; for in nothing is genius shown so much as in making what seems the most ordinary material assume the living attraction of novelty in the form of art . His object here has been to exhibit the moral character and social quality of the-best English middle class and upper life , without a trace of improbable invention or a single undue stimulant . That he has succeeded in this as completely as ever wo are happy to be assured . Let us now indicate the points of likeness , or unlikeness , in The Newco / nen to his other works ; and first let us inquire ( with due gravity ) what is the moral ?
.. .. Here we must fall back on our remark about the sturdy realism of the man . J ? oor Colonel Newcome , sans peur et sans reproclie—the generous gentleman—the kind father and firm friend—dies a pauper . The central young persons of the book , CUve and Ethel , suffer great misery , and though at last we are permitted to believe they marry and are happy , the hope is held out to us in a . vague way ' , and the triumph is dashed by painful recollections . Barnes is successful , aa far ns worldly success goes , to the lust . Kew disappears early into a not very happy marriage , though his generous character deserved a better fate . Well ,, what should have become of them all P Adela dries her swollen eyes alter the " double number" at the end ,, and passionately bewails the Colonel and his destiny . And we tell that young woman that those tears aire better for her heart and for her moral nature , than all the pretty joyful tenderness which would have stirred h / jrif the Colonel had driven ofl out
, of the story in a coach-and-six . When all ends "happily , " and a direct connexion is established between good behaviour and the three per centu ., a maudlin pleasure is produced ) which : ia rather a mean and immoral , and id
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 8, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08091855/page/18/
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