PEOPLE IN NOVELS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 265, 1 August 1908, Page 12

PEOPLE IN NOVELS

Tho question of the relation of the fictitious character, to the real recurs in literature, and in many instances tho relation is,remarkably direct. Indeed, it is. perhaps tho exception for an ordinary novelist to begin with a mere ■ a priori conception of what a character might bo, and then so clotho it with' detail as to ,mako the result, a convincing picture. In such a creation 'as Scott's Sir Mungo Malagroivther we seem to bo . pretty near such a case. The whole of that character looks as if it had bocn constructed so as to be in keeping with tho' initial fact that Sir Mungo had beon "whipping boy" to King James tho Sixth; The office was itself ludicrous, and ludicrous from the namo onward must the rest of the character needs bo to correspond. He had grotesque and irregular features and a highpitched voice, in order that his grimaces aid outcry when chastised might strike the greater terror into tho Royal heart. Ho had lost threo fingers in a duel and -was lamo in consequence of a castigation, while ' his caustic tongue, with tho poison of asps beneath it, is as if ho had- been soured by too much and undeserved whipping. Nevertheless Scott himself assures us that even here he was helped, to. certain of tho attributes of his character by tho concrete case of a " most worthy and rcspcctablo baronet who used to bo met with in Edinburgh society about twonty-five or thirty years ago." ! On the other hand, the method of cortain novelists seoms to be to take a singlo facet of tho character of someone , they know, group round it other traits collected elsowhero, and then substantiate and personify the whole. Thoy givo it logs to stand on and a mouth to talk with; they put a hat on its head and a canc in its hand, and then—who shall say that Harold Skimpolo is Loigli Hunt? Others again, transfer tho charactor bodily. That was James Payn's practice. In 0110 of thoso delightful volumes in which ho admits us into 'his literary workshop he tells us that he found most of his characters among his acquaintances. Tho person represented, ho assures ns, never recognises his own portrait. But then his friends do, so sundry oxpedients to put people off tho scent havo to bo adopted. If tho original is tall, ho is pictured as short; if dark, as.,fair. Indeed, I'ayii recommends the keoping of a list of dramatis personac, with the real names placed opposite tho fictitious ones, to keep the novelist in mind, as lie .works..; . Sometimes when tho original is a jiublic person a writer of-fiction will transfer him to his page without much disguise, and much to

the gratification of the reader. Who is not charmed to meet in Meredith, Leslie Stephen in the "Egoist," Mrs; Norton in "Diana," Lassallo in the " Tragic Comedians," and Robert Louis Stevenson in " The Amazing Marriage"? Alphonse Daudet's practice in such cases was loss genial. "It was a constant and growing tendency," says Saintsbury, speaking in a recent book of Daudot, "to drag in Royal persons, and especially Royal persons in scandalous aspects. Horny himself, and other not too immaculate members of the Imperial entourage, appeared in 'Lo Nabab 1 ; the characters of ' Lcs R-ois en Exil' wero as obviously divers ill-starred and not always well-behaved refugoes, from the King and Queen of Naples downwards. Numa Roumestan was Gambetta almost without concealment ; the sordid hero and heroine of ' L'lmmortol' wero fully identified with an academic personage of a former generation and his wife."—" Manchester Guardian."