Complete Fictional Works of Washington Irving (Illustrated) (203 page)
Read Complete Fictional Works of Washington Irving (Illustrated) Online
Authors: Washington Irving
THE TUILERIES AND WINDSOR CASTLE
WOLFERT WEBBER; OR, GOLDEN DREAMS.
YUSEF ABUL HAGIG. THE FINISHER OF THE ALHAMBRA.
8 Argyle Street, Soho — Irving’s London home
Irving’s first published book is a collection of nine observational letters that first appeared in
New York Morning Chronicle
, a political-leaning newspaper, edited by the author’s brother. The letters were printed at irregular intervals until April 23, 1803, and they satirically discuss such themes as marriage, manners, dress, and culture of early 19th century New York. The genre of observational letters dates as far back as the 1720s, when Benjamin Franklin wrote similar letters to the New-England Courant under the name of Silence Dogood. These works were to become a staple feature of colonial newspapers, usually involving a bachelor observer, who comments his opinions on public truths and follies typical of the time.
Irving’s first letter appeared in the November 15, 1802, mocking the current trends in dress and fashion, particularly criticising young men and their “most studied carelessness, and almost slovenliness of dress,” who are more interested in themselves than in the unfortunate “belle who has to undergo the fatigue of dragging along this sluggish animal.”
The letters were well-received in New York, with the public enjoying them so much that the Chronicle co-publisher Aaron Burr was impressed enough to send copies of the first five letters to his daughter Theodosia — a rare occurrence for this fastidious publisher. However, Irving would later look back on the letters as “crude and boyish” and he was greatly alarmed when they were reprinted in London, following his great success
The Sketch Book
. For many years after this, Irving refused to reprint the letters. Nevertheless, they are an amusing and light-hearted read, providing entertaining sketches of old New York life and the vanities of its citizens.
Irving as a young man
CONTENTS
Aaron Burr, Jr. (1756–1836) was the third Vice President of the United States under President Thomas Jefferson, as well as Irving’s first publisher.
An early edition of the New York Morning Chronicle
WHEN a writer has acquired great renown by his productions, and has established his reputation as a man of genius, we naturally feel a curiosity to become acquainted not only with his personal but his intellectual history. We like to trace up the current of his mind to its first tricklings, as it were, and to listen to its prattlings among the pebbles, as it is hurrying along to its broader and bolder channel.
The author of the Sketch Book has become more distinguished than perhaps any other American writer; and even England has been constrained to acknowledge that his productions are among the most elegant specimens of English composition.
In the year 1802, Mr. Irving first attracted public notice by publishing in the Morning Chronicle a series of sportive pieces under the signature of
Jonathan Oldstyle.
To the new generation of readers produced by the lapse of twenty-two years, we trust that their republication will be peculiarly acceptable.
It is in these specimens that we may perceive the germ of that genius which soon after blossomed in Salmagundi, shot forth in wild luxuriance in Knickerbocker, and finally displayed its rich fruit in the Sketch Book, and Bracebridge Hall.
A
brief account of the life and writings o! Mr. Irving will, perhaps, not be deemed superfluous by the readers of this little publication.
The city of New York has the honour of being the birthplace of this distinguished author, who has given such
eclat
to the literary reputation of our country. He was a student in Columbia College, in the year 1800, but by reason of his infirm health, was under the necessity of relinquishing his classical studies, and of devoting his attention to pursuits less compulsory and severe. By way of recreation, he was advised to take lessons in drawing; and for this purpose he put himself under the tuition of a gentleman, whose Drawing Academy still maintains a high reputation in our city. What proficiency he made in this art, we have not the means of ascertaining. It is presumable, however, that this kind of sketching was not that which best accorded with his genius, nor probably consisted with his health; for he soon afterwards began to turn his thoughts to travel, and a voyage across the Atlantic was recommended by his physician, and encouraged by his kindred and friends. In the interim, however, and indeed before this determination had been taken, his elder brother, now in England, was editing a newspaper in this city; and although a political paper, and devoted to the views and interests of a party, yet some portions of its columns were occasionally embellished “by hands unseen,” with the flowers of poetry and literature, and sometimes enlivened by flashes of wit and humour. An inviting opportunity here presented itself, for trying the scarcely fledged wings of our juvenile author: and a twofold benefit could be conferred — credit to himself, and relief to the careworn and harassed editor, whose political conflicts did not allow him leisure to woo the muses to his aid; and he knew, that without some contributions from the Pierian district, his paper, even in this “banknote-world,” would soon decline, for the want of contributions of a more substantial quality.
