With its twists and turns, this transatlantic tale recounts heartbreak, love, desire, and greed. Where one end is tied, another frays, keeping readers in suspense. There is no shortage of the gothic in this text.
Material History
The cover of The Commodore’s Daughter is 21.75 cm tall and 13.5 cm wide with a spine thickness of 1.5 cm. While the cover does not have a special design, the two corners and part of the spine have a softer and lighter leather than the rest of the book’s cover, which is a rougher and darker leather. There are three stories bound within this volume and the spine is decorated with gold lettering with the titles: Lucelle. — Julia St. Pierre. — Commodore’s Daughter.
This opening page for The Commodore’s Daughter contains a small note at the top that reads “complete”
The Commodore’s Daughter, by Benjamin Barker, begins approximately two-thirds of the way into this volume. The pages are clearly in excellent shape. The title page is plain and includes the title, author, and publication information: “PUBLISHED BY E. LLOYD, 12, SALISBURY-SQUARE, FLEET-STREET, AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.”The next page, which starts the text of the story, also includes a detailed picture and caption, as well as the word, “complete” handwritten lightly in pencil at the top of the page. The Commodore’s Daughter was originally published as a “penny dreadful” serial, which is when small cheap portions of the story were published at regular intervals and later bound together. “No. 1,” “No. 2,” etc. appear at the bottom corners of their respective pages (outside of the border created around the text) to indicate the start of a new section of the story. Though the sections were all printed, sold, and originally purchased separately, this version is “complete” because these sections have now been bound together.
The Commodore’s Daughter is sixty-eight pages long. The text is small, always surrounded by a decorative border, and relatively easy to read with decent-sized margins. This copy of The Commodore’s Daughter also shows an error made during printing. Though the final chapter appears to be Chapter XIX, this book does not have nineteen chapters, but rather, eighteen, with one entire chapter having been skipped due to misnumbering. The book leaps from Chapter XVII to Chapter XIX, which should have been correctly numbered as Chapter XVIII. This erroneous Chapter XIX is printed on the back of the page with Chapter XVII. Interestingly, the side of the page with Chapter XVII is much more pristine and in better shape than the other side, which must have been exposed at one point to different environmental conditions.
Textual History
The Commodore’s Daughter was written by Benjamin Barker—an author who was no stranger to publishing, as he released nineteen other works under his name. Two publishers produced The Commodore’s Daughter—Frederick Gleason in Boston, Massachusetts in 1846, and Edward Lloyd in London in 1847—and versions of each are housed in the Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Fiction.
The preface page for The Commodore’s Daughter
The Lloyd and Gleason printings of The Commodore’s Daughter contain a few key differences. For instance, the 1846 Gleason printing (which is also available on Google Books) includes the alternate title, The Dwarf of the Channel, or, The Commodore’s Daughter. While both versions contain the same story content, the Gleason’s version prints the story in columns, and this copy also lacks the illustrations present in the Lloyd version. Lloyd’s 1847 printing also initially appeared serialized as a penny dreadful.
The Lloyd printing of The Commodore’s Daughter contains a preface dated December 1847. In this preface, “the Publisher” provides context for the story’s historical significance, characters, and plot, including the backstory and setting. The final sentence of the preface reads: “The moral of the tale is unexceptionable, and as the incidents do not violate probability, and the characters are so truly drawn, the Publisher anticipates a favourable reception for the work.”
Like much of gothic literature that has faded from view, The Commodore’s Daughter has not remained widely available and the publisher’s projected “favourable reception” was short-lived, if at all. However, there are a few notable online versions. In addition to digital copies of the Gleason printing available via Google Books, Historical Texts has a digitized version of the Lloyd edition. In 2010, the British Library Historical Print Editions released a reprinting of TheCommodore’s Daughter.
Benjamin Barker has a notable publishing history. Not only did he publish nearly twenty works under his name, but he also published under the pseudonym Egbert Augustus Cowslip. One of his most well-known works under this pseudonym was Zoraida; or The witch of Naumkeag! A Tale of the Olden Time. Another of Barker’s works published under his own name, Blackbeard, or, The Pirate of Roanoke, is listed on Amazon and, as of 2021, has several reviews including one with a complaint about its historical inaccuracies, which reiterates the preface of The Commodore’s Daughter regarding the accuracy of accounts of the American Revolution.
Narrative Point of View
The Commodore’s Daughter is narrated in the third person (and occasionally with first-person plural moments) by an unnamed omniscient narrator who does not appear in the text. The narration feels relatively modern, but still contains antiquated vernacular. The paragraphs and sentences are generally lengthy. Yet, there still are inconsistencies in the style, with some paragraphs being much longer or using more eloquent vocabulary than others. The narration describes the characters and their feelings matter-of-factly (and frequently through characters’ actions), and there is very little text dedicated to introspection. The narration also contains much more description than dialogue.
Sample Passage:
Premising that the following romance is founded upon facts, with the details of which many of our readers may possibly be acquainted, and that for particular reason, we shall claim the privilege and take the liberty of introducing our principal characters under fictitious names, we now proceed to open our story as follows… (1)
By performing that this fictional story is based on facts—a common gothic trope—the narrator effectively tells the story with increased credibility (and possibly more shock value, as well). The narrator seeks to communicate a story by establishing familiarity with the characters in the book without revealing their names, thus providing an even foundation to readers and inviting everyone to enjoy the story with shared knowledge provided by the narrator from the beginning. The use of the first-person plural “we” also gives a more rounded and less singular feeling to the narration, enabling the fictional story to mimic an actual recounting of events.
Summary
In the early days of the American Revolution, before the colonies had banded together to declare their own independence, an old and cunning man by the name of Henry Hartville desired a fortune that was supposed to be inherited by a girl named Nora. Through his meticulous planning, Henry was able to trick Nora into believing that she was his daughter, all the while finding the perfect suitor for her so that Henry could obtain this wealth. The story then asks what Henry Hartville’s plan is to arrive at his goal.
The title page for The Commodore’s Daughter
An older, “deformed” man named John Ellery, frequently described in the text as a “dwarf,” has taken under his wing a “maniac” girl, Helen Morton, whose parents died years prior. John Ellery is one day met by a man carrying a letter and a black crucifix, who leaves soon after handing him these mysterious items. Despite not knowing who this man is or who the person who wrote the letter could be, Mr. Ellery accepts the commands listed out to him on the letter without any hesitation. One of those commands being to seek Nora Hartville out to keep under his wing, which the story reveals later.
Luckily, Mr. Ellery met with a ship on its way to a New England port, carrying several passengers in its cabins. Since he is able to pilot the ship, Mr. Ellery is gratefully accepted by the captain to guide it to its destination. Mr. Ellery, however, begins to take notice of a peculiar passenger whom the captain dreaded and wanted jettisoned as soon as possible. Through a careful line of questioning, Mr. Ellery finally realizes what he had hoped to find——the girl on the ship is Nora Hartville, the one the letter instructed him to keep under his wing for the next few years.
Mr. Ellery, Helen Morton, and Nora Hartville all arrive at Mr. Ellery’s home and remain there for several months in peace, as Helen and Nora become closer in what Helen describes as a sisterhood. Unfortunately, the fateful night arrives soon enough, and Miles Warton, the man who brought the letter and the crucifix to Mr. Ellery so long ago, finally comes to collect Nora Hartville for the suitor that Henry Hartville had set up for her. Miles Warton was a criminal, so Mr. Ellery knew his arrival at the cottage meant something was wrong. Prior to their meeting, Mr. Ellery heard Nora’s objections to the forced marriage, for the girl had her heart set on another man, George Wellington. Both parties soon realize that this night will not go as planned. In a shocking turn of events, Warton is killed by none other than Helen Morton, as she defends her adoptive father from being harmed by the criminal.
Through many events to follow, George Wellington, who was originally deprived of his desire to see his love, Nora Hartville, meets up with a man named Edward Hale, Helen Morton’s former lover. It is revealed that once George and Edward work together in their search for their lovers, the cruel and conniving plans of Henry Hartville can be overturned.
This page shows the final chapter, which was misnumbered as chapter nineteen though it should have been numbered chapter eighteen.
Yet before their arrival, another surprising figure appears: the former wife of Mr. Ellery, whose name is Julia. Long ago, Julia (the original owner of the black crucifix) held a gun to her husband’s chest in a fit of hatred and demanded that he follow the orders of whoever bears the crucifix. Now, Julia seeks forgiveness for the trouble she has caused, and the old man gracefully accepts. Seeing that Mr. Ellery accepted her apology, Julia knows she can now rest, and she breathes her last breath at her former husband’s humble cottage.
