R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

Critics and Criticism in the 'Seventies 201sink into the semi-savage state. De Foe really describes a man inprison, not in solitary confinement.... He cannot tire us withdetails, for all the details of such a story are interesting; it ismade up of petty incidents, as much as the life of a prisoner reducedto taming flies, or making saws out of penknives. The islanddoes as well as the Bastille for making trifles valuable to the suffererand to us.... It is one of the exceptional cases in which the poeticalaspect of a position is brought out best by the most prosaicaccuracy of detail; and we imagine that Robinson Crusoe's island,with all his small household torments, will always be more impressivethan the more gorgeously coloured island of Enoch Arden.That last touch is very characteristic of Stephen, whosemotto later, as first editor of the Dictionary of NationalBiography, was' No flowers by request '. In lighter vein ishis exposition of the results of Richardson's epistolarymethod, as illustrated by the ninety-six pages of letterswritten by Miss Byron, the object of Sir Charles Grandison'saffections, in three days:We discover what was Sir Charles Grandison's relation at aparticular time to a certain Italian lady, Clementina. We are toldexactly what view he took of his own position; what view Clementinatook of it; what Miss Byron had to say to Sir Charles on thesubject, and what advice her relations bestowed upon Miss Byron.Then we have all the sentiments of Sir Charles Grandison's sisters,and of his brothers-in-law, and of his reverend old tutor; and thesentiments of all the lady Clementina's family, and the incidentalremarks of a number of subordinate actors. In short we see thecharacters all round, in all their relations to each other, in everypossible variation and permutation.But in spite of such sedate banter, Stephen shows awhole-hearted appreciation of Richardson's greatness asa novelist, though his admiration for Clarissa may seema trifle tepid to those who like myself have a love for herjust this side of idolatry. But in speaking of the ' infusionof feminine character' in Richardson's personality Stephenmakes a prophecy which has been curiously falsified:A novelist should have the delicate perception, the sensibilityto emotion, and the interest in small details, which women exhibitin perfection. Indeed this is so true that there seems to be atpresent some probability that the art of novel-writing will pass