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The Abbé Prevost and the English Novel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

James R. Foster
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Extract

The true nature of the so-called Gothic novel has been misunderstood, and the problem of its origin rendered unnecessarily difficult in consequence of a classification which takes only one of the many features into account. The critics who have hit upon supernaturalism as the most distinctive and significant element, have done this in spite of the fact that a part of the body of the fiction they pretend to describe is plainly controlled by a rationalism that forbids anything more than a mere toying with the appearances of the marvellous. No procedure of the authors of such novels is more usual than the lifting of the mask when the mysterious scene has gone far enough to produce its emotional effect. To insist upon the usual classification is to render oneself incapable of differentiating between the Radcliffian novel on the one hand, and Otranto, the Monk and the German Schauerroman on the other.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , June 1927 , pp. 443 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1927

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References

1 R. Brimley Johnson, Women Novelists, London, 1918, p. 57, and Georges Meyer, Les Romans de Mrs. Radcliffe, Revue Germanique, V, 1909, p. 527, have protested against this misleading classification of the Radcliffian novel.

2 John Colin Dunlop, History of Prose Fiction, London, ed. 1911, II, p. 468, n. 2. “His (Prevost's) novels, indeed had a prodigious currency: they were spuriously imitated on all sides, sometimes, as in the case of Cleveland, continuations were published under his name: the demand of the book trade was for more of Prevost, as it had previously been for St. Evremond.”

3 Le Genre Romanesque en France . . . ., Paris, 1922, p. 44.

4 “Romantic Tendencies in the Novels of the Abbé Prevost,” P.M.L.A., XXVI, 1911, 324.

5 It is interesting to note that Mme. De Murat's Lutins du Chateau de Kernose, 1710, (reprinted in Bibliotheque des Romans, June, 1776) has one of the first descriptions of a ghost-haunted Gothic chateau.

6 Annee Litt., VIII, 1765, p. 193.

7 J. C. Dunlop, op. cit., II, p. 467. “The Abbé Prevost . . . . is . . . . distinguished for imagination He was the first who carried the terrors of tragedy into romance; and he has been termed the Crébillon of this species of composition, as he is chiefly anxious to appal the minds of his readers by the most terrifying and dismal representations.”

8 By J. and A. L. Aiken, who also wrote “An Enquiry into Those kinds of Distress which excite agreeable Sensations.” This essay shows signs of the authors, having read the preface of Comminge which was well-known in England.

9 P.M.L.A. XXVI, 329. Patrice is one of Prevost's most notable characters.

10 Cleveland.

11 G. L. Strachey in introd. to Mrs. Inchbald's A Simple Story ed. 1908, suggests that Manon Lescaut influenced this novel. There is some similarity between Manon and Miss Milner, Dorriforth and Des Grieux, Sanford and Tiberge, but the story taken as a whole cannot be said to resemble its model very closely. Manon influenced Charlotte Smith and her admirer Mrs. Opie in a more vital way.

12 Patrice (Doyen de Killerine) appears thus in Harriet Lee's Kruitzner, the German's Tale, 1801.

13 Gent. Mag. I, p. 179, 1731 lists a Cleveland in 2 vol. for 1731.

14 The first part of the French Cleveland was published in London.

15 This last is wrongly attributed to a Mr. Erskine by Halkett and Laing. 16 Dunlop, op. cit., p. 469 lists a Manon of 1841 and 1851.

17 I.e. T. Cooper and C. Davis. Charlotte Morgan, Novel of Manners, p. 214, lists the Doyen de Killerine as of 1715, citing Gay as her authority. This, of course is a mistake, but still stands in Dunlop op. cit., p. 469. Miss Morgan notes an English reprint of 1780.

18 See Henry Harrisse for trans. of L'Histoire d'une Grecque Moderne, Margaret d'A njou, etc.

19 The English title is Memoirs of a Man of Honor, etc., London, Printed for John Nource, 1747.

20 John M. Clapp, “The Bibliothèque des Romans,” P.M.L.A., XXV, p. 60, 1910, points out the large space taken by Prevost in this publication, and declares part, if not all, of the Bib. des Rom. was translated and published in England. The Brit. Mus. Cat. lists a 3-vol. trans. pub. in 1780.