Finally having come to peace with his life, Mr. Ellery travels with his daughters and their suitors (who have found his cottage after a long search) to the ship of a well-known commodore, where it is revealed that the villainous Henry Hartville is aboard the vessel. Cornered and seeing that all his plans have been foiled, Henry Hartville takes a pistol to his head and pulls the trigger, allowing for Edward Hale and Helen Morton to fulfill their love and Nora and George Wellington to do the same. Through much pain and sorrow, Mr. Ellery finally gets to live a happy life away from shame.
In this 1800s chapbook by Sarah Wilkinson set in the South of France, follow Emma de Villeroy as she navigates her mysterious marriage, and the truth about her bloodline.
Material History
The White Cottage of the Valley is one chapbook bound in a collection of eighteen stories. The story itself is short, only twenty-one pages as compared to the over thirty-page length of the other stories in the book, but the text is quite dense. The text is small and close-set, and the margins between each line are thin. The book measures approximately 11cm x 18cm, allowing this chapbook to hold a lot of content. The margins of the pages vary, ranging from 0.8 cm to 1.6cm. The pages are quite thin, allowing you to see the text on the other side. Each page has the shortened title of the book, The White Cottage, printed across the top. This is uniform to every story in the book, making it easy to differentiate the separate works.
Title Page of The White Cottage of the Valley
Before you begin reading the story, you are greeted with a frontispiece. The frontispiece, an illustration preceding the title page, is completely unique. Although the black outline is printed, the colors are hand painted with watercolors. You can see white space that the artist did not quite cover with color, as well as places where the colors overlap. The illustration depicts a woman clothed in red and white approaching the door of a hut where a woman and child wait. Below the illustration is a quote that relates to the part of the story the image is depicting: “Merciful Providence! Your Husband ill, & lying in that Hut.” Uniquely, the word “page” stands alone just below the quote, likely intended to list the page number where you could find this quote. However, there is no page number, and in fact this illustration does not relate at all to The White Cottage of the Valley, or to any story within this collection of chapbooks. It is possible that this was a misprint, or perhaps the story that relates to this illustration was removed from this book. The White Cottage of the Valley also does not contain page numbers, though it does include signature marks, which were used to guide bookbinders and make sure the pages were folded correctly and in the correct order. A2, B, C, and C2 appear on the first, seventh, eleventh, and thirteenth pages respectively.
The title page follows the frontispiece on the next page. The full title, The White Cottage of the Valley; or the Mysterious Husband: an Original, Interesting Romance,is printed vertically down the page, followed by the name of the author, Sarah Wilkinson. An excerpt from a poem is quoted just below, and below that the printer is listed. Finally, the price, sixpence, is printed at the very bottom of the page. The title page bleeds through almost completely to the other side of the paper, which is otherwise completely blank.
The cover of the chapbook collection follows a very popular binding technique of the time called half binding. The spine and two triangles on the corners of the front and back cover are brown leather, while the main cover is paper. The paper cover is decorated with another popular technique: marbling. This is a process in which different colors of oil paint are added to a tub of water, which the paper for the cover is then dipped in. The water forces the oil to spread, giving it a “marbled” look. The cover of this book is mostly beige, with marbling of dark blue. It is worse for wear, though, with quite a bit of the front worn off. The spine is also quite worn, with cracks appearing in the leather and tearing slightly at the top. Luckily, the book is in mostly good condition, with no large tears or extremely stained pages.
Textual History
Sarah Wilkinson was a gothic writer active between 1799 and 1824. In that time, she penned approximately one-hundred short stories, including about thirty gothic works. The White Cottage of the Valley; or the Mysterious Husband is one of her lesser-known works. Unlike her more popular stories, which have well-documented and sometimes controversial histories, The White Cottage has very little written about it. This is likely due to the pure quantity of gothic chapbooks that Wilkinson penned, meaning only the most popular of them have been attended to by historians and literary scholars. The White Cottage has, however, been republished in the second volume of Gary Kelly’s 2002 Varieties of Female Gothic. This volume, titled Street Gothic, includes a number of gothic texts by female writers that Kelly suggests depict the change in the writing of the lower class. In the introduction to this volume, Kelly describes The White Cottage as “represent[ing] the revolution in cheap print of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century that saw the creation of a commercialised novelty literature for the lower-class and lower middle-class readers” (xxiii). This is one of the only modern works that analyzes The White Cottage, rather than simply listing it as one of Wilkinson’s texts.
As often as Wilkinson is described as prolific, she is also described as a “hack” writer (Kelly xxi, Hoeveler 3). This is due to the fact that Wilkinson was on the cusp of poverty, writing “at the lowest end of the literary market” (Kelly xxi). Indeed, she wrote so much because she had to in order to make a living, not necessarily out of love for the craft. In 1803, she wrote to Tell-Tale Magazine, issuing a “warning [to] every indigent woman, who is troubled with the itch of scribbling, to beware of [her] unhappy fate.” (“The Life of an Authoress, Written by Herself” 28) Obviously Wilkinson had the desire to write, self-described as an “itch of scribbling,” but it was not an easy way to make a living.
Misplaced illustration that acts as a frontispiece for The White Cottage of the Valley
Interestingly, the publisher of The White Cottage is also somewhat well-known. In 1810, Robert Harrild invented a new tool for inking typeface, called a composition roller. This was a much more efficient method than the previously used balls of hide (Anderson & McConnell). Conversely, the illustrator for the frontispiece for The White Cottage is completely unlisted and unknown. The White Cottage of the Valley originally included a frontispiece (printed in Kelly’s Varieties of Female Gothic) but this frontispiece is not present in the University of Virginia version, which may be due to Wilkinson’s lack of resources, or it is possible that there was a misprinting or a confusion when rebinding and a different frontispiece was accidentally placed there instead. All versions of the chapbook, however, have the title-page epigraph from Thomas Fitzgerald’s eighteenth-century poem “Bedlam.”
There was at least one printing of The White Cottage in the early nineteenth century, but the publication date is not precisely known because the work itself has no date listed. WorldCat and Google Books list the date as 1815, although this is likely inaccurate because the title page of The White Cottage lists Robert Harrild as residing at 20 Great Eastcheap in London at the time of printing, a location he did not move to until 1819. He moved once again in 1824, suggesting The White Cottage was likely published sometime between 1819 and 1824, not 1815 (Anderson & McConnell).
While it has never been officially said that Wilkinson pulled content from Elizabeth Meeke’s The Mysterious Husband: A Novel, there are a few obvious overlaps between the two stories. Most notably, the works share a partial title, a character named the Earl of Clarencourt (spelled Clarancourt in Meeke’s story), a theme of marrying for money rather than love, and a main character who leaves for France for the sake of his mental health. Since Meeke’s novel was published early in 1801, it is possible that Wilkinson read Meeke’s novel and incorporated ideas from it into her own chapbook. This would not be the first time Wilkinson took inspiration from another story, either: her 1820 novel, Castle of Lindenberg; or, The History of Raymond and Agnes, is heavily derived from Matthew Lewis’s popular story The Monk. This was not all that unusual at the time: Father Innocent, Abbot of the Capuchins; or, The Crimes of Cloisters (1805) and The Castle of Lindenberg; or The History of Raymond and Agnes (1798) were also borderline plagiarisms of the same popular work.
Narrative Point of View
The White Cottage of the Valley is narrated by an unnamed narrator who is never a character in the story. They narrate entirely in third person and past tense, except at the beginning of extended backstory when they momentarily switch to present tense and use “we” to refer to the narration. The narrator often acts as an omniscient storyteller, relating how the characters feel and react to each other. Through the narrator, we are given insight into the characters’ thoughts and feelings. The language the narrator uses is formal and antiquated.
Sample Passage:
She instantly summoned Alise and Anetta to her presence, that she might fully apprize them of the part they had to act before the stranger could converse them, and thus frustrate her intentions.
While she is conversing with her faithful domestics, we will look back a little to the events that preceded—the distress of mind into which the amiable Emma was now plunged.
Emma de Villeroy was a native of the southern part of France; she was the only child of a very respectable medical man, a descendant of a noble family. (4)
This method of omniscient storytelling allows readers access to what the characters are thinking, enabling readers to experience events more intimately with the characters. The narration also heightens the effect of the plot unfolding in real time by suggesting that Emma’s backstory can be provided during the period of time when “she is conversing with her faithful domestics” as if Emma is talking to her servants at the exact same moment that the narration is relaying her backstory. As a result, Emma, the third-person narration, and the readers are all waiting for the rest of Emma’s story to unfold in this moment.
Summary
The White Cottage of the Valley opens with its main character Emma crying because her husband has not come home. She eventually falls into a fitful sleep until late in the night, when the gate bell rings. Emma, convinced it is her husband, quickly answers it. It is not her husband, however, but a stranger asking for shelter out of the rain. Despite her reluctance, Emma allows him in and sets him up with a bed. The next morning, when she goes down to breakfast with her children, the stranger asks which of the two is hers. Emma, alarmed by this question, lies and says only Rosalthe is hers and that Adolphus is the child of her servant, Alise.
