Amelia Opie. Mary Brunton
Every novel that touches upon the life of its generation naturally in
course of time becomes historical. These novels should be preserved, not
necessarily for their literary excellence, but because they bear the
imprint of an age. Such are the novels of Amelia Opie and Mary Brunton.
Mrs. Opie, then Miss Alderson, left her quiet home in Norwich to visit
London at the height of the furor occasioned by the French Revolution.
The literary circles in which she was received were discussing excitedly
the rights of men and women, and the beauties of life lived according to
the dictates of nature. Among these enthusiasts, Miss Alderson met Mary
Wollstonecraft, the author of _Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, and
esteemed her highly. Her own imagination did not, however, yield to the
intoxication of a life of perfect freedom, a dream which wrecked the
life of Mary Wollstonecraft.
There is no sadder biography than that of Mary Wollstonecraft. In Paris,
she met Gilbert Imlay, an American, with whom she fell in love. When he
wished to marry her, she refused to permit him to make her his wife,
because she had family debts to pay, and she was unwilling to have him
legally responsible for them. But she had read the books of Rousseau,
and had been deeply impressed with the thought that marriage is a
bondage, not needed by true love. She took the name of Imlay, and passed
for his wife, but the marriage was not sanctioned either by the church
or by law. After the birth of a daughter, Imlay deserted her. At first
she tried to commit suicide, and there is the sad picture of this
talented woman walking about in the drenching rain, and then throwing
herself from the bridge at Putney. She was rescued, and a little over a
year later became the wife of William Godwin.
The life-story of Mary Wollstonecraft suggested to Amelia Opie the novel
of _Adeline Mowbray, or the Mother and Daughter_, which was not written
until after the death of the original.
It is a tender pathetic story. Mrs. Mowbray, the mother of Adeline,
believed by her neighbours to be a genius, is interested in new theories
of education, and, while writing a book on that subject, occasionally
experiments with Adeline, although she neglects her for the most part.
In spite of this Adeline grows up beautiful and pure, totally ignorant
of the world and its wickedness. Her mother often quoted in her presence
the book of a Mr. Glenmurray, in which he proves marriage to be a
tyranny and a profanation of the sacred ties of love. Adeline is
captivated by the enthusiastic ideals of the young author. There is a
fine contrast in character and motive, where Adeline is entertaining Mr.
Glenmurray, the high-minded writer, and Sir Patrick O'Carrol, a man of
many gallantries. Sir Patrick is shocked to meet at her home the man
whose theories have banished him from respectable society. Adeline,
innocent of any low interpretation that may be put upon her words, makes
the frank avowal that, in her opinion, marriage is a shameless tie, and
that love and honour are all that should bind men and women. Sir Patrick
heartily agrees with her sentiments, and as a consequence accosts her
with a freedom repugnant to her, although she hardly understands its
import, while Glenmurray sits by gloomily, resolving to warn her in
private that the opinions she had expressed were better confined in the
present dark state of the public mind to a select and discriminating
circle. After they leave Adeline, Glenmurray, as the outcome of this
meeting, had the satisfaction of fighting a duel with Sir Patrick,
contrary to the tenets of his own book.
But when, to escape the advances of Sir Patrick, Adeline places herself
under the protection of Glenmurray, who ardently loves her, he urges her
to marry him. This she refuses to do, and encourages him to show the
world the truth and beauty of his teachings. Glenmurray, a man of
sensitive nature, suffers more than Adeline from the indignities she
constantly receives when she frankly says she is Mr. Glenmurray's
companion, not his wife. He takes her from place to place to avoid them,
for he realises that the world censures her, while it excuses him. But
Adeline is so happy in her love for him, and in her faith in his
teachings, that she endures every humiliation with the faith of the
early Christian martyrs. When he urges her, as he so often does, to
marry him, he reads in her eyes only grief that he will not gladly
suffer for what he believes to be right, and desists rather than pain
her. But his death is hastened by the harassing thought that her whole
future is blighted by his teachings. As he says to her just before his
death:
"Had not I, with the heedless vanity of youth, given to the world the
crude conceptions of four-and-twenty, you might at this moment have been
the idol of a respectable society; and I, equally respected, have been
the husband of your heart; while happiness would perhaps have kept that
fatal disease at bay, of which anxiety has facilitated the approach."