21 John Murdoch's Tears of Sensibility, (1773) drawn from the Épreuves ed Sentiment, is the book read by the young lady in Coelebs in Search of a Wife (1808) and mentioned in Lydia Languish's list.

22 Two years previously D'Orville had drawn on the Homme de Qualité for his Mémoires d'Azema. See Ann. Litt. VI, p. 288, 1766, for synopsis and criticism of La Destinée.

23 II, 285, 1731.

24 Gent. Mag., XII, 95, 1742.

26 Ibid., XL, 454, 1770. This is a review of Barthe's La Jolie Femme, 1769. The reviewer, Crito, lists Prevost's first three novels and gives dates of the English translations, which he says were “received with applause.”

26 Progress of Romance, Dublin, I, 123, 1785. Cleveland . . . . “was at the time called a work of uncommon merit, but it will not bear a comparison with those that have been written since.” The last clause is not Miss Reeve's real belief, but rather the opinion of her idol, Mme. De Genlis, who was prejudiced. Both women borrowed from Prevost.

27 I.e., Mémoires d'un Homme de Qualité.

28 Preface to Polly Honeycombe, 1760. This also lists translations of the Homme de Qualité and Histoire d'une Grecque Moderne.

29 By Mrs. Woodsin, author of Auction, 1759, the History of Miss Harriot Watson, 1763, etc. Walter Raleigh, The English Novel, London, 1894, p. 190, mentions the History of Sally Sable, the History of Cornelia, 1750, the History of Charlotte Summers, 1750, and the History of Julia Mandeville, 1775 as imitations of Fielding, Richardson and Smollett. While Richardson's influence is discernible in most of these, there are few signs of Fielding or Smollett. Prevost and Marivaux are much more likely sources. The History of Cornelia, by Sarah Scott, and the anonymous Charlotte Summers, have borrowed from Marianne. The last has taken a few ideas from Tom Jones, but the spirit it totally different. Julia Mandeville is by Frances Brooke, and is modelled on the novels of Mme. Riccoboni.

30 Crit. Rev., V, 172, 1758: “Clean straw, a dark room, a thin diet and a total deprivation of ink and paper may perhaps make the author of this melancholy piece useful to society.”

31 See Ann. Litt. III, 58, 1767 for notice of the French translation.

32 See Ann. Litt. VI, 120, 1766 for notice of the French translation.

33 The French translation (see Ann. Litt. III, p. 217, 1765) is entitled Maria, ou les veritables Mémoires d'une dame illustre par son merit, traduites de l'anglois, 1765.

34 This may not be English. See Ann. Litt. VIII, 103, 1767 where it is listed as a translation. Some other novels influenced by Prevost are:

1. Margaretta, Countess of Rainford. See Crit. Rev. XXVIII, 370, 1769.

2. Memoirs of the Life of Parnese, a Spanish Lady. See Gent. Mag. XX, 575, 1750.

3. Memoirs of Miss D'Anille, or the Italian Female Philosopher. See Crit. Rev. XVIII, 160, 1764.

4. The Adventures of Miss Beverly, 1768.

5. The Maid of Quality, 1770.

6. The Reclaimed Prostitute; or, the Adventures of Amelia Sydney, 1772.

7. Adventures of the Count de B**, Wilkie, 1773.

35 E.g. Miss Dormer (Harriot Stuart, II, 73) declares that she was born to be miserable and must fulfil her destiny. Harriot Stuart has ‘been the sport of fortune ever since she was born.’ It is probable that Mrs. Lennox's Euphemie, 1790, is an adaptation of D'Arnaud's Euphemie.

36 Preface to Les Époux Malheureux. Mrs. Sheridan's novel, Sidney Bidulph, is colored by the pessimism of the darkest pages of Clarissa. The similarity in tone to Prevost led Servais Étienne (op. cit., p. 123) to take Prevost's translation of it for his original work. Several critics have declared that Sidney Bidulph belongs to the line of the Princesse de Clèves.

