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Read Ebook: Trilbyana: The Rise and Progress of a Popular Novel by Gilder Jeannette L Jeannette Leonard Gilder Joseph Benson
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s "Trilby, le Lutin d'Argail"
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI RECTORY,
WM. J. MCCLURE,
MT. KISCO, N. Y., 29th Oct., 1894.
The following lines occur in the "R?ponse ? M. Charles Nodier" of Alfred de Musset:--
"Non pas cette belle insomnie Du g?nie O? Trilby vient, pr?t ? chanter, T'?couter."
This would seem to offer some clue to the origin of the name chosen by Mr. du Maurier for his heroine. Can you enlighten me as to the identity of the "Trilby" referred to by Musset?
RIDGEFIELD, CONN., 19 Nov., 1894.
ROSWELL BACON.
LEESBURGH, VIRGINIA, 20 Nov., 1894.
TUXEDO PARK, 26 Nov., 1894.
E. L. B.
This firm of Lamson, Wolffe & Co., by the way, has just been dissolved for a novel reason. Mr. Wolffe is a member of the class of '95 at Harvard. The publication of "Trilby, the Fairy of Argyle" called the attention of the faculty to his publishing business, and he was asked to give it up, or else forfeit his degree. He chose the former alternative, and although the firm name will remain Lamson, Wolffe & Co., a new and, for the present, silent member of the firm has added capital and scholarship to the house.
"Trilby, the Fairy of Argyle"
Nodier's "Trilby," who now revisits the book-stores owing to Mr. du Maurier's having taken his name for his heroine's, is one of the few latter-day fairies that have fairy blood in their veins. He belongs on the same shelf with Fouqu?'s "Undine," but, though he was only joking when he personated a father who "had not seen him since the days of King Fergus," he is certainly of the breed of Una and Maer, Caoilte and Mananan. That he made a sensation on his first appearance in the world of letters is shown by Victor Hugo's ode, warning the Fairy of Argyle to beware of ink-slinging penny-a-liners:--
advice which might be repeated apropos of Mr. du Maurier's creation.
Mr. Dole, who has made a translation of Nodier's "Trilby," has looked through all of Scott's novels, he says, to discover, if possible, the "preface or note" from which the French author claimed to have drawn his story, and has the deft art of "Pendennis" and "The Newcomes." And the "Cave of Harmony," with its songs and its bumpers and long whiffs, the gay nights and rollicking days of F. B. and Clive and Pendennis--the glamor of all which has enticed full many a youngster towards the easy descent, or the shining slopes of art and letters--all these scenes have doubtless served as the studies of the pictures, almost as delightful and masterly as their prototypes, that du Maurier gives us of the joyous Bohemian life of the three jolly Musketeers of the Brush in the Quartier Latin in "Trilby."
AUBURN, ALA., 26 Dec., 1894.
CHARLES C. THACH.
As a small contribution to "Trilbyana," I would call attention to the fact, unnoted so far, that Trilby was the name of Eug?nie de Gu?rin's pet dog, mentioned several times in the journal she kept for her brother Maurice. Was the dog, perhaps, named for the fairy?
LOUISVILLE, KY.
A. C. B.
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
C. C.
THE CRITIC
A Weekly Review of Literature and the Arts
Edited by J. B. & J. L. GILDER
"TRILBYANA: The Rise and Progress of a Popular Novel." A 56-page illustrated pamphlet, untrimmed, rubricated cover. 250 signed copies on hand-made paper. , net. Regular edition, 25 cts.
"ESSAYS FROM THE CRITIC." A reprint of some of the most striking contributions to the earlier numbers. Cloth, .
THE CRITIC CO., 287 Fourth Ave., New York.
FOOTNOTES:
See frontispiece.
Unless in amended form.
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