534 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[MAY, 



it is said, in the course of the season. The 

 proprietors are coupling the panoramic ex- 

 hibition with some extraordinary out-of- 

 door scenes, which we endeavoured to com- 

 prehend in the account given by J. B. and 

 T. H., but failed, or our readers should 

 have had the benefit of the attempt. 



George Godfrey. 3 vols. \2rno. ; 1828. 

 For some time it was an even chance 

 with us whether we could get on repulsed 

 as we were by the air of levity, which 

 seemed to mock at all realities the quaint, 

 abrupt, and uneasy phraseology, which ob- 

 viously mistook the outre for the piquant 

 and the determination to be smart and hu- 

 mourous, even if it must be at the expense 

 of all respect for common feelings and deco- 

 rums, hallowed by custom. These things 

 revolted us, but persevering a duty our 

 office imposes on us we were soon amply 

 repaid by the growing spirit of the narra- 

 tive ; and the introduction of scenes, new 

 to the novel sphere, described with vivacity 

 and intelligence, arrested our attention, and 

 fixed it to the end. It will be called, we 

 suppose, a satire, because it exhibits scenes 

 and characters that have recently had their 

 prototypes in the living world ; and the 

 personality, if such it is worth calling, is so 

 completely undisguised, that every body will 

 at once apply it. 



George Godfrey's story begins with his 

 childhood. The father dies early, and the 

 mother is left in very indifferent circum- 

 stances, with one boy, whom she indulges 

 to excess, and makes him, of course, capri- 

 cious and self-willed. Though long incon- 

 solable, the widow is at length comforted by 

 a marriage with the family apothecary, v/ho, 

 finding her property proving at last nothing 

 at all, treats her with neglect, and the boy 

 with severity but cures him of his hu- 

 mours. He accordingly gets a sort of ram- 

 bling and irregular education, which fits 

 him for neither one thing nor another ; nor 

 are any steps taken to qualify him for gain- 

 ing his own livelihood. By dint of carry- 

 ing medicines to the patients, he by de- 

 grees makes acquaintance, and eventually 

 gets an offer of employment from an auc- 

 tioneer, who overhears some loyal senti- 

 ments of his, which, corresponding exactly 

 with his own stock-jobbing interests, excites 

 his admiration, and prompts him to make 

 the offer. But while on the point of enter- 

 ing upon his new office, he has the good 

 luck to protect a young lady, separated from 

 her duenna in a crowd, and in the service 

 is roughly handled by a sprig of nobility 

 and his friend handed over to a constable, 

 and brought up before the police. His 

 lordship's story is of course listened to with 

 all courtesy and deference by the chief of 

 the bench ; and George, in a torn coat, 

 covered with mud, and none to back him, 

 in spite of an eloquent defence interrupted 

 at every sentence is ordered to find bail, 

 which is on the spot offered by a gentleman, 



who afterwards proves to be the guardian of 

 the young lady he had recently protected. 

 He accompanies the gentleman home, is 

 treated with a new suit, and a degree of 

 intercourse follows, which leads to important 

 results. 



He now joins the auctioneer, and offi- 

 ciates as assistant clerk. The character of 

 the auctioneer is shewn up at great length 

 and will probably be recognized by some, 

 though we know nothing of him. An op- 

 portunity is thus given of exhibiting the 

 tricks of the profession the manoeuvres for 

 promoting sales the prompting and placing 

 mock bidders, &c. In the course of his 

 duty, he attends the sale of some property 

 belonging to a Mr. Haversham, who had 

 been, some years before, tried for the sup- 

 posed murder of his wife, but acquitted ; 

 and who, in disgust, secluded himself within 

 his own walls, and amused his solitude by 

 building a lofty tower the former proprie- 

 tor of Fonthill, in short, scarcely disguised, 

 except that his eccentricities and seclusion 

 are ascribed to other causes. Godfrey and 

 his brother clerk resolve to get a glimpse of 

 the "murderer in his den." They succeed 

 in getting into the priory gardens are 

 seized conducted to the house receive a 

 sharp lecture from the owner and a mag- 

 nificent supper and are then dismissed. 



Returning to town, Godfrey's employer 

 finds him new occupation. The auctioneer, 

 as has been hinted, was a jobber in the 

 funds, and upon some occasion losing large 

 sums by the neglect or the treachery of his 

 broker, he resolves to employ Godfrey to 

 watch the turns of the market, and by thus 

 giving his broker timely notice of his wishes, 

 to leave him without excuse. The Stock 

 Exchange, and Capel-court, and all the 

 blackguardism and rascality of these dens 

 of trickery and infamy, are well shewn up. 

 Godfrey does his master good service, and 

 quickly discovers the possibility of doing 

 business on his own account. He has nei- 

 ther money nor stock but neither are in- 

 dispensable. Pie makes time bargains, and 

 successfully pockets the differences, till he 

 realizes some thousands by the gradual ac- 

 cumulation of tens and twenties. The 

 temptation is irresistible ; he grows confi- 

 dent and adventurous, and loses faster than 

 he gained, till he is left again without a 

 shilling. 



From the depths of despair he is pulled 

 up again by a friend, who had experienced 

 the same fluctuations of fortune, and wa.s 

 now as pennyless as himself; but he was of 

 a more reckless cast, and troubled with 

 none of the scruples, which, in spite of the 

 corrupting atmosphere of the Alley, had 

 been a check to Godfrey's career. After 

 some resistance, he joins his friend in start- 

 ing a joint-stock concern a Gold, A^ T ine, 

 and Olive Company to work the mines of 

 Yetromsky and Kuzdioph, and cultivate 

 the sides and summits of ihe Peneus. An 