Example page of text from The White Cottage of the Valley
Here, the narrator backs up to talk a bit about Emma’s backstory. Emma de Villeroy is the daughter of a woman who married against the will of her parents. Emma’s grandparents were so against the marriage that her parents left and never contacted them again. The years passed, and eventually both of Emma’s parents died. On his deathbed, her father bid Emma to seek out her wealthy, noble grandparents because otherwise she would be left destitute. Unfortunately, he died before he could give any information about her grandparents, leaving Emma with no way to contact either of them. In cleaning out her parents’ house, Emma subsequently found a miniature of her mother and began to wear it on a necklace under her clothes.
One day, Emma met a young man named Adolphus Montreville who had taken a liking to her late father’s library so much that he wanted to purchase the books. When the two of them met, there was an immediate spark. Adolphus was very kind to Emma in a way that betrayed his emotions, but he never made any formal declarations of his passion. Eventually, Adolphus explained that his father, a greedy Earl, wants to marry him off to an heiress for the money. Adolphus expressed that while he has feelings for Emma, he cannot marry her publicly due to his father. Therefore, he suggested a private marriage. Emma accepted his proposal, without mentioning her wealthy grandparents. The next week, the pair were married. Almost immediately, however, Adolphus Montreville was called back to England. He promised to return as soon as possible, leaving a pregnant Emma with one of her parents’ servants, Alise.
Eventually, Emma had twins, Rosalthe and Adolphus, and travelled to Paris to meet her husband, still concealing their marriage. There, the pair attended an opera and Emma noticed a wealthy couple who she immediately believed to be her grandparents due to their resemblance to her late mother. She did not mention her suspicions to her husband, however, and eventually left France for Wales without any conclusion of this matter.
Two months after settling in a white cottage in the valley in Wales, Adolphus visited and he expressed to Emma his fears that their marriage had been discovered. The following night, he promises that he will be more explicit when he returns. However, after this visit, he does not come back.
Another example page of text from The White Cottage of the Valley
This is where the beginning of the story picks up again. That night, the second one the stranger stays in the cottage, Emma and Rosalthe are kidnapped by Adolphus Montreville’s father, the Earl of Clarencourt. The earl accuses Emma of deceiving him by denying Adolphus as her son. He informs Emma that her husband is also his prisoner and gives Emma a paper urging her to sign it. The paper proposes this agreement: the earl intends to fake his son’s death so that his younger brother, Edward, can marry the heiress. Emma and her family will be banished, but Emma’s son, Adolphus, will be raised by the earl. If Emma and Adolphus Montreville do not sign this paper, they will forever be confined to Milbury castle as they are now.
Emma refuses to sign, making the earl angry and scaring Rosalthe in her arms. As Rosalthe clings to her, she pulls out the necklace Emma wears. The earl immediately recognizes it as a miniature of the daughter of the Marquis De Aubigne. When Emma tells him it was her mother’s, he realizes his mistake. He apologizes to Emma, and she and her husband are freed. Emma goes on to meet her grandparents, who accept her eagerly and apologize for their poor treatment of her mother. Emma inherits all of her grandparents’ wealth, and her family lives happily for the rest of their lives.
Kelly, Gary. “Introduction.” Varieties of Female Gothic, Volume 2: Street Gothic. Taylor & Francis, 2002, pp. vii–xxiii.
“The Life of an Authoress, Written by Herself,” Tale 57 in Tell-Tale Magazine (London: Ann Lemoine, 1803), p. 28 in The History of Gothic Publishing, 1800–1835: Exhuming the Trade, by Franz Potter. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Wilkinson, Sarah Scudgell. The White Cottage of the Valley: Or the Mysterious Husband: An Original, Interesting Romance. Printed and Published by R. Harrild, n.d.
In this plagiarized 1810 version of The Old Manor House by Charlotte Smith (1793), Orlando Somerville endures war, poverty, and two transatlantic voyages to be reunited with England, his lover, and a rightful inheritance.
Material History
Rayland Hall; or, the Remarkable Adventures of Orlando Somerville was published and printed in February of 1810 by John Arliss and authored by an unknown writer. Bound by paper and string, this 42-page pamphlet sized book makes use of a small close-set type and two-centimeter-wide margins in order to pack a full-length drama into a small number of pages. The top of each page features a double lined header with a shortened title; “Rayland Hall” is centered, while the page number is included in the top right corner. Showing its age at over 200 years old, many of the pages are marked by large spots of discoloration, and even small spots of mold.
The title page of Rayland Hall
The exterior of the book shows similar signs of wear, with no jacket or cover to be found, the paper and string binding is visibly fragmenting. The first page is blank, while its reverse side contains an illustration titled “Rayland Hall Page 10” that depicts a cavalier hurriedly blowing out a candle while another man enters the room and a woman slumps in a nearby chair. This page has become detached from the rest of the volume and is markedly less worn and significantly whiter than the other pages. On the following title page, the full title is listed with the subscript “An Original Story” and an illustration of a man who is prone, bound, and whose head is being scratched by another man lying on top of him. This illustration is captioned “Thank Heaven! the fortunes of my house revive !” and below we find a double lined division followed by “LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN ARLISS, No. 87, Bartholomew Close.” On the top of this title page, there is a stamped marking that reads “Sophia*” that likely indicated a previous owner’s identity.
Text on the last page of the book ends a third of the way down and there is a final illustration of the exterior of a castle that is framed by an irregular cloud shape. Centered between the illustration and the bottom of the page, FINIS is typed and bolded in a larger font than the rest of the text. The lack of a back cover is congruent with the lack of a front cover, and the final page shows increased wear in relation to the other pages. The publisher, John Arliss, and his printing location are again stated under a dividing line at the bottom right corner of the final page.
The dimensions of the book are truly pamphlet sized, being only 18 x 11 centimeters. Every page save the first detached page has a similar faded white color and seven major splotches that are in the same position on each page. These major discolorations are joined by many smaller slightly darker spots. Texturally, the book is uniform in its extreme softness. Pages vary slightly in width, allowing for easy page turning. Overall, this volume shows its age but is without any major rips, tears, or any other major damage besides the first page which is detached from the rest.
Textual History
Rayland Hall; or, the Remarkable Adventures of Orlando Somerville is a chapbook published in 1810 by John Arliss. There is no author listed for this work, and with good reason. Rayland Hall is a plagiarized and condensed account of Charlotte Smith’s four-volume novel The Old Manor House, published in 1793. Charlotte Turner Smith was a renowned female poet and novelist, and The Old Manor House was considered her most well-received work. Rayland Hall features many of the same plot points as The Old Manor House, but does differ in some ways, including the name of the main female character, who is named Juliana in Rayland Hall and named Monomia in The Old Manor House. Ironically, the phrase “AN ORIGINAL STORY” is printed on the title page of the chapbook. Because of the very short form of the 42-page chapbook, many details of The Old Manor House are omitted from Rayland Hall, but the broad strokes of Orlando’s romantic struggle, capture in America, and subsequent victorious return are matched in both works.
Sample page of text for Rayland Hall
The chapbook lacks a preface, introduction, or any further information on how it came to be. Additionally, when researching Rayland Hall, one finds that every digital mention of Rayland Hall is derived from the context of the original work by Charlotte Smith. One name of someone responsible for creating this book does appear: that of the printer and publisher John Arliss. This edition of the chapbook provides the address of his printing shop, located in the Wandsworth neighborhood of London. From what can be surmised based on relevant early nineteenth-century literary databases, Arliss was a prolific publisher who printed many chapbooks and novels. It remains unclear what role Arliss had in the work itself, but he does remain as the sole credited person for this chapbook.
There exists another truncated version of The Old Manor House published in 2006: a 104-page version also titled Rayland Hall; or, the Remarkable Adventures of Orlando Somerville, edited by Ina Ferris, professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa who has also edited a full-length edition of Smith’s original The Old Manor House. This 2006 version is notably longer than the chapbook, which stands at only thirty-six pages of story, but is unfortunately out of print; it remains unclear the precise relationship between the plagiarized 1810 Rayland Hall chapbook and the newer longer 2006 Rayland Hall.
Narrative Point of View
Rayland Hall; or, the Remarkable Adventures of Orlando Somerville is narrated in the third person by an unnamed and extratextual narrator. The narration is succinct and to the point, and pertinent facts are simply stated for the reader. The narration easily spans a gulf of time and space to allow for the important plot points to be reached in a timely manner. This narrator does not make the reader privy to characters’ inner feelings and thoughts. The text does include some quotations from characters, but overall the plot is advanced through statements made by the narrator.
