PORTRAITS IN BOOKS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 232, 23 May 1932, Page 2

PORTRAITS IN BOOKS

MODELS FROM LIFE MANY FAMOUS NOVELISTS USED REAL PEOPLE IN FICTION. OFTEN RECOGNISABLE. The protests which have been made against the action of Mr. Beverley Nichols in presenting the unflattefing portrait of the late Dahie Nbllie Melba in his novel "Evensong" serve to draw attelltion to the fact that noVelists of much greater impdrtance than Mr. Nichols have heen guilty of the ■ ogenee of pUttihg real persons in their books. Some of them have availed themselves of this method of obtaining revenge against people they disliked. Mr. H. M. Paull, in discuSsing the suhject in his hook, "Literary Ethics," writes: — When the English hovel had thrown olf the conventions of the romance and had come into contact with real life we at once find that some of the characters are portraits. This is but natural, for the easiest way to draw a character is to do so from a mo'del. Nor was there any body of critical opinion to question the propriety of such' a proceeding. We find, therefore, that some of Fielding's most celebrated characters were recognised ai drawn from individuals — Parson Adams.was' Wm. Young, Lady Bellaston is supposed to be Viscountess Townhend. Similarly, Richardson's Lovelace was the Duke of Wharton. Smollett carried on the tradition; Scott pointed out that some of the characters in "Roderick B/ndom" are recognisable portraits. Scott himself followed in Smollett's train. Forster writes in his "Life of Dickens": — "We know exactly whom to look for in Dandie Diamont and Jonathan Oldbuck, in the office of Alan Fairford and the vnrrm nf P.rtrcjffil Grnft.nne'rv." Ho

even hints that Scott took the lastnarned fretful patient from his own father when dying. Fictitious Interest. Thomas Love Peacoclc was a noto- . rious offender. In "Nightmare Ahbey" Shelley was depicted under the name of Scythrop, and P'eacock feared Shelley would recognise himself, which Shelley did, and was much amused. Cypress was meant for Bryon, and Flosky for Coleridge, who again appears in "Melincourt" as "Mr. Mystic." A fictitious interest is oftsn imparted to a novel when it is clear that the persbnageS are portraits of well known individuals, continues Mr. Paull. Disraeli took full advantag'3 of this method of calling attention to his works, and gratified himself by drawing in unfavourable colours the persons with whom he was out of sympathy. Many writers have detailed his characters and their prototypes. Mr. G. W. E. Russell, for one, has done so in "A Pocketful of Sixpences," though his list is not complete. In the case of "Conigsby" alone the Marquis of Hertford appears as Lord Monmouth, Croker as Rigby, Hook as Lucian Gay, Lord Lamington as Sir Charles Buckhurst, Lord John Manners as Lord Henry Sydney, and Conigsby himself is supposed to have been taken from the Hoh. George Smethe. This by no means exhausts the list, and the later novels are equally full of portaits and earicatures. Dicken's Method. Of Dickens' method of drawing his characters full details are given in Forster's Diography. He did not aim at direct portraiture, but would embody in one person his experienees of fifty. In one or two cases, however, he departed from his usual method. He had copied Miss Mowcher too closely from the original, and had a letter of protest from her. He was upset; wrote an ample apology 3 - plaining that "all his characters, b°ing made up of a great many people, were composite and never individual." He was not so sensitive in the case of Fang, the magistrate in "Oliver Twist," drawn openly from Mr. Laieg, of Hatton Garden, a notoriously harsh and incompetent official who was soon after removed from the Bench. In "Bleak House" Bythorn was universally recognised as Landor Proctor and Forster both urged that Skimpole was too like Leigh Hunt, and Dickens acknowledged that he had "yielded to the temptation of too often malcing the character speak like his old friend." Thackeray, like his great rival, occasionally made his portraits too lifelike. Everyone knows that tl.e Marquis of Steyne was drawn from Lord Hertford. Captain Shando i, in "Pendennis," was taken from Dr. Maginn, to whom Thackeray had been generous. When asked to subs",Y to the doctor's tombstone he replied: "No, I have given him bread; let others give him.a stone."