Richard Doddridge Blackmore His Life and Novels by Quincy G. Burris - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

By Quincy G. Burris

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Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Blackmore includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781788779296

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The Complete Works of

R. D. BLACKMORE

VOLUME 19 OF 21

Richard Doddridge Blackmore His Life and Novels by Quincy G. Burris

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2018

Version 1

COPYRIGHT

‘Richard Doddridge Blackmore His Life and Novels by Quincy G. Burris’

R. D. Blackmore: Parts Edition (in 21 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2018.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78877 929 6

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R. D. Blackmore: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 19 of the Delphi Classics edition of R. D. Blackmore in 21 Parts. It features the unabridged text of Richard Doddridge Blackmore His Life and Novels by Quincy G. Burris from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading digital publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produces eBooks that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of R. D. Blackmore, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

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R. D. BLACKMORE

IN 21 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels

1, Clara Vaughan

2, Cradock Nowell

3, Lorna Doone

4, The Maid of Sker

5, Alice Lorraine

6, Cripps the Carrier

7, Erema

8, Mary Anerley

9, Christowell

10, The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore

11, Springhaven

12, Kit and Kitty

13, Perlycross

14, Dariel

The Shorter Fiction

15, Tales from a Telling House

16, Leila

Poetry Collections

17, The Georgics of Virgil

18, Fringilla

The Biographies

19, Richard Doddridge Blackmore: His Life and Novels by Quincy G. Burris

20, The Blackmore Country by F. J. Snell

21, Richard Doddridge Blackmore by Stuart Johnson Reid

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Richard Doddridge Blackmore: His Life and Novels by Quincy G. Burris

CONTENTS

SECTION I: INTRODUCTION

SECTION II: BLACKMORE’S LIFE AND NOVELS

CHAPTER I. THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BLACKMORE

CHAPTER II. AN ANALYTIC ACCOUNT OF HIS NOVELS

A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF BLACKMORE’S NOVELS

SECTION III: INFLUENCES UPON BLACKMORE AND THE ORIGINS OF HIS MATERIALS

CHAPTER I. POSSIBLE LITERARY INFLUENCES UPON BLACKMORE

CHAPTER II. THE ORIGINS OF BLACKMORE’S MATERIALS

SECTION IV: BLACKMORE’S PLACE IN THE VICTORIAN NOVEL

CHAPTER I. NOVELISTS REMOTE FROM BLACKMORE IN MANNER AND CONTENT

CHAPTER II. NOVELISTS WHO APPROACH BLACKMORE MORE NEARLY

CHAPTER III. NOVELISTS WHO APPROACH HIM MOST NEARLY

SECTION V: THE MERITS AND FAULTS OF BLACKMORE’S NOVELS

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I. SOME UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF R. D. BLACKMORE

APPENDIX II. BLACKMORE’S EFFECT AND VOGUE

SECTION I: INTRODUCTION

THE PRESENT STATE OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT BLACKMORE AND THE PURPOSES OF THIS DISSERTATION

WHATEVER MAY BE the exact nature of the importance of Richard Doddridge Blackmore as a novelist, we may be certain that he is important, if only from the vast and enduring popularity which one — and that one the most conspicuous — of his novels has aroused. Aside from the vogue accorded him by posterity, we may also be certain that his contemporaries were not altogether indifferent to him. It is enough to remark that, upon a novelist who has created so great an impression upon the popular taste and imagination, and among the critics so long and so resolute a strife about certain tenuous considerations, one may reasonably expect and justify the existence of a monograph. Such a monograph must certainly contain an accurate and exhaustive account of all that has been written about Blackmore, as it must contain a brief life of the person about whom it is written. This will of necessity include a list and an appraisal of the sources of biographical information concerning him. It will contain a full descriptive account of his novels, as it will embody an account of the possible literary influences upon his works. With this is necessarily bound up a consideration of the other influences which might have affected his work; particularly the circumstances of his life and the effect they had upon his point of view, the origins of his materials, and his method of exploiting those materials. Beyond these, it is necessary to establish Blackmore’s place in the Victorian novel; and, finally, to consider the merits and faults of his novels in themselves.