Sample Passage:
The Fluer de Lys, having received her dispatches from the Count d’Estang, proceeded with a fair wing, and in six weeks Orlando landed at Brest. The Chevalier behaved to him as a brother. He was obliged to go immediately to Paris, but he placed Orlando in the house of a merchant, whom he commissioned to supply him with every thing he wanted, and then took leave of his interesting captive, having first procured him a proper passport, giving him a certificate, and taking his parole. Orlando staid but a few days at Brest, and then set out by the diligence for St. Malo, where he was told he might get a conveyance for Guernsey or Jersey. In this he was disappointed, and he journeyed along the coast to Havre; it was almost the end of October, when he engaged a large fishing smack to land him at Southampton, and open communication between the two countries being denied; and this was done at a price that obliged him not only to give up all the ready money he possessed, but also the wardrobe he had obtained at Brest, and he landed with one shirt in his hand, and two pieces of twelve souns in his pocket. With great difficulty from want of money, and fatigue of body, he at length from want of money, and fatigue of body, he at length gained sight of the grey turrets of Rayland Hall. (23)
The narration serves the primary purpose of advancing the plot. There is little attention paid to esoteric motivations and the character development is quite shallow. This leaves the bulk of the work of advancing the plot lines to the narrator. This very explicit style of storytelling makes narrative jumps over space and time smoother and easier, and removes some of the complexity of being able to see into characters’ heads. This chapbook is only forty-two pages, after all, so the events of more than two years clearly need to be condensed greatly, and this simple and straightforward narrative style aids in conveying the plot relatively quickly.
Summary
Rayland Hall tells the story of forbidden romance between second cousins. Rayland Hall, a great mansion in southern England is occupied by a single heiress (Mrs. Rayland), her housekeepers, and her deceased sister’s daughter, Juliana. Down the road lives Mr. Somerville who is a cousin of Mrs. Rayland, but whose family had fallen out of favor after Mr. Somerville’s father married a woman living with the Raylands, and thus producing Orlando. Orlando is favored by Mrs. Rayland, and is rumored to be a candidate for her heir, as she has no children.
The frontispiece of Rayland Hall
The narrative of the book opens on Orlando and Juliana going into town (a rare venture for Juliana) on a set of errands. As they stride through town, a rude cavalier by the name of John Blargrave makes some advance with Juliana and is rebuffed by Orlando. John being of high status takes much insult and challenges Orlando to a duel the next day. After the business in town, it is revealed that Orlando and Juliana have been conducting an affair by way of secret passage into Juliana’s tower. That evening Orlando visits Juliana, and they are disturbed by an unknown person peeking into Juliana’s room; Orlando pursues the interloper but is not able to apprehend them.
The fate of Orlando is quickly decided for him by his father: an old acquaintance of his, General Tracey, makes arrangements for Orlando to be shipped off to suppress rebellion in the American colonies rather than face a dangerous duel. Before being sent off, Orlando makes a secret visit to Juliana in her tower where he discovers a smuggler who has been working around Rayland Hall, and is the one who was seen peeping on Juliana and Orlando. They agree to keep each other’s secrets and make a pact of friendship, so that the smuggler may deliver a letter to Juliana.
On his arrival in America, Orlando is quickly captured by an indigenous band of fighters, and comes to be their friend as they spend the winter together in the wilderness trapping. Eventually, he is able to convince them of biding his release, he goes to Canada and is afforded proper station as a British officer, and placed on a ship set for England. Orlando’s ship is captured, and he only makes his way back to Rayland Hall by way of a long and difficult detour through France. Upon arriving at Rayland Hall two years after the events previously described, he finds the manor is in decrepit condition.
Final page featuring an illustration of Rayland Hall
Orlando inquires about town and is deemed insane by most he meets, as all assumed him dead overseas after such a long absence of correspondence. He comes to learn that Mrs. Rayland has died and her estate was willed to a Dr. Hollyburn. After questioning the family attorney, he learns of his family’s new location and of the death of his father. Upon seeing his family, he is acquainted with the unsuccessful attempt that his older brother, Phillip, made to sue for Rayland Hall, as most assumed the dead Orlando to be the successor. This suit was unsuccessful, but an attorney advises Orlando to pursue it further.
Orlando learns that Juliana is in the care of a family in Hampshire. This is also the location of the wife of a fallen comrade of Orlando, so he decides to make the trip to investigate. He finds that Juliana is in the care of this very family, and warm feelings are traded between them. Desirous of an immediate marriage, they must first obtain the permission of Juliana’s aunt, as Juliana is underage.
After securing this permission, the aunt then informs Orlando of an alternate will that is hidden within Rayland Hall. Orlando obtains this will and his rights of ownership over Rayland Hall are restored. He and Juliana marry and live a happy life with Orlando Jr.
Bibliography
Rayland Hall; or, The Remarkable Adventures of Orlando Somerville. London, John Arliss, 1810.
Rayland Hall; or, The Remarkable Adventures of Orlando Somerville, edited by Ina Ferris. Zittaw Press, 2006.
Smith, Charlotte. The Old Manor House. London, F. C. and J. Rivington, 1793.
In this 1806 Jean-Baptiste-François-Xavier Cousin de Grainville novel, embark on a journey with the last inhabitants of the world as they navigate around the universe’s impending destruction.
Material
History
The Last Man, or Omegarus and Syderia, A
Romance in Futurity was originally a French text by
Jean-Baptiste-François-Xavier Cousin de Grainville. The author’s name appears
nowhere on the front cover or inside of the book. Instead, “By Mrs. Shelly
author of Frankenstein [illegible word]” is penciled in underneath the title on
the full title page of both volumes. Though the two texts share the same short
title, The Last Man, or Omegarus and Syderia, A Romance in Futurity was
written by Cousin de Grainville not Mary Shelley.
The full title page for The Last Man, or Omegarus and Syderia, A Romance in Futurity, featuring a reader’s incorrect addition of an author
This edition, which presents the English
translation of the French original, was published in London at Grace
Church-Street in 1806 by R. Dutton, as denoted on the full title page of both
volumes. An epigraph appears underneath the title on the full title page in
both volumes and says, “Through what new scenes and changes must we pass?—The
wide, th’unbounded, prospect lies before me.—” which is from Addison’s 1713 “Cato.”
The French title is not given in this edition, but the French edition is called
Le Dernier Homme, Ouvrage Posthume. The full English title, The Last
Man, or Omegarus and Syderia, A Romance in Futurity, is only present on the
full title page of each volume and the shortened titles—The Last Man. A
Romance in Futurity. and The Last Man.—are present on the half title
page of each volume. The latter title—The Last Man.—also appears in the
top margin of the left and right pages starting from the beginning of chapter
one until the end of the last chapter.
Any designs that may have graced the
front or back covers of the book are completely gone, due to over 200 years
passing since it was originally printed. There are remnants of a wax-dripped
insignia on the spine of volume one and black printed letters on the front
cover of volume two; otherwise, the covers are a brownish-yellowish color and
are fraying at the corners. There is also worn-off blue tape on the spine that
wraps towards the center of the front and back covers in an attempt to secure
the fragile binding. The book is 11.5 cm by 19 cm and is of a medium thickness.
Volume one contains 220 pages and volume two contains 204 pages, making the
entire book a total of 424 pages.
The binding from volume two is in poorer condition than volume one, as all the pages are completely detached from the binding. In volume one, the pages are still slightly secured to the binding, albeit a third of the pages are detached from it. However, all of the pages of each volume remain intact and secured to each other with an adhesive. The paper is yellowed, and there are brown splotches of varying sizes on the majority of pages. The origin of these splotches is unknown. When the book is closed, the pages are noticeably crinkled.
A stamp of T. Norris’s Circulating Library
The page immediately following the full title page in volume two has an advertisement for another text published by R. Dutton, The Saracen, or Matilda and Melek Adhel. A Crusade Romance with no listed author. The advertisement relates in italics, “Just published, in 4 vols. 12 mo. price 18s. in boards,” and, “This work has been highly spoken of in the L’Ambigu of M. Peltier.” On page 11 of volume two, there is a handwritten correction for a typo: someone has crossed out “Ormus” and penciled in “Eupholus.” There are no illustrations, decorative elements, table of contents, epilogue, or author’s note present within the text.
We know that this edition of The Last
Man has had many institutional homes, as a stamp of T. Norris’s Circulating
Library is glued onto the inside of the opening cover of each volume. There are
also illegible names and numbers scrawled in pencil and ink on the opening
cover and first blank page of each volume, supporting the idea that this edition
of The Last Man has passed through many hands. In both volumes, the only
writing that can be clearly deciphered is “Doris Pousonly 1927.” This constant
transfer between different people also contributed to the novel’s fragile state
and worn-out appearance.
The font used in both volumes is
identical, and it is of a larger size, making it easier to read. Copious
amounts of spaces separate paragraphs, which are generally on the shorter side
and range from one to three sentences. The spacing of sentences within
paragraphs and words are also spread apart. The first word of every chapter is
printed in a larger font size than the following words, with the first letter
in a more decorative font. The chapter headers are preceded and succeeded by
black lines, which creates ample spacing between them and the paragraphs. They
are also in a different font and size than the primary font and font size, and
the numbers are roman numerals. Page numbers appear at the top of the pages –
the leftmost side of the left page and the rightmost side of the right page.
