Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters Volume I Part 33

"I ought to add that Sir J. Hudson, the Amba.s.sador at Turin, strongly advised my acceptance of Spezzia, offered as it was."

No sooner had he made up his mind to accept the Spezzia post than he was intently gazing at the Naples consulship, which he hoped would drop like a ripe plum into his mouth when he could muster up courage to take a step forward.

Another turn of Fortune's wheel which cheered him in 1858 was the appointment of his son to the 2nd Dragoon Guards. The regiment was under the command of General Seymour, and was stationed in India.

In the spring of 1859 'Davenport Dunn' had run its monthly course, and it was published in book form. The author's official duties were extremely light, and did not tie him to Spezzia. He was able to visit his vice-consulate when it pleased him, and to indulge in his favourite pastimes of boating and bathing all through the summer months.

Young Lieutenant Lever was now winning some golden opinions in India, though there was a little dross to be found in the gold. One of his brother officers describes him as being "an exact facsimile of Charles O'Malley. He was the most accomplished young man I have ever heard of or read of," says this witness, "not only in such gifts as would make him conspicuous in a regiment, but he was likewise an accomplished linguist, and possessed a vast knowledge of general literature." "He was a warm-hearted, generous fellow," declares another of his brother officers. "But," he continues regretfully, "he was given too much to convivial and extravagant habits. Apparently he had set before himself, as an ideal of what a cavalry soldier should be, the bygone type of Jack Hinton." By no means a bad type, one might add, if only the crack cavalry officer had sufficient means to live up to the ideal.

'Gerald Fitzgerald' came to the end of its irregular magazine course in 1859. For some reason which is not disclosed in Lever's correspondence, this novel was not published in book form in this country during the author's lifetime.* Amongst other graphic character-sketches, 'Fitzgerald' furnishes vivid studies of Alfieri and of Mirabeau. His next novel, 'One of Them,' was put in hand during the autumn: it was written wholly in the Villa Marola at Spezzia. It is said that the story was largely autobiographical. It gives an intimate description of life in an Ulster dispensary, and when the scene is shifted from Ireland the reader is taken to Florence. The most outstanding character in this book is the acute, good-humoured "Yankee." Quackinboss.

* A "pirated" edition of it appeared in America daring Lever's lifetime. Its first issue in book form in this country was in 1897, when Downey & Co. published it (by arrangement with the author's grandson) in one volume.--E.D.

While 'One of Them' was moving leisurely onwards in its monthly groove, Charles d.i.c.kens asked Lever for a serial for 'All the Year Round.' Once more did the Irish novelist adopt the dual system; while he was still in the throes of 'One of Them' he commenced to write 'A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance.' This story relates the adventures of a half-shrewd, half-foolish day-dreamer. Through it there runs a curious vein of irony which is quite different from the author's early or later quality of humour. There is an insufficiency of movement in the tale; and it proved to be quite unsuited for serial publication in a magazine where the plot interest has to be kept alive from month to month. d.i.c.kens was bitterly disappointed: he complained that the circulation of his magazine was injuriously affected. Something perilously near a quarrel arose between the editor of 'All the Year Round' and the author of 'A Day's Ride.'

Lever did not hold a very high opinion of the novel, but he was justified in not regarding it as an absolutely worthless performance.

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

"Spezzia, _Sept_. 7, 1859.

"It was only because I found myself in a maze of troubles at the moment of what is ordinarily a pleasant family event that I had not a moment to write to you. Chapman & Hall, in whom for years back all my confidence has been unbounded, have behaved to me in a way to make me uneasy as to my right in my works, and I feel the very gravest anxiety for the future. This case yet hangs over me, and how it is to [? terminate] I cannot foresee. This is but a sorry [excuse] for suffering you to incur all the inconvenience I have occasioned; but when have I ceased to be a burthen to you?

"I wrote by this post to Chapman to forward the money for the insurance, and will immediately see to the other. Brady cannot affect any difficulty in settling with you: his only payment to myself personally was 100, somewhere in the present year. Therefore the number of sheets of my contributions, multiplied by the sum per sheet (30 or 35, I forget which), will give the exact amount due.

"I am about to begin a new serial, which will at least provide for the present.

"The 'Party,' after [?immense] pledges and compliments, went out without giving me anything beyond this very humble sinecure; but sinecure it is, and therefore for once 'The right man in the right place.'

"Charley was well, and fighting up in Oude, when last I heard from him; but all the pleasure of killing sepoys does not, it would appear, so entirely engross him that he cannot spend money, and he draws a bill with the same nonchalance that he draws his sword. p.u.s.s.y's husband is a Captain Bowes-Watson,--only twenty-two years of age, but a Crimean and Indian hero. He is of the veritable English type--blond, stiff, silent, and upstanding, and what Colonel Haggerstoue would call 'a perfect gentleman,' being utterly incapable by any effort of his own to provide for his own support. They are for the present poorly off, but at the death of a very old grandmother will have a fair competence,--about 1500 a year. I am sorely sorry to part with her, but the _malheur_ is that we lose in age the solace of those whose society we always hoped to console us. We go through the years of training and teaching and educating to give them up when they have grown companionable. Very selfish regrets these, but they are my latest wounds, and they smart the most.