37 Julia Mandeville, 1763; Emily Montague, 1769; History of Miss West c. 1775; etc.

38 The usual division of the fiction of this period into novel of sentiment and novel of terror is inaccurate and confusing. The recent article by Edith Birkhead, Sentiment and Sensibility in the Eighteenth-Century Novel (Essays and Studies by Members of the Eng. Ass.) Oxford, XI, 92, 1925, advances this view. “The tale of terror, which arouses pity as well as fear, was a formidable rival of the pathetic story,” writes the author, adding rather illogically that, “Mrs. Radcliffe's romances retained the heroine with ‘an expression of pensive melancholy’ and a ‘smile softly clouded by sorrow’ and wrought on the nerves by superstitious horror.” But Mrs. Radcliffe and her predecessors retained much more of the Prevost novel than sentimental characterization.

39 Ann. Litt. III, 82, 1774.

40 Crit. Rev. XVIII, 50, 1764. “The publication of any work at this time in England composed of such rotten materials is a phenomenon we cannot account for.”

41 I do not mean to say that Otranto was not important: it ran several editions. The Hermitage, a British Story, which appeared four years before the Old English Baron, may be a direct imitation.

42 Longsword is a historical novel in the French style. The villain is somewhat like Gelin in Cleveland. It is based on Matthew Paris and Dugall.

43 The Count of Narbonne, 1781. Jephson's Braganza, 1775, claims to be “warm from Shakespeare's school”; however the climactic scene is from the Dona Diana story of the Homme de Qualité.

44 Annual Review, VI, pt. 2, p. 525, 1803.

45 Preface to the British Novelists, 1810. “A lady confessed that she could not get over a prejudice against the character of our Elizabeth arising from her cruelty to two imaginary daughters of Mary Queen of Scots who never existed but in the pages of a novel.”

45 Gent. Mag. LVI, 327, 1786. Ibid. LIII, 660, 1783, reviews the first vol.: “. . . . though the writer has a fruitful invention, we cannot say much in commendation of a work which abounds in intrigues, illegitimacy and love at first sight.”

47 Crit. Rev., LXI, 214, 1786.

48 Blackwood's, March 13, 1823.

49 P. Bernard de La Mare translated it in 1787 as Le Souterrain, ou Matilde, etc. 3 v. There was also a 4-vol. translation printed in London in 1793.

50 Corr. Litt. ed. Tourneaux, XIV, 545, Feb. 1787. “Ce roman (The Recess) est, dans la manière de l'abbé Prevost, une imitation de Cleveland: c'est l'histoire d'une fille de Marie Stuart et du duc de Norfolk, un tissu d'incidents romanesques, tristes, invraisemblables, mais dont l'enchainement a pourtant je ne sais quel charm qui peut attacher des lecteurs qui aiment ce genre d'ouvrage.”

51 Memoir prefixed to the Canterbury Tales, New York, 1857. This notes the popular demand for a sequel to the Recess.

52 Preface, Canterbury Tales, London, Colburn and Bentley, 1832, IV.

53 Cleveland tells of the misfortunes of Bridge and Cleveland who are persecuted by their father Cromwell. They are reared in a cave, sail to America and Saint Helena, everywhere suffering strange vicissitudes. Cleveland is the central figure; his love of Fanny Axminster, her abduction by Gelin, and the recovery of a daughter Cecilia are among the most important episodes. The Recess recounts the misfortunes of Eleonora and Matilda, daughters of Mary Queen of Scots. They are loved by Essex and Leicester and persecuted by Queen Elizabeth, who here takes the rôle of Cromwell in Cleveland. Williams, who tries to abduct Eleonora is Gelin, the cave where the sisters are reared Rumney-hole, etc., etc.

54 Servais Étienne, op. cit., p. 361.

55 Some of these are:

1. Maria, a Novel, Cadell, 1785. See Crit. Rev. LX, 233, 1785.

2. Saint Ruthin's Abbey. See Crit. Rev. LVI, 236, 1784.

3. The Apparition, a Tale by a Lady, Hookham. See Crit. Rev. LXV, 236, 1788.

4. Powis Castle, or the Anecdotes of an Ancient Family, Lane, 1788. See Mon. Rev. LXIX, 466, 1788.

5. Saint Julien's Abbey, Lane, 1788.

6. Louisa, or the Cottage on the Moore, by Mrs. Helm, 1787. Also in Bib. des Rom., Aug. 1787, p. 3.

7. The American Hunter, 1788. See Analyt. Rev., p. 475, 1788. This was reprinted as Fanny Vernon or the Forlorn Hope, a Tale of Woe.