Different printer notes are scattered
throughout the chapters in order to keep track of the page order. Below the
last sentence of each paragraph, there are catchwords placed on the bottom and
to the rightmost side of the page. These words were customary printing
techniques during the nineteenth-century to pair up pages with the same word
that appeared at the top of the next page. Also, capital letters immediately
followed by a number appear inconsistently on the middle of the bottom portions
of pages. These notes provided a map for printers on how to fold the book and
align the pages together.
Textual
History
An advertisement for The Saracen, or Matilda and Melek Adhel, which was also published by R. Dutton, appears in volume 2 of The LastMan
The Last Man. A Romance in Futurity.
was originally written in French by Jean-Baptiste-François-Xavier Cousin de
Grainville and titled Le dernier homme. Cousin de Grainville was a
former priest at the Church of Saint-Leu in Amiens. This is also the same place
where he delivered a funeral oration defending the King of France at the time,
Louis XVI, which resulted in his imprisonment and potential death sentence. In
order to avoid the latter, he was urged into marriage, and the union simply
became a way to keep up appearances. After the marriage, he began writing Le
dernier homme, which ultimately became his life’s work. He also kept a
school in Amiens, but was shunned as an apostate priest. Due to the treatment
he endured, he committed suicide at Amiens in 1805, making Le dernier homme
a posthumous publication (Paley 67–8).
The Last Man. A Romance in Futurity. was published and received in several different manners. The original French publication received little to no attention; Morton D. Paley notes that this makes the emergence of the English version in 1806, which lists no author, strange (68). The minimum attention the novel received produced a few reviews, which were generally bad. In one instance, the reviewer deems the novel as “most extravagantly wild and eccentric” and recommends it to readers who are “much addicted to the reading of romances” but also warns, “if the same readers should be hostile to licentiousness and profaneness, and should think that translations (as this seems to be) one of the vilest books imported from the Continent, ought to be consigned to some other conspicuous place—we recommend the fire” (“Art. 21” 446). The 1811 publication of the second edition of Le dernier homme in French was influenced by Sir Herbert Croft, who was a contemporary admirer of the novel, and prefaced by Charles Nodier, who was Croft’s literary assistant; the second edition received a little more attention than the first, but still remained widely unknown (Paley 68).
A signature by a person who previously held the book
Cousin de Grainville’s work is believed
to have inspired the development of other pieces of literature in the following
years of its publication. Benjamin Morgan suggests that Cousin de Grainville’s
novel stimulated the genre of “Romantic millenarianism,” which included the
works of Lord Byron’s Darkness (1816), Thomas Campbell’s The Last Man
(1823), and Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (1826) (618). All of these texts
are placed in an impending apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic world and involve a
fixation on the last man on earth. In 1831, the novel was adapted into a poem
by A. Creuzé de Lesser, which was titled “Le dernier homme, poème imité de
Grainville,” and published in Paris (Paley 68).
Today, The Last Man. A Romance in Futurity. has been attended to by many
scholars and approached as a work of science fiction, potentially one of the
earliest such works. Wesleyan University Press published an edition, translated
by I.F. Clarke and M. Clarke in 2003 as part of their Early Classics of Science
Fiction series. In one review of this newer edition, John Huntington emphasizes
common literary elements in the novel, such as “realism and “the kind of
empirical detail which will later characterize the SF [science fiction] novel”
(374). There have also been interpretations that contextualize the earth’s
deterioration in the novel. In one analysis, Morgan situates Cousin de
Grainville’s novel amidst other works that examine “ecological catastrophe”
(618).
Narrative
Point of View
The Last Man. A Romance in Futurity. is a frame narrative in which
the main story is narrated in the third-person omniscient by an anonymous
narrator and the secondary tale is narrated in the first person by Omegarus.
The frame narrative is heavy on dialogue, while typically using descriptive paragraphs
to reveal that a strange or magnificent event has taken place. The secondary
narrative is related from the perspective of Omegarus, in which he tells Adam
about his history. Since the secondary narrative is in the first person while
also incorporating a lot of dialogue, Omegarus uses descriptive paragraphs to
focus on his thoughts and reactions to different situations. Omegarus also
relates stories that other characters told him at that particular instance in
his history, which can generate confusion as to the chronology of events. The
secondary narrative functions as the backstory to the main narrative, which is
narrated in the present. At times, the third-person narration of the framing
narrative interrupts the secondary narrative to remind readers that it is the
main story, as one can easily become lost in the secondary narrative and forget
about the main narrative. It also serves as a way to interact with readers, as
we are like Adam listening for the first time to Omegarus’s story.
Sample Passage of Main Frame Narrative:
Scarcely had Omegarus ended the description of the two pictures, when Adam, much affected, interrupted him saying, “Omegarus, O my son! (allow me to use this appellation from my tenderness) hold an instant, and let me recover breath! Thou hast opened again in my heart a source of sentiment which I thought dried up. Ah! If thou didst but know me! – I, as well as Adam, had a wife and children, and but now fancied that I saw them, heard them, and tasted with them all the joys of a husband and father!” (vol. 2, 48–49)
In the
main narrative, Adam stands in the same place as the readers of the novel, as
he is invested and heavily affected by listening to Omegarus’s story for the
first time. This invites readers to be sympathetic towards Omegarus and his
future. Readers also know more than Omegarus, because we know Adam’s true
identity while Omegarus is unaware of who Adam is at this point in the story.
Adam points this out in this passage as he laments, “If thou didst but know
me!” then Omegarus would understand why he is heavily affected by the story. In
expressing his emotions, Adam interrupts Omegarus’s story, bringing readers
back from the secondary narrative to the main narrative. This interjection also
acts as a break from Omegarus’s story, which contains a lot of information to
digest in one taking.
Sample Passage of Secondary Narrative:
I came. Her room decked out, the soft fragrance I inhaled, Syderia’s dress, – all were preparations that surprised me. I drew near her ; the picture of Eve with her infant son attracted and delighted my eye, and induced a wish to see the other which was veiled. No emotion ever equalled mine at the sight of the Mother of Mankind in the arms of her husband. (vol. 2, 51)
From the first sentence here, the “I” used by Omegarus denotes
this passage as originating from the secondary narrative versus the main
narrative, which makes no use of first-person pronouns outside of dialogue.
Because of this, readers have a window into Omegarus’ thoughts, specifically
about Syderia in comparison to the painting of Eve in this sample passage. This
ability invites readers to be sympathetic towards Omegarus and gain an
understanding of where he is coming from, as we are learning his history from
his own perspective, even though Omegarus’s narrative is also faulty and
biased, since it is difficult to remember every instance that has occurred in
one’s history.
Summary
The half-title page for The Last Man, or Omegarus and Syderia, A Romance in Futurity.
The novel begins with an unknown speaker
being willed to enter a cave by a spirit possessing knowledge of all future
events. The spirit intends to reveal the events that will result in the end of
the universe through a magic mirror. The speaker first sees an image of a
melancholy man and woman, Omegarus and Syderia, who are the last inhabitants of
the universe. The spirit shows the speaker, who is interested by the cause of
their melancholy, a different image depicting Adam, the first father of
mankind, guarding the gates of hell as punishment for causing the human race to
have original sin. Ithuriel, an angel, comes to Adam and tells him that God has
a special mission for him, which involves sending him back to earth. In return
for his participation and success in the mission, Adam will be granted
deliverance from his punishment. Ithuriel promptly returns Adam to earth, where
God communicates that he must demand from Omegarus painful sacrifices using
only eloquence and persuasion.
Omegarus and Syderia walk outside of
their palace after being plagued by images of bleeding specters and the sound
of groans, when they see an old man, who they view as a favorable omen sent
from heaven. The old man is actually Adam, who must conceal his true identity from
Omegarus and Syderia. Adam inquires the source of their sorrows, to which
Omegarus relates the images and sounds that have plagued him and Syderia. Adam
confirms that Omegarus has committed a fault that has agitated heaven, and he
was sent to teach him how to avoid it. He asks Omegarus to tell him the history
of his life and Omegarus begins to tell his story.
Omegarus’s birth was a phenomenon, due to
procreation being fruitless twenty years prior, and was nicknamed “Manchild.”
No other children, though, were born afterwards, and shortly after the death of
Omegarus’s parents, he decided to travel to Europe. Before leaving, he visited
his parents’ tomb where the Genius of earth, who is charged with the planet’s
preservation and care, appeared to him and warned him of earth’s impending
destruction. The Genius explained that he would live as long as the earth lived
and that only Omegarus, united by marriage with a specific woman, would result
in the production of children and delay the earth’s, mankind’s, and his own
destruction. Omegarus offered to promote the Genius’ intentions, and the Genius
told him to seek out a man named Idamas, because he knew what plans heaven had
for Omegarus.
