A Tale: WITH SKETCHES FROM LIFE AND CRITICAL ESSAY S. BY CHARLES WESTERTON. LONDON CHARLES WESTERTON, PUBLISHER, HYDE PARK CORNER, 1859. [The right of Translation is reserved.] 249.4.265. PREFACE. Emily Morton was written by me many years ago as an experiment. I had often been wearied in reading works of Fiction, containing tedious descriptions of the personal appearance of the characters as they came on the It occurred to me that all these parto me tha ticulars might be developed incidentally in the progress of the story. This tale is the result. scene. "Having received, with the MS. of Mr. Westerton's "Emily Morton," observes the Editor of the "Meteor,” a monthly magazine commenced some years since, "a written opinion of it by Mr. Ollier; and, as that opinion was so favourable as to induce us to mark it for insertion in our first Number, the circumstance called to our mind several similar acts of kindness which that gentleman had done for some who have since risen to high positions as Authors, when struggling under the many disadvantages of not being known. At that particular period in a writer's career, the approbation of one who has attained the reputation which Mr. Ollier has, is often the cause of deciding him in a course of action for life. In addition to the high opinion expressed of him by Mr. G. P. R James, in his "Arabella Stewart," and by Mr. Ainsworth, in his "Magazine," we quote that of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, from the preface to his "Pelham;" which bears out our assertion in the strongest manner :- "It may serve, perhaps, to stimulate the courage, and sustain the hopes of others to observe that the 'Reader,' to whom the MS. was submitted by the Publisher, pronounced the most unfavourable and damning opinion upon its chances of success -an opinion fortunately reversed by Mr. Ollier, the able and ingenious Author of 'Inesilla,' to whom it was then referred. Such, then, was the history of a publication which, if not actually my first, was the one whose fate was to decide me whether to conclude or continue my attempts as an Author." COPY OF A LETTER FROM CHARLES OLLIER, ESQ. "Dear Sir, Hayes Place, Lisson Grove. "I have read with more than ordinary interest your story of Emily Morton,' of which the characters and incidents appear to me to be unusually striking and impressive. You have made ample amends for the simplicity of the plot by the rare passion and pathos which you have thrown over it. I know scarcely anything more effective and affecting than the heroine's character and sorrows, One resigns oneself to a tearful sympathy with her until our condolence is startled into terror by the awful catastrophe. Your story deserves to rank side by side with the ‘Julia de Roubigné' of Mackenzie. "Wishing you deserved success, 66 I remain, Dear Sir, "Yours, very truly, "CHARLES OLLIER." "Mr. C. Westerton." Captain Ackerly's Lecture," and "The Sham Fight," are faithful descriptions of what came under my own observation. "Sir E. B. Lytton and his Principles of Art in Fiction," appeared in a series of three articles in one of the weekly newspapers some years ago. The other papers speak for themselves. C. W. |