8. The Omen, or Memoirs of Sir Henry Melville and Julia Eastbrook, 1785.

56 A second edition was printed in 1789.

57 Geschichte der Englischen Romantik, Halle, 1911, v. I, p. 195.

58 Walter Raleigh, The English Novel, 1894, p. 232, writes that as Walpole and Reeve were without background, Mrs. Radcliffe must have learned the employment of scenery from the poets. Concerning Mrs. Smith's Old Manor House, the only Smith novel Raleigh seems to know, he says, “. . . . although it displays a happy subordinate employment of scenery, it came too late to influence (Radcliffe).” Raleigh overlooks the Recess, Ethelinde, Celestina and Adèle et Théodore, all of which offered models of description consulted by Radcliffe. Georges Meyer, op. cit., V, 529, and Camillo von Klenze, Interpretation of Italy, Univ. of Chicago Press, show that she used Mrs. Piozzi, Dupaty, Swinburne, etc., also.

59 Id. p. 228. Raleigh voices the usual opinion when he says, “There is nothing in her (Mrs. Radcliffe's) books that she did not create.”

60 Mrs. Barbauld and her Contemporaries, London, 1877, p. 135.

61 Walter Raleigh, op. cit., p. 228, seems, like Beers, to think that sentimental characters are first found in Radcliffe's novels. “. . . . it is a testimony to the power of her art that her fancy first conceived a type of character that subsequently passed from art into life. The man that Byron tried to be was the invention of Mrs. Radcliffe.” It would be more exact to say that this character was the invention of Prevost since he started the line of Patrice, Saint Preux, Werther, René and Childe Harold. See the preface to Werner which shows the powerful effect that Kruitzner, a copy of Patrice, had on Byron. Raleigh takes the lines in Lara beginning, “That brow in furrowed lines had fixed at last” as referring to Schedoni (Italian) when it really refers to Kruitzner. The character Schedoni is in great part a copy of Lewis's Ambrosio.

62 Comminge was played for the first time this same year but had been printed long before. Cornelia's story in the S.R. is roughly that of Euphemie. There is also some similarity to a number of anti-clerical plays produced in Paris in 1790 and the following years, e.g. Les Victimes Cloitrees by Monvel (1791). One of the settings for Euphemie is a ghastly underground donjon strewn with skulls, etc.

63 Interpolated in Adèle et Théodore, 1782. The situation of the imprisoned mother in S.R. is also like that of Queen Mary in the Recess. The scene in which the mother sees her children but cannot speak to them is from the Recess, as well as the poisoning of the marquis. Mme. de Menon is Melo, just as Ferdinand and Julia resemble Eleonora and Matilda. The abbey and other traits are also from the same.

64 Op. cit., p. 511.

65 La Luc is from Mackenzie. Some of the scenery suggests La Bergère des Alpes. Louis La Motte resembles Montague Thorold of Celestina.

66 The wax figure is from Adèle et Théodore. The ghosts of Blangy, who prove to be smugglers, are from the Old Manor House. The recovery of Ludovico should be compared with the fight with banditti in Desmond.

67 This appeared serially in the Ladies' Magazine, beginning 1793, XXIV 136. It was published later by Robinson. It is signed G.M., is quite like Udolpho, and has a prophetic dream from the Homme de Qualité. Radcliffe's use of the dream is exactly like Prevost's.

68 Servais Étienne, op. cit., p. 77, n. I, believes that the renegade Italian priest Ubaldo in Yon's Femmes de Mérite, 1759 was her model. The anticlerical plays, and novels like Sanfroid et Eulalie also had the villain priest. D'Auchterre in Celestina, and the priest in Cumberland's Carmelite are also possible models.

69 Mme. Belcastro in Montalbert is Mme. Vivaldi of the Italian; the situation of the lovers in both novels is similar.