The start of volume two, showing the large spacing and different fonts used
Upon entering the city that Idamas
inhabited, Omegarus encountered Policletes and Cephisa, who had been imparted
the knowledge of Omegarus’s fate. Policletes told Omegarus how he went to a
temple one day after feeling anxious about the earth’s decay and had a vision
of Omegarus as a child, who told him his anxieties would end when he laid eyes
on Omegarus’s future wife. Policletes charged this vision as the reason for
seeking out Omegarus’s wife. After this encounter, Omegarus continued searching
for Idamas, until he is stopped by a man named Palemos, who claimed that heaven
had bestowed the knowledge of the future to him and knew Idamas. He explained
how he was a guest at Idamas’s home the previous night, where he witnessed God
tell Idamas that the earth would be revived through Omegarus, who he is meant
to accompany in his journey. Policletes then took Omegarus to Idamas, and they
subsequently depart across the seas.
On their journey, Idamas related to
Omegarus the story of Ormus, who promised to bring his people into a new world
by taking control of the ocean. Initially, his people supported him, but
eventually, Ormus abandoned his plans due to his people claiming that his
actions were selfish and simply a way to have his name immortalized.
Afterwards, Ormus sought refuge in the City of the Sun in Brazil, where he was
greatly revered. Omegarus’s future wife was also in Brazil. Idamas’s narrative
was interrupted when they discovered that they had reached Brazil’s shores.
Omegarus, Idamas, and all of their companions were initially met by Eupolis and
the Americans who intended to kill all of them, since this was the law enforced
in Brazil to preserve the minimal food supply. Only a sign from heaven, which
was the gift of numerous animals from a neighboring village, caused Eupolis and
the Americans to change their intentions and lead them to Aglauros, who ruled
in the Brazils. Idamas told Aglauros of the display by heaven and convinced him
of Omegarus’s role as the reviver of the human race. He then told Aglauros that
he would name Omegarus’s wife, and Aglauros allowed Idamas to follow-through
with his plans, but imprisoned Omegarus in a tower so that he does not
accidentally choose the wrong woman.
After several weeks, Idamas told Aglauros
to order all the young American virgins to the plains of Azas where he would
name Omegarus’s wife. Meanwhile, Omegarus was visited in the tower by a
goddess, who painted an image of a perfect and beautiful woman. The following
night and onwards, the same woman visited him in the tower. Syderia also
experienced the same phenomena as Omegarus, but instead, she was visited
everyday by a young man. They fell in love with each other, which is the reason
why both Omegarus and Syderia wished to not partake in the plains of Azas.
Despite their reluctance, Omegarus and Syderia were required to go to Azas and
discovered that they were the ones they saw every day and night.
This page shows a typo corrected by a previous reader of the book, as well as the printer notes (B6) and a catchword (Wretched), both designed to help the printer or bookbinder assemble the pages
The preparations for their marriage were
immediately started, but Ormus, who was charged with uniting Omegarus and
Syderia, prophesized that their marriage would actually result in the
destruction of earth and mankind. He bestowed this knowledge onto Eupolis and a
few of the Americans. On the day of Omegarus and Syderia’s wedding, Eupolis
revealed this knowledge to everyone after Ormus and Idamas are killed by
presumably heaven’s wrath. He demanded that Omegarus return to Europe and
Syderia remain in Brazil.
That night, Forestan, Syderia’s father,
visited Omegarus and pleaded that he took Syderia with him to Europe, for
Eupolis and the Americans intended to kill both her and Omegarus to eliminate
the threat of the prophecy all together. Omegarus agreed, and him and Syderia
escaped to Europe the same night. In the following days, Omegarus was consumed
with his love for Syderia, which she refused to return in respect of her
father’s wishes to not marry Omegarus. One day, Omegarus wished to escape
Syderia’s presence and ended up in a delightful valley wherein he perceived
Syderia willingly accepting his love. Realizing it was an illusion, Omegarus
immediately rushed back to Syderia, but she still implored that they remained
separated. This caused further distress in Omegarus, who now shunned Syderia.
One day, Syderia is visited by her
father’s spirit, who revealed that he had died shortly after her departure. He
told her that heaven actually approved of her marriage to Omegarus and that his
love for her would be rekindled by two images located over the altar in the
temple. Syderia was moved by the second image, which depicted Eve and her
infant son, and presented herself under the two images so that Omegarus may
find her. Once he found her, Omegarus was moved by the first image of Eve and
Adam getting married. Shortly after, Omegarus and Syderia got married. With the
end of his narrative, Omegarus demands Adam to ask heaven whether or not their
union is favorable.
After consulting with heaven, Adam drags
Omegarus from the palace and reveals that Syderia is pregnant and their child
will be the father of an ill-fated generation of humans. Omegarus is unwilling
to believe Adam, as he is still unaware of his true identity. Adam cites all of
the bad events that have taken place since Omegarus and Syderia have been in
each other’s company, and Omegarus admits that he was in the wrong, but refuses
to allow Syderia’s death and the death of their child. This refusal causes Adam
to reveal his true identity to Omegarus as the “Father of Mankind,” and he
tells Omegarus the mission that God has entrusted to him. Although at first
unwilling to let Syderia die, Omegarus changes his mind when God shows him a
vision of the future where his future generations are at war with each other.
Omegarus signs a tree and carves that he is innocent in hopes that Syderia
reads it and officially parts ways with her. She ultimately perishes as a
result of his absence. The Almighty opens the graves of the dead and shields
Omegarus from the havoc the dead causes. The novel concludes with Omegarus
witnessing the end of the universe.
Bibliography
Cousin de Grainville,
Jean-Baptiste-François-Xavier. The Last Man, or Omegarus and Syderia, A
Romance in Futurity. London, R. Dutton, 1806.
In this 1837 three-volume novel, set in multiple countries across Europe, Shelley grapples with the issues of one man’s guilt and his attempt to resolve it by adopting a young orphan girl.
Material
History
The title page of Falkner, with Rebow’s signature in the upper right corner
Falkner is a lesser-known novel by the famed Mary Shelley. The version held in the Sadleir-Black Collection is the first edition of the text, which was published in 1837 and presents the novel in three volumes, which was a common means of publication at the time. While the spine lists the title as solely the word Falkner, the title page of the novel calls it Falkner: A Novel. We know that this was written by Mary Shelley; however, her full name is not stated in any of the three volumes. The title page in each volume simply says, “By the author of ‘Frankenstein;’ ‘The Last Man,’ &c.”. This is followed by a quote from “Rosalind and Helen” by Percy Shelley (1819). It reads,
“there stood
In record of a sweet sad story,
An altar, and a temple bright,
Circled by steps, and o’er the gate
Was sculptured, ‘To Fidelity!’”
Each volume in this set measures
approximately 12 centimeters by 19.4 centimeters and is approximately 2.3
centimeters deep. The volumes are half-bound with leather; this means that the
spine and corners are bound in leather, but the rest of the book is not. The
leather on the spine is decorated with gold gilding. The cover is covered with
blue marbled paper that is noticeably faded around the center on each volume.
The edges of the pages within the volumes are also marbled blue.
A bookplate from the personal library of John G. Rebow
The pages within these volumes are of
medium thickness; they are not thick, but they are also not extremely thin.
Volume I consists of 322 pages, volume II is 312 pages, and volume III is 319
pages, which add up to a total of 953 pages in all. While this sounds like a lengthy
read, it feels surprisingly short. There is a lot of white space on the pages,
and the margins are wide, which makes each page a quick, short read. The font
is not too large or too small, adding to the ease with which the novel can be
read. Some pages throughout these volumes have letters or letter/number
combinations at the bottom. These are printer notes, used to help the printers
print, fold, and order the pages correctly. It should also be noted that in the
back of Volume I, there is a front and back page of advertisements from the
publisher.
These particular volumes are interesting
because they each have a personal bookplate in the front, indicating that they
once belonged to John Gurdon Rebow. His signature can be found on the title
page of each book as well. The bookplates have call numbers, “D. 2.” written on
them that most likely indicate their shelving location in Rebow’s personal
library. This can be interpreted as the book being shelved on shelf 2 of
bookcase D.
Overall, these particular copies of the
volumes of Falkner are unique in their own ways. While clearly a
matching set in the color of their marbling, the volumes are worn to varying
degrees. The pages are slightly yellowed from time. The volumes clearly show
their age, particularly the first volume due to some tearing where the spine
was originally bound, but they seem to be in relatively nice condition for
books that are centuries old.
Textual
History
Falkner is the final novel written
by Mary Shelley before her death. Shelley was born in August 1797 and died in
February 1851. Her two most well-known works of her career are Frankenstein
and The Last Man, both of which are mentioned on the title page of Falkner.