It was at this period, that the light pieces now republished, first made their appearance. They attracted a good deal of notice, and the Morning Chronicle was eagerly sought for by the lovers of genuine native humour. Mr. Irving then embarked for France, from whence he proceeded to Italy, and went as far as Rome and Naples. His travels and residence abroad enabled him to entertain his friends at home with the most amusing accounts of his various adventures, and the most picturesque descriptions of every thing that presented itself to his ready and lively apprehension. His letters are, no doubt, yet to be found within the circle of his relatives and correspondents, and the hope may be indulged, that they will not suffer them to be lost.
Our author returned to America, we believe, some time in the year 1805 or 1806; and his health being much improved, he commenced the study of the law, in the office of an eminent counsellor in New York. Coke, however, “delighted him not — nor Blackstone neither.” What progress he made in his juridical pursuits, we know not; but that he read more than he understood, and understood more than he remembered, there can be but little doubt.
In the year 1807, he amused the town with his
Salmagundi,
which was published in numbers, commencing in January, and continuing till the beginning of the next year. Several of the numbers are ascribed to a gentleman who has since distinguished himself both in poetry and prose, and whose copious, chaste, and vigorous style, as well as his satirical wit, sarcastic humour, and biting irony, render all his attempts at concealment unavailing. The poetical pieces which embellish Salmagundi, are well known to be the production of the eldest brother of our author, and who is since deceased. Salmagundi is now publishing in London, as Knickerbocker’s History has already been; for such is Mr. Irving’s reputation and popularity in England, that John Bull is now quite willing to ask for, and to read, an American book; though, according to a learned coxcomb, (critic, we meant to say,) in the Edinburgh Review a few years ago, such a thing was then never thought of.
In the year 1810, an edition of Campbell s Poems being about to be published in Philadelphia, Mr. Irving was applied to for a biographical sketch of that sweet and sublime bard. This task he executed in a most masterly manner; and the forty pages of which it consists, form, in our humble opinion, the most beautiful and finished piece of serious composition that ever came from his pen. In point of style, refined sentiment, and generous and spirited effusion, we venture to assert, that it is not surpassed by any piece of prose in the English language.
The
History of New York, by Deidrich Knickerbocker,
was his next production; and in this he seems to have exerted all his powers of good-natured burlesque, playful wit, and facetious fancy. He prepared himself for this work by a course of diligent research into the antiquities of New Amsterdam; and the libraries of New York and Philadelphia were ransacked for materials, or rather subjects, for his wizard pencil. It is a broad caricature from beginning to end; and, like a magic lantern, exhibits the most fantastic combinations, the most ludicrous distortions, and unlicensed exaggerations, that a mirthful fancy can create. Though sport to many, it was not so to all; and some of the descendants of our Dutch aborigines were not a little offended at the liberty which the author has taken with the names and manners of those whom they had been accustomed to remember with reverence and respect. A gentleman whose name bespeaks his Dutch lineage, and whose talents entitle his observations to very high regard, in his Discourse before the New York Historical Society in 1818, makes the following animadversions on the subject, with peculiar elegance and feeling: —
“It is more ‘in sorrow than in anger,’ that I feel myself compelled to add to these gross instances of national injustice, a recent work of a writer of our own, who is justly considered one of the brightest ornaments of American literature. I allude to the burlesque history of New York, in which it is painful to see a mind, as admirable for its exquisite perception of the beautiful, as it is for its quick sense of the ridiculous, wasting the riches of its fancy on au ungrateful theme, and its exuberant humour in a coarse caricature.
“This writer has not yet fulfilled all the promise he has given to his country. It is his duty, because it is in his power, to brush away the pretenders who may at any time infest her society, her science, or her politics; or if he aspires, as I trust that he does, to strains of a higher mood, the deeds of his countrymen, and the undescribed beauties of his native land, afford him many a rich subject, and he may deck the altar of his country’s glory with the garlands of his taste and fancy — .
“How dangerous a gift is the power of ridicule! It is potent to unmask the pretender, and to brand the hypocrite; yet how often has it dissipated those gay illusions which beguile the rough path of life — how often has it chilled the glow of genius and invention — how often, at its dread presence, have the honest boasts of patriotism, the warm expression of piety, the generous purpose of beneficence, faltered on the lips, and died away in the heart.” —
About the year 1812, Mr. Irving went to England, and became a partner in a commercial concern, of which two of his brothers were also partners, and one of whom remained in this country. The correspondence department, which was extensive, was allotted to the literary member of the house; and the business of the establishment had become so profitable, that each one, soon after the peace of 1815, had a prospect of sharing a handsome dividend. Our author enjoyed the expectation of retiring from the irksome drudgery of the counting-house to the sweets of literary leisure, with a competence for life, when the failure of a commercial adventure, in a moment convinced him of the vanity and delusiveness of human anticipations, and reduced him to a state of almost life-loathing despondency. What a trial for a sensitive mind — and yet for his credit and his fame what a fortunate reverse! His pen and his ledger are exchanged for his pencil and his sketch-book; and Geoffrey’s drafts are more highly honoured, than those of any merchant in the land.
