Read Online Jane Austen by Elizabeth Jenkins - Free Book Online
Authors: Elizabeth Jenkins
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we approach Jane Austen most nearly. At the time of its publication, the enthusiasm of Edmund Burke, who put his name down for five sets, probably gave Madame D'Arblay the most pleasure. If she had been asked to say whose name she valued next, she could have made her choice from amongst the most distinguished figures in society; she perhaps never even noticed that of the quite unknown young lady living in a Hampshire parsonage.
The wheel has come full circle, and whatever the intrinsic merits of Camilla , we read it now because we know it pleased Jane Austen.
The merits are considerable; the book has not the young gaiety of Evelina , but it has much more depth and the interest is more continuously sustained; the aridity of Cecilia it avoids altogether, and though its length would prevent its being reprinted now, at the time of Camilla 's publication a good novel in five volumes was better by two-thirds than a good novel in three.
Camilla was clearly destined, by her family's wishes and the
author's, for a Mr. Edgar Mandlebert; but though they were mutually attracted and there was no reason why they should not marry
immediately, the union was postponed for five volumes by Edgar's sage friend Dr. Marchmont, who, preying on the young man's
reflective turn of mind, put this diabolical idea into his head: he was not henceforth to admire Camilla's gaiety and enthusiasm as a mere spectator, but every time she said or did anything, he was to say to himself: "How should I like this, were she mine?" Unhappily for the satisfaction of the female sex, Madame D'Arblay did not see fit to provide Camilla with a female confidante who would encourage her in a similar line of conduct. Dr. Marchmont's
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interference is, like the irresolution of Hamlet, the mainspring of the action; but the feelings we enterrain for Edgar Mandlebert and his affairs are the most tepid to which the book gives rise; and the enjoyment of the novel consists in the solid, brightly colored secondary characters and the scenes which have a nominal
connection with the story but are really there on their own merits.
The most famous of these is the celebrated episode of Mr. Dubster's summer house. In all Madame D'Arblay's novels there is a strain of extremely vigorous horse-play supplied by mischievous young men: in Camilla, by the heroine's brother Lionel. Mr. Dubster was a self-made man, uncouth and bumptious to the verge of farce. He had
been attracted by Camilla at a village assembly, and had no idea that his attentions might be unacceptable. Lionel, having seen as much, drove his unsuspecting sisters out to a bare, flat country district where Mr. Dubster was building a staring villa; the latter, delighted at the interest in his work he supposed Camilla to feel, insisted on taking her and her sister Euphemia up to his summer house, which overhung the lane and was reached by a single ladder. When the party were inside, they looked out of the window to see Lionel joyously riding off down the lane, and realized that he had taken away the ladder. It was the builders' lunch hour, and Mr. Dubster was particularly annoyed that he could not go after them to see they didn't waste the time for which he was paying them. Camilla in acute dismay tried to attract the attention of people passing in the lane, and the party were finally rescued by a passing troop of huntsmen. This is the episode to which Jane Austen referred when she said that she was obliged to stay with Edward and Elizabeth at their house at Rowling until the end of the month, because her brother Frank, who was to take her home, was going away
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till then. "Tomorrow I shall be just like Camilla in Mr. Dubster's summer house; for my Lionel will have taken away the ladder by which I came here, or at least by which I intended to get away; and here I must stay till his return. My situation, however, is somewhat preferable to hers, for I am very happy here, though I should be glad to get home by the
The wheel has come full circle, and whatever the intrinsic merits of Camilla , we read it now because we know it pleased Jane Austen.
The merits are considerable; the book has not the young gaiety of Evelina , but it has much more depth and the interest is more continuously sustained; the aridity of Cecilia it avoids altogether, and though its length would prevent its being reprinted now, at the time of Camilla 's publication a good novel in five volumes was better by two-thirds than a good novel in three.
Camilla was clearly destined, by her family's wishes and the
author's, for a Mr. Edgar Mandlebert; but though they were mutually attracted and there was no reason why they should not marry
immediately, the union was postponed for five volumes by Edgar's sage friend Dr. Marchmont, who, preying on the young man's
reflective turn of mind, put this diabolical idea into his head: he was not henceforth to admire Camilla's gaiety and enthusiasm as a mere spectator, but every time she said or did anything, he was to say to himself: "How should I like this, were she mine?" Unhappily for the satisfaction of the female sex, Madame D'Arblay did not see fit to provide Camilla with a female confidante who would encourage her in a similar line of conduct. Dr. Marchmont's
- 53 -
interference is, like the irresolution of Hamlet, the mainspring of the action; but the feelings we enterrain for Edgar Mandlebert and his affairs are the most tepid to which the book gives rise; and the enjoyment of the novel consists in the solid, brightly colored secondary characters and the scenes which have a nominal
connection with the story but are really there on their own merits.
The most famous of these is the celebrated episode of Mr. Dubster's summer house. In all Madame D'Arblay's novels there is a strain of extremely vigorous horse-play supplied by mischievous young men: in Camilla, by the heroine's brother Lionel. Mr. Dubster was a self-made man, uncouth and bumptious to the verge of farce. He had
been attracted by Camilla at a village assembly, and had no idea that his attentions might be unacceptable. Lionel, having seen as much, drove his unsuspecting sisters out to a bare, flat country district where Mr. Dubster was building a staring villa; the latter, delighted at the interest in his work he supposed Camilla to feel, insisted on taking her and her sister Euphemia up to his summer house, which overhung the lane and was reached by a single ladder. When the party were inside, they looked out of the window to see Lionel joyously riding off down the lane, and realized that he had taken away the ladder. It was the builders' lunch hour, and Mr. Dubster was particularly annoyed that he could not go after them to see they didn't waste the time for which he was paying them. Camilla in acute dismay tried to attract the attention of people passing in the lane, and the party were finally rescued by a passing troop of huntsmen. This is the episode to which Jane Austen referred when she said that she was obliged to stay with Edward and Elizabeth at their house at Rowling until the end of the month, because her brother Frank, who was to take her home, was going away
- 54 -
till then. "Tomorrow I shall be just like Camilla in Mr. Dubster's summer house; for my Lionel will have taken away the ladder by which I came here, or at least by which I intended to get away; and here I must stay till his return. My situation, however, is somewhat preferable to hers, for I am very happy here, though I should be glad to get home by the
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