It is a beautiful love story, but the hero and heroine were of too fine
a fibre to stand alone against the world. After the death of Glenmurray,
the interest flags. The conclusion is weak, not at all worthy of the
beginning. Love of every variety has been the theme of poets and
novelists, but there is no love story more beautiful for its
self-sacrificing devotion to principle and to each other, than the few
pages of this novel which tell of the unsanctioned married life of the
high-minded idealist and his bride.
Mrs. Opie wrote _Simple Tales_ and _Tales of Real Life_. They are for
the most part pathetic stories in which unhappiness in the family circle
is caused either by undue sternness of a parent, the unfilial conduct of
a son or daughter, or a misunderstanding between husband and wife. The
feelings of the characters are often minutely described. A firm faith in
the underlying goodness of human nature is shown throughout all these
tales, and all teach love and forbearance.
* * * * *
Mary Brunton like Mrs. Opie wrote to improve the ethical ideals of her
generation. In the books of that day the theory was often advanced that
young men must sow their wild oats, and that men were more pleasing to
the ladies for a few vices. Her first novel, _Self-Control_, was written
to contradict this doctrine. In a letter to Joanna Baillie, Mrs. Brunton
wrote:
"I merely intended to show the power of the religious principle in
bestowing self-command, and to bear testimony against a maxim as immoral
as indelicate, that a reformed rake makes the best husband."
Laura, the heroine of _Self-Control_, ardently loved a man of rank and
fashion. When she learned of his amours, her love turned first to grief,
then to disgust. Stung by her abhorrence, he attempted to seduce her to
conquer her pride. The purity of the heroine triumphs. She meets a man
whom she esteems and afterwards marries. Many of Laura's adventures
border on the improbable, but her emotions are truthfully depicted.
This was a bolder novel than appears on the surface. Long before this
the wicked heroine had been banished from fiction. The leading lady must
be virtuous to keep the love of the hero. Richardson laid down that law
of the novel. Mary Brunton asserted the same rule for the hero, and
maintained that a gentleman, handsome, noble, accomplished, could not
retain the love of a pure woman, if he were not virtuous.
The book gave rise to heated discussions. Two gentlemen had a violent
dispute over it: one said it ought to be burnt by the common hangman;
the other, that it ought to be written in letters of gold. Beyond its
ethical import, the novel has no literary value.
The kind reception given to _Self-Control_ led the author to begin her
second novel, _Discipline_. This was intended to show how the mind must
be trained by suffering before it can hope for true enjoyment when
self-control is lacking. Mary Brunton had read Miss Edgeworth's
description of the Irish people with pleasure; so she planned to set
forth in this novel the manners of the Scottish Highlands and of the
Orkneys, where she herself had been born. But before it was finished,
_Waverley_ was published. There the Scottish Highlands stood forth on a
large canvas, distinct and truthful, and Mrs. Brunton realised at once
how weak her own attempts were compared with Scott's masterly work. Her
interest in her book flagged, although it was published in December of
that year. Some of the Highland scenes are interesting because
accurately described, and her account of a mad-house in Edinburgh is
said to be an exact representation of an asylum for the insane in that
city.
Mrs. Brunton died before her third novel, _Emmeline_, was finished. Her
husband, the Reverend Alexander Brunton, professor of Oriental
Languages at Edinburgh University, published the fragment of it with her
memoirs after her death. The aim of this novel was to show how little
chance of happiness there is when a divorced woman marries her seducer.
It only shows the inability of Emmeline to live down her past shame and
the unhappiness which follows the married pair.
In the novels of Mrs. Opie and Mary Brunton the standard of conduct is
the same as to-day. Both men and women are expected to lead upright
lives, with true regard for the happiness of those about them. In
_Self-Control_ the hero refuses to fight a duel with the villain who has
injured him, and forgives him with a true Christian spirit. To be sure,
there are still seductions, and the world of fashion is without a heart.
But conduct which the former generation would have regarded with a smile
is here denominated SIN, and that which they named Prudery shines forth
as VIRTUE. The problems of life which these novels discuss are the same,
as we have said, which agitate the world to-day.