"Julia is 'contracted,' but the event is, and must be, somewhat distant.

In other respects it is what is called a great match. And so only Baby (as Sydney is called) remains,--a marvellously clever little damsel of ten, whose humour and wit exceed that of all the grown folk I know.

"I hope to send you the first number of my new serial by the end of next month. Its t.i.tle is 'One of Them.'"

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

"Spezzia, _Sept._ 17, 1860

"I am doing my best at 'One of Them.' 'The Ride' I write as carelessly as a common letter, but I'd not be the least astonished to find the success in the inverse ratio to the trouble. At all events I am hard worked just now, and as ill-luck would have it, it is just the moment the F. O. should call upon me for details about Italy.

"The position of Sardinia is now one of immense difficulty. If she throws herself on France she must confront the [? Revolutionary] party at home, who are ready to seize upon Garibaldi and place him at the head of the movement. If she adopts Garibaldi and his plans, she offends France, and may be left to meet Austria alone and unaided. The old story--the beast that can't live on sand and dies in the water. To be sure, our own newspapers a.s.sure her complacently that she has the 'moral aid' of England. But moral aid in these days of steel-plated frigates and Armstrong guns is rather out of date, not to say that at the best it is very like looking at a man drowning and a.s.suring him all the while how sorry you are that he had not learned to swim when he was young.

The crisis is most interesting, particularly so to me, as I know all the actors--Admirals, Generals, and Ministers--who are figuring _en scene_.

"One would have thought the withdrawal of the French Amba.s.sador from Turin would have caused great discomfiture here, but with a native craft--not always right--the Italians think it a mere dodge, and that the Emperor's policy is: 'Go on. I'm not looking at you!"'

Small as the salary was, and insignificant as the position seemed to be, his vice-consulship was of considerable service to Lever: it gave him work to do when he was weary of weaving the web of fiction, and it prevented him from indulging too recklessly in the pleasures of Florentine society. The pity of it was that the office came to him so late, and that, when "the Party" thought fit to recognise his services, they should have recognised them so trivially. It must be borne in mind that Lever was no longer young: he was in his fifty-third year when the Spezzian post was offered to him; and his manner of living had been of such a free-and-easy character that anything in the shape of control chafed him, especially when the controller was a jack-in-office. In 1861 a good deal of time was spent in endeavouring to make a bargain with Chapman k Hall for the publication, in book form, of 'A Day's Ride,'

and to induce that firm to enter into an arrangement for the serial publication of a new novel, 'The Barringtons.' 'The Dublin University'

being practically closed as a paying vehicle for serial stories, Lever sought to find a publishing firm which might take the place of M'Glashan. He regarded 'Blackwood's Magazine' as the first of all periodical publications, but he feared that the Editor could not easily be induced to open his pages to the author of 'Harry Lorrequer.'

However, he was fired with the desire to become a contributor to 'Maga,'

and he enlisted the good offices of Lord Lytton. His brother novelist put the matter before Mr John Blackwood, who wrote, in May 1861, this kindly letter: "Admiring your genius cordially, as I do, I feel so doubtful as to whether what you would write would be suitable for the Magazine that I am unwilling to make a proposition, or to invite you to send MS. It would go sorely against my grain to decline anything from the friend of my youth, Harry Lorrequer." This--though the reference to his first book afforded him a momentary flush of pleasure--was just the kind of letter which would cause much heart-burning. All his efforts to weed and to prune resulted only in Blackwood's refusal to accept a posey from his garden! He wrote to Spencer in a melancholy tone; he was "out of health, out of work, out of spirits." In addition to his literary troubles, the condition of his wife's health had been the cause of much anxiety. He now feared that she was likely to become a confirmed invalid. Late in July his report to Spencer was that Mrs Lever was very ill, and that his money troubles were more acute than ever. His son was making no effort to lighten the burden: he was still in India, and was still drawing recklessly upon his father. Altogether, Lever's heart was heavy during the greater part of 1861. Late in the year he made a vigorous effort to pull himself together, and to try to forget his troubles by sticking closely to his desk. He made good progress with 'The Barringtons,' and the first monthly part appeared in February 1862.

