126 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Its importance in the history of the novel in France becomes 

 evident when it is noted that, whereas it came at the end of the vogue 

 in England of the novel of Terror, it was in time for the beginning in 

 France of a similar vogue to which it contributed in nosmall measure. 

 While the translators were putting the finishing touches to the French 

 edition of M'elmoth \'ictor Hugo was feverishly engaged in writing 

 Han d'Islande}'^ 



Six of its chapters have passages from Bertram at the head and 

 this detail is considered sufficiently important to be mentioned in 

 the preface to the first edition: "Tous les chapitres sont précédés 

 d'épigraphes étranges et mystérieuses, qui ajoutent singulièrement à 

 l'intérêt et donnent plus de physionomie à chaque partie de la com- 

 position." Something is wanted indeed to add to the interest of 

 Han d'Islande, but the épigraphes alone are not enough. Perhaps a 

 little less time spent in seeking strange and mysterious passages in 

 Sterne, Shakespeare, Maturin, Lessing and Schiller, and a little more 

 given to the study of real life would have improved the novel. It 

 must be recalled, however, in all fairness, that the author was a mere 

 boy. 



Bertram was translated by Charles Nodier, and he is one of the 

 first to record the growing influence of Maturin.^- Balzac had a 

 wildly exaggerated opinion of the Irish author's place in literature. 

 Gustave Planche saw, in prophetic vision, posterity placing Melmoth 

 between Faust and Manfred. ^^ Posterity did not place Melmoth 

 anywhere, but simply lived on day after day, ignoring his very 

 existence. He was forgotten long before Baudelaire referred to him 

 in illustration of his essay. De V essence du rire}'^ 



The appeal of Melmoth to the French was not due to its real 

 qualities alone. Some of its faults disappeared in a translation that 

 was very kind to the careless style of the original, others remained 

 and helped instead of injuring, the success of the book. The long 

 feverish descriptions, for example, that occasionally try the patience 

 of the present-day reader, must have been counted by the Romanticist 

 among the beauties of the work. Nature is no more a discreet back- 

 ground, but, together with Gothic buildings, generally in ruins, 

 becomes an actor in the plot. If the mystery of Melmoth, the trust- 

 ing girl's imminent peril, the horror that one feels lies but a few paces 



"Written in 1821. First edition 1823. 



^-In La Quotidienne, 12 mars 1823, à propos of the recently published Haji 

 d^ Islande by Hugo. 



i^Portraits littéraires. Vol.1. Paris, 1836. 



'■•Reprinted in Curiosités esthétiques, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1889. 