A page of advertisements from Saunders and Otley, printed in the back of Falkner volume 1
Falkner was first published in 1837
by Saunders and Otley in London. This edition was published in three volumes
and was printed by Stevens and Pardon, Printers. In the same year, Falkner was
published in one volume by Harper & Brothers in New York. (The Sadleir-Black
Collection also houses a copy of this one-volume edition.) In addition to these
versions, Falkner is also contained in various collections of Mary
Shelley’s works, including The Novels and Collected Works of Mary Shelley
(1996), edited by Pamela Clemit. In 2017, Falkner was translated into an
Italian version, titled Il Segreti di Falkner, or Falkner’s Secret.
There are also online editions of this novel. The 1837 edition published by
Harper & Brothers has been archived online on the HathiTrust website.
Many advertisements and reviews of
Shelley’s Falkner can be found in periodicals published near the time of
its first publication. There is a brief advertisement combined with a brief
review that can be found in The Standard, in an issue from March 1837.
There is a shorter advertisement in an April 1837 issue of John Bull.
Overall, the reviews of Falkner seem to be positive. It is ambiguous
whether overall positivity is due to the actual success of Falkner or
Shelley’s fame from her prior works. The Metropolitan Magazine, in a
March 1837 issue, states, “The only fault that we can find with [Falkner]
… is, that its tone is too universally sombre” (67). The Literary Gazette
in London references “the talent of the writer” in its review of the novel
(66). A combination advertisement and review in The Athenæum gives a
short, concise summary of the plot of the novel without giving away the ending.
At the end of the summary, it explains, “we have thus imperfectly shadowed out
the mystery of the novel, but we must leave the unraveling of it to Mrs.
Shelley,—satisfied, that if you put yourself under her guidance, you will own
that your labour has not been in vain” (75). Many of the reviews show that the
novel was often well-received in its time, yet there are some reviews that are
not so kind to Shelley’s work. The Examiner contains a much less
favorable review of Falkner in February of 1837: “The story of Falkner,
faulty as it is, makes a small part of the book, which is swollen out with
tedious reflections, and prosing explanations of motives and feelings. It will
practice the reader in the art of skipping” (101).
Falkner has been discussed and
written about by scholars in regard to varying subjects. Scholars have
discussed Falkner both on its own and in the context of Shelley’s works,
beginning in the late twentieth century and leading into the twenty-first
century.
Narrative
Point of View
The story of Falkner is
predominantly recounted by an unnamed third-person narrator. The narration is
third-person omniscient as the narrator gives insight into the characters’ thoughts
and feelings. The narrator also withholds some information. Sentences largely
vary in length; some are short and brief, while others are lengthy and feel
quite winded. There are moments throughout the novel when the narrator also
invokes a first person plural perspective. In these instances, the narrator
switches to using a “we” pronoun, rather than the third-person perspective that
is used in the majority of the novel.
Sample Passage:
We are all apt to think that when we discard a motive we cure a fault, and foster the same error from a new cause with a safe conscience. Thus, even now, aching and sore from the tortures of remorse for past faults, Falkner indulged in the same propensity, which, apparently innocent in its commencement, had led to fatal results. He meditated doing rather what he wished, than what was strictly just. He did not look forward to the evils his own course involved, while he saw in disproportionate magnitude those to be brought about if he gave up his favourite project. What ills might arise to the orphan from his interweaving her fate with his — he, a criminal, in act, if not in intention — who might be called upon hereafter to answer for his deeds, and who at least must fly and hide himself — of this he thought not; while he determined, that, fostered and guarded by him, Elizabeth must be happy — and, under the tutelage of her relations, she would become the victim of hardhearted neglect. These ideas floated somewhat indistinctly in his mind — and it was half unconsciously that he was building them a fabric for the future, as deceitful as it was alluring. (Volume I, 78–79)
In this passage, the narrator begins
using the first person “we.” This allows a generalization—“We are all apt to
think”—that relates Falkner to people as a whole. As the narration moves from
the first person plural to third person, the opening generalization also paves
the way for the narrator’s access into Falkner’s mind. The narrator goes into
Falkner’s head and follows his train of thought. This passage is quite long,
but it is composed of a mere six sentences. The statement in the middle of the
passage, “What ills might arise … the victim of hardhearted neglect,” is one to
note because it is the longest sentence given. The third-person point of view
allows this sentence to feel akin to stream of consciousness. The dashes
between the different parts of the sentence break it up and make it possible to
see how each of Falkner’s thoughts connect to one another as he debates what to
do with his new charge. The thoughts that do not cross his mind can also be
learned through the narrator, in the sentence that notes, “of this he thought
not.”
Summary
The marbled cover of Falkner
Falkner
follows the story of a young girl named Elizabeth and begins in the town of
Treby. Struck with consumption, her father passes away, and her mother dies a
few short months later. Just before her death, Elizabeth’s mother begins
writing a letter to a woman named Alithea entreating her to take in her
daughter and explaining that she does not want Elizabeth to be taken in by her
late husband’s family. She dies before she can finish the letter, so it is
never sent. The landlord, Mrs. Baker, reads the letter, and takes in Elizabeth,
hoping that the girl’s family will one day come looking for her and will reward
Mrs. Baker for her kindness. While staying with Mrs. Baker, Elizabeth often
goes to her mother’s grave to play, study, and pray, all while feeling close to
her mother.
One day, a stranger by the name of John Falkner shows up in
Treby and spends a lot of time out of town by himself. He feels guilty because
he killed someone, so he goes to the graveyard to kill himself. He makes the
mistake of sitting on Elizabeth’s mother’s grave to kill himself, and the young
girl stops him. He worries for a young girl out by herself and opts to walk her
home. When he meets Mrs. Baker, she tells him Elizabeth’s story and shows him
the letter. He is struck by the realization that the woman he killed is the
same woman that Elizabeth’s mother was writing to. Upon realizing this, he
feels guilty and decides to take Elizabeth with him on his travels, so they
leave together for London. Elizabeth begins calling Falkner “papa.” Falkner
feels that Elizabeth will be happier with him than with her distant relations,
so he chooses to keep her with him. They meet a friend of Falkner’s who tells
them that Mr. Neville’s wife has run off with a mysterious lover, and that Mr.
Neville is going after them.
Elizabeth and Falkner balance each other’s personalities
well: he makes her feel safe, and she is always able to calm his temper. They
have been traveling together for years when Falkner decides to hire Miss
Jervis, who serves as a governess for Elizabeth. While in Baden, Germany, Elizabeth
meets a sad young man, Mr. Neville; his mother was the same Mrs. Neville that
ran away from her husband and eloped. Realizing that this boy is the son of
Alithea weakens Falkner. He feels guilty for what has become of the boy’s life.
He feels that he does not deserve to live, but he no longer wants to kill
himself; he decides to join the war in Greece with the goal of dying in battle
and wants Elizabeth to return to her family. Elizabeth refuses to leave him, so
she stays nearby, and they part from Miss Jervis. Elizabeth desires to save
Falkner, but she misses the Neville boy.
While a soldier in Greece, Falkner does not take care of
himself because he is still trying to die. He falls ill and is injured in
battle by a musketball. The surgeon recommends that he be taken to a place with
less dingy air, so they take him to a coastal town. Elizabeth stays by his side
until he begins to get better. Falkner decides that since she has saved his
life twice, he no longer wishes to die but wants to live for Elizabeth and her
happiness. He tells her that he has written of his crime so that she can learn
of it in his words after his death.
The pair travels to Italy and meets a group of English
people, including Lady Cecil, for whom Miss Jervis is the governess. Falkner
and Elizabeth then travel to a different part of Italy where they happen across
the young Mr. Neville, which causes Falkner more stress. When they arrive in
London, Elizabeth gets sick from the stress of worrying about Falkner. Hearing
of the girl’s illness, Lacy Cecil comes to invite her and Falkner to stay with
her for two months. Elizabeth goes, but Falkner declines; he promises to join
them later. Lady Cecil tells Elizabeth about her brother, Gerard, because she
believes they would get along quite well. Elizabeth returns to health while she
is staying with Lady Cecil and soon learns that Gerard is none other than her
beloved Mr. Neville. He begins to share the supposedly scandalous story of his
mother’s disappearance, but relinquishes that duty to Lady Cecil.
Lady Cecil tells Elizabeth the story of the young and
beautiful Alithea Neville. She was young when she married Boyvill—formerly Mr.
Neville—, but she did her wifely duties well. The two had a son and daughter
together; Alithea doted upon the boy, while her husband loved the little girl.
