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

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

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40 Hugh Walpole'The fact is,' said he, 'people are so k<strong>in</strong>d to me that I scarcelyever am allowed to d<strong>in</strong>e at my lodg<strong>in</strong>gs; and you know <strong>the</strong> salmonshould be cooked at once.'That gigantic salmon that has passed through <strong>the</strong>hands of <strong>the</strong> landlady and Cous<strong>in</strong> Janet and ' should becooked at once' is <strong>the</strong> hero of most of William Black'snovels.There rema<strong>in</strong>s Anthony Trollope. I will say little ofhim here partly because so much has recently beenwritten about him and partly because I do not th<strong>in</strong>k tha<strong>the</strong> is a typical 'seventies novelist. He published <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>se<strong>year</strong>s some of his very best novels—The Vicar of Bullhamptonand The Prime M<strong>in</strong>ister among o<strong>the</strong>rs. Heshowed also <strong>in</strong> The Way We Live Now and An Eye for anEye and Ayala's Angel a consciousness of <strong>the</strong> new colourand psychology that <strong>was</strong> com<strong>in</strong>g, but <strong>the</strong> real k<strong>in</strong>gdomthat he conquered <strong>was</strong> an earlier one, and, <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 'Barchester'stories at any rate he <strong>was</strong> much more than a'period' novelist.I have tried briefly and I fear very <strong>in</strong>adequately toform some picture of <strong>the</strong> novel <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 'seventies as ittypically <strong>was</strong>. Now I should like to turn for a momentto <strong>the</strong> forces on <strong>the</strong> opposite side, <strong>the</strong> forces that were,<strong>in</strong> one fashion or ano<strong>the</strong>r, to effect <strong>the</strong> magic transmutationfrom <strong>the</strong> homely exuberant lusty '<strong>in</strong>nocent' to <strong>the</strong>polished, sh<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g, sophisticated citizen of all <strong>the</strong> worldthat we now know.First <strong>the</strong> satires. There <strong>was</strong> Laurence Oliphant and hisPiccadilly, Butler's Erewhon and a delightful work nowquite forgotten but most worthy of re-issue, <strong>the</strong> gay andferocious G<strong>in</strong>x's Baby.Whe<strong>the</strong>r Laurence Oliphant <strong>was</strong> truly a novelist ornot I do not know; I am sure that I have no ability todef<strong>in</strong>e Piccadilly. It is a book sui generis, and as it hasjust been very handsomely republished it can be <strong>in</strong> every-

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