1. SOURCES OF BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Of Blackmore’s life and personality there has been but little said; and what has been said is fragmentary, scattered, and too frequently thrown off as obiter dicta in articles of a critical nature. The explanation for this want of knowledge lies partly in the fact that Blackmore himself, though he kept a journal, forbade its publication; or, according to one writer, destroyed all papers that might tempt one to violate his strong prejudice against biography. This is not incongruous with what one may gather of the man himself — shy, retiring, averse to numerous social contacts. But it creates a distinct difficulty for him who tries to collect material upon his life. The sporadic distribution of the comments on Blackmore is such that one can only glean details, presented in a casual manner by people who knew him in varying measures of intimacy. There are, of course, some collections of biographical data, by no means complete; but in most of them, there is a palpable reticence on the part of the author about divulging more of the novelist’s life than is absolutely essential to what is being written. The effect of this reticence is more to pique than to satisfy the curiosity of the reader. What is given in any of these accounts is often repeated, without the addition of much that is really enlightening to the reader.

We know of course that Blackmore was born in 1825, and that he died in 1900. But so far as it is possible to determine from the meagre sources at hand, not a great deal happened between those dates. The best single account of his life is to be found in The Dictionary of National Biography? This article was written by Steuart J. Reid, who knew Blackmore well, and who definitely closes the avenue to further investigation by stating, at the end, the sources of his intelligence as personal knowledge and private information. About six columns of close print contain all that is there said. We learn something of his ancestry and a little of his immediate family; and all too meagrely of his attendance at Blundell’s school and at Exeter College, Oxford. There is some fugitive mention of his marriage, his tutoring in Kent, his withdrawing from his legal practice as a conveyancer, and his final settlement at Teddington, where he devoted his time and energies to fruit-gardening and novel-writing. He is briefly characterized as a modest, kind man. This article, although, as I said, it is the best one to be found, touches only the conspicuous points of Blackmore’s life — his birth, schooling, marriage, and death. Except for the account of his novels given with it, it might well be the story of any man’s life; indeed, it impresses one as would the life of a very obscure and inconsequential person.

To this, other and less complete accounts add somewhat in the form of corroborative detail. James Baker, in his chapter on R. D.

Blackmore in Literary and Biographical Studies, fills out the picture of the man in a considerable measure. This, however, is again a matter of minor detail, and a happy knowledge of some small pocket of information about the man. A little about his reading, a little about his use of his own life in his novels — this is the stuff of the chapter.

Of the personal appearance of Blackmore, of his surroundings, his interests, and his views, we catch glimpses, meagre but apparently familiar, in an account by William Henry Rideing, an American, in Many Celebrities and A Few Others. This, like the others I have mentioned, augments the sum of knowledge with details. Similarly, we come upon a slight vein of new information in The Romance of the Men of Devon, by Francis Gribble, concerning Blackmore’s marriage. There is, however, more to engage one’s interest in his article in The Fortnightly Review for June, 1925, which I shall take up a little later.

In Memories of a Publisher, George Haven Putnam has given us some saddening details of Blackmore’s old age, and some slight information concerning his attitude toward the pirated editions of Lorna Doone which were published in America. In Echoes of Exmoor" there are intimate sidelights upon the life of the man, although there again one is cut off from further investigation by the anonymity of the author. A Mr. Sydenham is mentioned as a friend of Blackmore, from whom almost all the material here presented is drawn. It is reminiscent and anecdotal, filled with the memoried gossip of aging men. As an index to the early life of the author and to his character, it may have some value, although one must be careful not to place too great an esteem upon what appears frequently to be mere rumor.