Sir Boyvill left for two months for business, and when he returned, his wife
and son were out of the house. A storm came that night, and the pair had not
returned. Upon searching, they found young Gerard ill in the road, and he said
that mamma had been taken off in a carriage with a man named Rupert. It was
determined that Alithea had been kidnapped or may be dead. Sir Boyvill,
however, believed his wife to have left willingly with the man; Gerard
disagreed. He believed that she was either dead or in prison. Sir Boyvill and
Alithea’s daughter died less than a year after her mother’s disappearance.
Boyvill felt that his wife’s affair had hurt his honor, so he filed for divorce
from the missing woman. This meant that Gerard had to testify against his
mother; he did but did not want to. The boy ran away to search for his mother,
but his father found out and brought him home. Gerard continued to believe his
mother was innocent but dead, so he was determined to find her grave. During
this time, Sir Boyvill met and married Lady Cecil’s mother.
Now, Gerard is still searching for the truth behind his
mother’s disappearance. He leaves Lady Cecil’s home when a man from America
claims to have knowledge of his mother. Lady Cecil believes his goal is futile,
but Elizabeth supports him in his search. When he comes back from his meeting
with Hoskins, the American, he announces that his mother is dead. Hoskins told
him about an Englishman named Osborne, who helped a man bury his lover twelve
years ago after she drowned in a river, so he wants to go to American to meet
Osborne. Elizabeth writes to Falkner about the situation, and he asks her to
come home at once.
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Falkner learns that Lady Cecil desires Gerard and Elizabeth
to marry. He believes this to be a good union, but he wants to distance himself
from Elizabeth and seek out her biological family. He finds them, but he learns
that her father brought dishonor to the family by leaving the church and
marrying a poor woman, so her grandfather does not want her. When Elizabeth
returns home to Falkner, he worries about what she will think of him
considering her new love for Gerard and wonders how much she has changed, but
she approaches him with the same love and admiration as before. Gerard comes to
say goodbye before he leaves for America, but Falkner tells him not to go
because the man he is looking for is standing in front of him. Falkner admits
that his name is Rupert Falkner and that he killed the boy’s mother. He gives
his written account of the event to Elizabeth and tells her to read it and
share it with Gerard.
Falkner’s story tells of his abusive father and his mother’s
death when he was a young boy. His father developed a drinking problem and
died, so he was taken in by his uncle. His parents called him Rupert, but his
uncle called him John, so he mostly went by the latter. He began to visit a
woman named Mrs. Rivers and her daughter, Alithea. Mrs. Rivers was distantly
related to his mother, and the two women grew up together, but they lost touch
when they got married. He spent a lot of time with Mrs. Rivers and her
daughter, and the former was always impressing upon him the need to be a good
person. In spite of this, Falkner had a temper at school and ended up getting
in a fight. He was sent off to the East Indian military college, where he
stayed for two years. Alithea wrote to him to let him know that her mother was
dying, so he ran away from school to visit and was present when Mrs. Rivers
passed. He desired to marry Alithea but was rejected by her father, so he
stayed in India as a soldier for ten years. He received word that his uncle and
cousin had both passed away, which meant their inheritance became his. When he
returned to England, he learned that Alithea’s father had died, but she married
in the time he was away. He met her husband, Mr. Neville—now Sir Boyvill—and
hated him.
A man by the name of Osborne knew of Falkner’s newly
acquired wealth and asked him to assist with his passage to America. Falkner
agreed and decided to go to America with him. Before they left, he met with
Alithea and learned that she did not love her husband, so he asked her to come
to America with them. She said no because she was married and had two children.
Falkner thought he could convince her to run away with him, and he asked
Osborne to drive the carriage and gave him the instruction not to stop driving
until they reached their destination. He went to her house, and walked with her
and her young son toward his carriage. Upon talking with Alithea, he changed
his mind and decided Alithea should stay with her family. Once they reached the
carriage, however, he swept her into it, and Osborne drove them away. She
started having convulsions and looked unwell, but Osborne followed his
instruction and would not stop. They reached the hut Falkner planned to stop
at, and Alithea appeared to recover. He laid her on a couch and stepped outside
with Osborne to ready the carriage to return her home with her family. He found
Alithea’s body shortly after, drowned in the river. He surmised she had woken
up and, in a moment of terror, attempted to cross the stream and return home.
The men buried her body, Osborne went off to America, and Falkner ended up in
Treby, where he met Elizabeth so long ago.
Elizabeth finishes reading this account and sends it and a
letter to Gerard so he can finally learn the truth of his mother’s
disappearance. She begs him to be kind to her father, for although he did bad
things, he did not kill his mother. Falkner, certain that Gerard will kill him
for his crimes, sends proof of Elizabeth’s birth to her family and tells her
that they will take her in soon.
Gerard reads Elizabeth’s letter, but he gives Falkner’s
written account to his father to read first. Believing that Falkner killed his
mother, Gerard contemplates killing the man, but worries about the pain it
would cause Elizabeth. Upon reading the letter and finding his wife innocent,
Sir Boyvill has Gerard promise that he will avenge her death. Boyvill then
leaves home, and Gerard follows soon after to find him. When he finds his
father in their old home of Dromore, he is with a group of men from town, and
they are uncovering Alithea’s remains. Sir Boyvill plans to have his wife’s
remains formally interred and wants a trial for Falkner.
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Elizabeth is out of the house when men come to escort
Falkner to prison, so she does not know what has happened. Lady Cecil arrives
at their home with another woman, who turns out to be Elizabeth’s aunt. The
ladies entreat Elizabeth to go home with them, but she insists on visiting her
father because she has just learned of his imprisonment. Her aunt offers her a
place in her home as a member of the family, but Elizabeth rejects the offer,
stating that she is not a part of their family. She is and will forever be
Elizabeth Falkner. Gerard returns and pleads with Elizabeth to go with her
family and not to go see Falkner. He admits his love to her, but even this is
not enough.
Falkner misses the girl while he is in prison, but he cannot
bring himself to write to her. He is surprised when Elizabeth shows up at the
prison, but her arrival makes him feel suddenly free. Elizabeth spends most of
her time with him in the prison; when they are not together, neither of them
feel happy or well. The grand jury decides that Falkner will go to trial for
his crimes, but the trial is postponed until they can get Osborne back to
England. Someone goes to get Osborne, but he has not yet arrived, and people
are getting impatient. During this time, Elizabeth, who has not heard much from
Gerard, catches him following and watching her. Falkner learns that Osborne is
refusing to come to his trial.
On learning this, Elizabeth wants to travel to America to
convince Osborne to come. Gerard decides to go in her place, creating more
tension with his father. Gerard finds Hoskins in an attempt to learn of
Osborne’s whereabouts and learns that he is already in England under a false
name. The appearance of Gerard scares Osborne away, and Gerard assumes the man
has boarded a ship to return to America. He plans to follow the man. Osborne
visits Falkner and Elizabeth in the prison under his false name. He does not
plan to testify in the trial and help Falkner, but Elizabeth changes his mind,
and he agrees to come forward. Elizabeth writes a letter to Gerard about the
situation, so he does not leave for America.
Gerard writes another letter to Elizabeth to let her know
that his father is dying. This means the trial may be delayed again. Sir
Boyvill soon dies. Gerard tells them that before he died, his father declared
that Falkner is actually innocent. Elizabeth cannot enter the trial with him,
so they are forced to separate for a while. The trial begins, and Gerard
declares in his testimony that Falkner is innocent. Elizabeth spends her time
at home crying and waiting for the results of the trial until her aunt comes to
visit and give her support.
Finally, Falkner is found to be innocent and is released.
Elizabeth’s aunt offers her home as a place for Falkner and Elizabeth to stay,
and they graciously accept. During this time, Elizabeth and Gerard miss each
other dearly, but neither knows how to approach the situation, due to their
circumstances and Elizabeth’s loyalty to Falkner. Gerard writes to the pair of
them, asking if Elizabeth can be his and stating that he will take her and
Falkner as a pair of sorts. Falkner writes back to say that if Gerard will come
and take his daughter, he will remove himself from their lives. Gerard does not
wish to tear Elizabeth from this man whom she loves, so he marries her and
makes the best amends he can with Falkner. They all stay together for the rest
of their time. Gerard and Elizabeth have a happy life and children of their
own, but Falkner never forgives himself for his faults.
Bibliography
“Falkner: A Novel.” The
Athenaeum, 484 (1837): 74–75.
“Falkner.” Examiner, 1515 (1837):
101.
“Falkner.” The Literary Gazette: A weekly journal of literature, science, and the fine arts. 1046 (1837): 66–68.
“Falkner.” The Metropolitan magazine,
1833–1840 18.71 (1837): 65–67.
John Bull
(London, England), Issue 853 (Monday, April 17, 1837): pg. 191. New
Readerships.
Shelley, Mary. Falkner: A Novel.
London, Saunders and Otley, 1837.
Shelley, Mary. Falkner: A Novel.
New York, Harper & Brothers, 1837. Print.
