HIS FIRST NOVEL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13748, 10 September 1908, Page 3

HIS FIRST NOVEL.

HOW HALL CAINE SUCCEEDED.

The latest instalment of Mr Hall Caine's autobiography to hand contains an account of the writing of his first novel. As an example of the value of taking great pains in writing fiction, the chapter is rather remarkable. Mr Hall Came, after doing well in London as a critic, determined to retire to the Isle of Wight, live on his savings, and write a novel, it being his conviction that a critic could not do good original work. He took as the basis of his novel a ghastly old Cumberland legend about the loss of a corpse. The coffined body was placed on the back of a horse for conveyance to the burial ground, and the horse bolted on the way and was lost in the mountains. Starting the book was agony to him. He wrote a first chapter in the explanatory manner of Scott, tossed it aside, and tried an alehouse scene, with no more satisfaction. It was a fortnight before he got fairly started, and he thinks he must have written the first half-volume four times. When he took the first two volumes to London, a friend made a suggestion which necessitated the re-writ-ing of half the manuscript. The finished novel was shown to Lovell, another friend, whose verdict was that it wanted sub-editing, so Mr Hall Came rewrote every page carefully. "Splendid," was the verdict on the revised version, followed by an offer of £100 for the serial rights. Lovell offered] one unfavourable criticism. "The death of your hero will never do," he said. "If you kill Ralph, you'll kill your book. What's the good? Take no more than the public will give you to begin with, and by and by they'll take what you give them." This went much against the «rain, for to the author the death of the hero was "the natural sequel to the story; the only end that gave meaning, and intention, and logic to its motif. I had a strong predisposition towards a tragic climax in a serious story. To close a narrative of disastrous events with a happy ending, it always seemed necessary to turn every incident into accident. That was like laughing at the reader." However, Lovell's practical advice was taken and the, hero was left alive at the end.