The introduction to various editions of Lorna Doone yield a little knowledge, especially the introduction to the Dooneland edition, by Mr. H. Snowden Ward. But here, as before, we find the lacunas which indicate familiarity with Blackmore’s life and reluctance to violate his dislike of biographers. An account of his ancestry is given, and brief glimpses of his personality, which only whet the appetite. One is fairly certain, after reading this introduction, that Mr. Ward had access to the journal which was barred from publication, if any access might be had to it. His information appears to have been drawn from other sources as well, particularly from J. F. Chanter and from F. J. Snell, whom I shall mention in another connection. The account given by Mr. Ward is briefly summarized in R. O. Morris’s introduction to the 1920 Oxford edition of Lorna Doone, without additions.

Sir Herbert Warren, in the introduction to the World’s Classics edition, writes with an air of familiarity and reserve which speaks intimacy with Blackmore, and gives us some knowledge of his character. J. Henry Harper, in The House of Harper, gives some minor information about Blackmore’s relations with American publishers.

One must certainly include the biographical reminiscences to be found in the introduction to Tales from the Telling House, from the hand of the novelist himself. It is the only gesture toward biography he ever published. There is little that is definite in it, more than some remembered scenes from his boyhood, and his holidays from school.

Thus much for what has been said of his life in accounts of a deliberately biographical intent, and for mention in books of a more general nature. As for periodical material, it is even more sporadic than that to be found in books. For a year or two after his death there was a considerable fund of information in current magazines, including letters from him, chiefly to his American friends. In The Critic for July, 1900, appeared an article containing letters from Blackmore to Charles Ballard, of Middleton Springs, Vermont. In these letters, of which there are some forty in all, though not all of them are in the article, Blackmore voices his dissatisfaction with contemporary criticism, and with his own novels, along with general reflections upon the business of fruit-gardening. In April of the same year, Steuart J. Reid, who later wrote the account of Blackmore’s life for The Dictionary of National Biography, published a short article in The Cornhill Magazine, in which we learn something of Blackmore’s preference among his own novels, his love of quietude, and some further insignificant details. Before this there had appeared, in The Critic, a letter from the novelist, wherein he repudiated a statement made in an earlier number of that magazine, concerning the identity of certain characters in Perlycross.

Something of his character appeared in an anonymous article in The Athenaeum in 1900, along with an account of his writings on fruit-gardening, which might prove valuable when they are found. (I have not been able to find them.) The Independent for February, 1900, contains a letter to Mr. William Lyon Phelps, in which Blackmore refers to the American intellect with flattering emphasis. Other and similar letters, of less pointed significance perhaps than these I have mentioned, appeared in The Critic and The Literary World.

In May, 1900, Mr. R. W. Sawtell, a Canadian, published an account, fuller than these others, of a visit he paid Blackmore in 1894, and of their subsequent acquaintance. This article contains some significant information upon Blackmore’s life, and the sources of some of his characters, with excerpts from the letters they exchanged after Mr. Sawtell returned to Canada.

Of his life at Newton Nottage, and the background for The Maid of Sker, we are indebted to information in an article in Macmillan’s Magazine for June, 1900, by the Reverend E. J. Newell. The character of the novelist is well but briefly summed in Eden Phillpotts’s article in The Critic for May, 1901.

In December, 1902, Mrs. Lucy Derby Fuller published excerpts from letters of the novelist in Scribner s Magazine.™ Something of his large and kindly nature, his attitude toward Americans, and the mention of some of his American friends occurs there. James Baker, in May, 1904, published an article in The Fortnightly Review, in which there is some slight biographical matter not theretofore uncovered. And similarly, Francis Gribble, whom, like Mr. Baker, I have cited before, published in the same magazine in 1925 an article containing biographical details not mentioned before that date. Mr. S. M. Ellis in The Bookman, London, in June, 1925, gave some details of interest concerning his life. Some of these articles are of great value; although few of them pretend to offer anything in the way of source or substantiation, and not a few of them have an air of memory perhaps bastioned with imagination and rumor.

The correspondence of Blackmore with his American friends, most of which I have mentioned in this account, and most of his contacts with Americans in England are admirably summed in Professor Ernest Bernbaum’s article in The Southwest Review for October, 1925, entitled Richard Doddridge Blackmore and American Cordiality. Many of his views and a great deal of his character, which were denied Englishmen, we find came out in his acquaintances with Americans.