A visitor to the Levers in the summer of 1862 describes the novelist as being "all animation." But Mrs Lever was an invalid, and could not move from her sofa. Though Lever had grown very corpulent, he had lost none of his cunning as a swimmer or as an oarsman. He spent a considerable portion of each day in the water, swimming with his daughters; and at night, "when the land breeze came through the orange-groves," he would row himself and his daughters in their boat on the bay. On one occasion the head of the family and his eldest daughter had a very narrow escape from drowning. They were boating, and in endeavouring to rescue her dog, who seemed to be in difficulties, Miss Lever capsized the boat. Father and daughter kept themselves afloat partly with the aid of an oar,--they were a full mile from the sh.o.r.e when the accident happened. A younger daughter of the novelist witnessed from a window in the house the capsizing of the skiff. Without alarming her mother by informing her of the accident, she left the house and got a boat sent out to the a.s.sistance of the swimmers, who were brought ash.o.r.e little the worse for a long immersion. This incident furnished the press with reports of Lever's death,--"grossly exaggerated," as Mark Twain would put it,--and when 'The Barringtons' was about to be published in book form, the author wrote to one of his journalistic friends saying that he believed the story was not bad,--at least, not worse than most stories of his which had found favour with the public. "As my critics," he went on, "were wont to blackguard me for over-writing, let me have the (supposed) advantage to be derived from its being a full twelvemonth since the world has heard of me--except as having died at Spezzia."

He finished the year well. He was anxious to show that his tiff with the editor of 'All the Year Round' was forgotten. The dedication prefixed to 'The Barringtons,' dated "26th December 1862," is couched in these terms:--

"My dear d.i.c.kens,--Among the thousands who read and re-read your writings, you have not one who more warmly admires your genius than myself; and to say this in confidence to the world, I dedicate to you this story."

XIII. FLORENCE AND SPEZZIA 1863

It seemed as if 1863 was about to prove a more enlivening year for Charles Lever than some of its predecessors had been. 'Barrington' was being applauded by his friends. Amongst these was Mr John Blackwood, for whose good opinion Lever sent his thanks in a letter dated January 30.

To Lord Malmesbury he forwarded a copy of the novel, with the following letter:--

_To The Earl of Malmesbury._

"Hotel d'Odessa, Spezzia, _Feb_. 16, 1863.

"My dear Lord,--I am sincerely obliged by your lordship's note in acknowledgment of 'Barrington.'

"I am sure you are right in your estimate of Kinglake's book.* Such diatribes are no more history than the Balaclava charge was war.... It was, however, his brief to make out the Crimean war a French intrigue, and he obeyed the old legal maxim in a different case--'Abuse the plaintiff's attorney.'

* The allusion is to the alleged personal cowardice of the third Napoleon. "No man," declares Lord Malmesbury, "could be less exposed to such an accusation. I saw him jump off the bridge over the Rhine at Geneva when a youth; and all men can feel what must have been his agonies when riding all day at the Battle of Sedan with his deadly malady upon him."--E. D.

"Italy is something farther from union than a year ago. In dealing with the brigandage, Piedmont has contrived to insult the prejudices of the South by wholesale invectives against all things Neapolitan. French intrigues unquestionably help to keep up the uncertainty which all Italians feel as to the future, and the inadequacy of the men in power here contributes to the same. Indeed, what Kinglake says of the English Generals--questioning how the great Duke would have dealt with the matter before them--might be applied to Italian statesmen as regards Cavour. They have not a shadow of a policy, save in their guesses as to how _he_ would have treated any question before them. To get 'steerage-way' on the nation, Cavour had to launch her into a revolution; but if these people try the same experiment they are likely to be shipwrecked.

"It would be both a pride and a pleasure to me to send your lordship tidings occasionally of events here, if you cared for it."

After some half a dozen letters had pa.s.sed between Lever and John Blackwood concerning Magazine papers, Lever took courage and again asked the question which he had asked in 1861. This time his way of putting it was: "I have a half-novel, half-romance, of an Irish Garibaldian in my head--only the opening chapters written. What would you say to it?"

To this Blackwood replied: "It is a serious business to start a long serial, and I would not like to decide without seeing the bulk of the work. I do not know how you have been in the habit of writing, whether from month to month, or getting a good way ahead before publication is commenced. If the latter is your usual plan, I have no hesitation in asking you to send me a good ma.s.s of the MS., and I will let you know as speedily as possible what I think and can propose."

From this point onward--from 1863 to 1872*--the story of Charles Lever's literary life is told mainly in his letters to the House of Blackwood: the current of his correspondence, which at one time had streamed into Ireland, was now diverted, and Lever ingenuously revealed himself and his methods of work and play to Mr John Blackwood.

* In Dr Fitzpatrick's biography only a scant account of the novelist's life during this period is furnished; but a number of Lever's letters to Mr John Blackwood are given in Mrs Blackwood Porter's Life of her father. I am indebted to Mrs Porter for permission to include some of these with the others, and also several letters from Mr John Blackwood to Lever.