Perhaps no writer has ever enjoyed in his lifetime so extensive a
popularity as the Author of Waverley. His reputation may be truly said
to be not only British, but European--and even this is too limited a
term. He has had the advantage of writing in a language used in
different hemispheres by highly civilized communities, and widely
diffused over the surface of the globe; and he has written at a period
when communication was facilitated by peace; while to the wonder of his
own countrymen, he has to an unexampled degree established an ascendency
over the tastes of foreign nations. His works have been sought by
foreigners with an avidity equalling, nay, almost exceeding, that with
which they have been received among us. The conflicting literary tastes
of France and Germany, which twenty years ago seemed diametrically
opposed, and hopelessly irreconcilable, have at length united in
admiration of him. In France he has effected a revolution in taste, and
given victory to the "Romantic School." He has had not only readers, but
imitators. Among Frenchmen, the author of "Cinq Mars" may be cited as a
tolerably successful one. Italy, in which what _we_ call "Novels" were
previously unknown, has been roused from its torpor, and has found a
worthy imitator of British talent in the author of the "Promessi Sposi."
Of the Waverley Novels, six editions have been published in Paris. Many
of them have been translated into French, German, Italian, and other
languages. To be read both on the banks of the Ganges and the Ohio; and
to be found, as is mentioned by Dr. Walsh, where perhaps no other
English book had ever come--on the very verge of civilization, on the
borders of Turkey--this is indeed a wide reign and a proud distinction;
but prouder still to be not only read, but to have subjugated, as it
were, and moulded the literary tastes of the civilized world. Voltaire
is the writer who, in his lifetime, has approached nearest to this
extent of popularity. Sovereigns courted and corresponded with him; his
own countrymen were enthusiastic in his praise; and so general was a
knowledge of the French language, that a large majority of the
well-educated throughout Europe, were familiar with his writings. But
much of this popularity was the popularity of partisanship. He served a
cause, and for such service, and not alone as the meed of genius, were
honours lavished upon him. The people of France, by whom he was almost
deified in his latter years, regarded him less as the literary marvel of
their land, than as the man once persecuted by despotism, and the ablest
assailant of those institutions which they were endeavouring to
undermine. But Voltaire, with all his popularity, has left impressed on
literature scarcely any distinguishable traces of his power. He
exhibited no marked originality of style--he founded no school--and as
for his imitators, where are they? To justify the admiration he excited,
one must consider not merely how well, but how much and how variously he
has written. With the exception of Voltaire, and perhaps of Lord Byron,
there is scarcely a writer whose popularity, while he lived, passed
beyond the precincts of his own country. This, until latterly, was
scarcely possible. Till near the middle of the eighteenth century, what
had been long called the "Republic of Letters" existed only in name. It
is not truly applicable but to the present period, when the transmission
of knowledge is rapid and easy, and no work of unquestionable genius can
excite much interest in any country, without the vibration being quickly
felt to the uttermost limits of the civilized world. How little this was
previously the case is evident from the fact, that numerous and
important as were the political relations of England with the continent,
and successfully as we had attended to the cultivation of letters, yet
it is scarcely more than a hundred years since we were first known on
the continent to have what might deserve to be called "a Literature."
Shakspeare, Dryden, and Pope, successively enjoyed in their own country
the highest popularity as writers. Of these, it may reasonably be
doubted whether the name of the first had been ever heard out of it. We
can find no evidence which shows that the second had a wider fame. Pope
was indeed better known; for literature had been made conspicuous
through honours paid to it by the statesmen of Queen Anne; and Pope was
the friend of a peer politically eminent, and was thought, in
conjunction with him, to have written a poem, of which, if the poetry
was disregarded, the opinions were not unacceptable to the
"philosophers" of the continent.
One of the points of view in which the Author of Waverley is first
presented to us is, as a delineator of human character. When we regard
him in this light, we are struck at once by the fertility of his
invention, and the force, novelty, and fidelity of his pictures. He
brings to our minds, not abstract beings, but breathing, acting,
speaking individuals. Then what variety! What originality! What numbers!
What a gallery has he set before us! No writer but Shakspeare ever
equalled him in this respect. Others may have equalled, perhaps
surpassed him, in the elaborate finishing of some single portrait
(witness the immortal Knight and Squire of Cervantes, Fielding's Adams,
and Goldsmith's Vicar); or may have displayed, with greater skill, the
morbid anatomy of human feeling--and our slighter foibles and finer
sensibilities have been more exquisitely touched by female hands--but
none save Shakspeare has ever contributed so largely, so valuably, to
our collection of characters;--of pictures so surprisingly original,
yet, once seen, admitted immediately to be conformable to Nature. Nay,
even his anomalous beings are felt to be generally reconcilable with our
code of probabilities; and, as has been said of the supernatural
creations of Shakspeare, we are impressed with the belief, that if such
beings did exist, they would be as he has represented them.--_Edinburgh
Review._
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