From the foregoing it should be clear that a good deal of significant and valuable information about Blackmore’s life and character is scattered about in a score of places. By collecting these materials it should be possible to compose a biographical sketch of him more nearly complete than any which now exists. This will be my purpose in Chapter I, Section II, of this dissertation.

2. OBJECTIVE AND ANALYTICAL ACCOUNTS OF HIS WORKS

One of the desiderata in the case of an author as voluminous as Blackmore is a clear, objective, and analytical study of his works, especially of those which were once in vogue, but are now little known and less read. The student who searches for such a descriptive account of Blackmore’s novels will look in vain. As in the case of biographical material, but without so cogent a reason, there is but a slender store of descriptive writing upon Blackmore’s novels. Indeed, there are very few articles at all which pretend to be descriptive; and in those few the analysis is colored with personal prejudice.

Perhaps the closest approach to what is needed here is to be found in an account by George Barnett Smith, in 1879. Even this is hardly objective, although a casual scrutiny might cause one to think so. He praises the reality of certain characters; he speaks of Blackmore’s imagination as lucid and energetic; and he ventures some shrewd animadversions upon the novels written by Blackmore up to the time the article was written. It is, however, sufficiently obvious that this article is in reality an exercise rather in appreciation than in objective analysis. The novels are not described in their entirety, but comment upon them is frequently limited to the praise of characteristics peculiarly grateful to the author of the review.

In 1896 a more comprehensive article appeared anonymously in Blackwood’s Magazine, under the title The Novels of Mr. Blackmore. It is more comprehensive for the obvious reason that Blackmore had written a number of novels in the interval between this review and the first one I mentioned; that, however, is insignificant. The article is more ambitious than its predecessor, and more systematic. It is chiefly devoted, after the initial paragraphs upon the general nature of Blackmore’s style, to his minor novels. It is analytic in its grouping of those minor novels, for instance, which base their plots upon the device of forgery; and similarly, in its grouping of certain characters. But as for being a thoroughly objective description of the novels, it is short of that end. Its want of objectivity is conspicuous in its occasional lapses into mere appreciation. It is a good review, but it belongs more to the category of those which are concerned with the merits and faults of Blackmore, as does the review by Mr. Smith.

Steuart J. Reid makes a perfunctory gesture toward a summation and curt characterization of his novels. There is also some comment in Warner’s Library of the World’s Best Literature, as there is in Baker’s Guide to the Best Fiction. These, however, are of necessity short and inexhaustive.

This constitutes the total of the attempts to describe Blackmore’s novels dispassionately and entirely. None of these is adequate to what is needed. Those which contain accounts of all the novels are too casual and too brief; those which are not too brief are too impressionistic. Besides these, there are, of course, articles which take up one or two of his novels in comparison or analysis. But these are negligible in view of the need of thorough and impersonal description; I do not think, that in all of these articles together there is a complete account of all the novels. To present such an account, accordingly, will be my purpose in the second chapter of Section II of this dissertation.

3. POSSIBLE LITERARY INFLUENCES UPON BLACKMORE

The little that has been written upon the question of what influenced Blackmore is to be found only in details of the most minor order. For the effect which his reading might have had upon the contents of his novels, we have nothing better than random guesses to guide us. We are told that certain characters have a Dickensian flavor; or that the whole effect of the narrative is like that of Defoe’s stories. In addition to this, but not relative to it, we are informed occasionally of his reading. This information is in no way brought to bear upon his writing. We know that he was a classical scholar, but we are told little of the effect his classics had upon his novels. Altogether the field of possible literary influences has yielded little beyond surmise and conjecture, except in one case. Professor Cornelius Weygandt, in A Century of the English Novell speaks of Walton and Evelyn as old masters of Blackmore, and further states that Blackmore particularly loved the writers of the seventeenth century. The period in which Lorna Doone