APPENDIX IV

THE PUBLICATION OF "EVELINA"

In the chapter devoted to this subject in vol. ii. of the Memoirs of Dr. Burney, 1832, pp. 121 et seq., Mme. D'Arblay gives what has long been the accepted version-she herself terms it "an explicit narration "-of the publication of Evelina. Having completed and transcribed the first two volumes,—she tells us, she offered, by an unsigned letter, to submit what she had written to James Dodsley, who declined to look at anything anonymous. Thereupon, with the advice of her sisters, she applied in the same way to Thomas Lowndes of 77 Fleet Street. Lowndes asked to see the manuscript; and accordingly her brother, appropriately disguised, carried the first two volumes to him. Lowndes's verdict, as might have been anticipated, was, that though he liked the work, he could not think of publishing an incomplete book; but—and here Mme. D'Arblay professes to reproduce his actual words— he would be " ready to purchase and print it when it should be finished." In due time the third volume was composed and copied. The author then told her father what she had done, without exciting much curiosity on his part; and, her brother Charles having gone back to Cambridge, despatched the manuscript to Lowndes by her cousin Edward. Lowndes promptly approved it, and made an offer of £20 for the book, "which was accepted with alacrity, and boundless surprise at its magnificence!!" (The notes of admiration are Mme. D'Arblay's). In the following January, 1778, Evelina was published, "a fact which only became known to its writer, who had dropped all correspondence with Mr. Lowndes," on hearing the advertisement read aloud by her stepmother at breakfast.

Such is Mme. D'Arblay's account in 1828 of the publication of her first novel in 1778, fifty years earlier. That of

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her niece and editor, Mrs. Charlotte Barrett (see ante, vol. i. pp. 13-17), corresponds with it, except that Mrs. Barrett drops out the words above italicised; and this story has been followed by Macaulay and his successors.

Very recently, however, a little group of documents 1 has been made public, which, in her examination of the material referred to at p. 395 of this volume, Mme. D'Arblay, if she had them before her, must either have forgotten or overlooked. These place a slightly different aspect upon the foregoing account; and at all events show clearly what it only incidentally suggests, namely, that there must have been rather more pourparler with Lowndes than Mme. D'Arblay's "explicit narration" would lead one to suppose. Lowndes, indeed, himself hints at this in his letter of September 16, 1782 (APPENDIX I. vol. ii. p. 481). Some of the new letters, it is true, may be merely drafts, and even drafts of letters that never went. But one of them, at least, must have been sent and received, for it bears a post-mark, though how it got back to the sender does not appear. There is neither date nor signature to this or any of the others, but it is not difficult to establish their sequence.

In what must be the first, the anonymous writer tells Lowndes of the work, expresses her extreme desire for the immediate printing of the first two volumes, refers to her unconquerable objection to being known in the transaction, and inquires (a) whether Mr. Lowndes will give the book "a candid and impartial Reading," and (b) whether, if he approves it, he will buy it from her emissary without asking further questions. He is to reply to Mr. King, at the Orange Coffee House in the Haymarket. In Letter No. 2 she sends the manuscript of Vol. i. and sketches its plan. It is "the Introduction of a well educated, but inexperienced young woman into public company, and a round of the most fashionable Spring Diversions of London"; and she directs attention to the characters "of the Sea Captain, and would be Frenchwoman," as "intended to draw out each the other.” No. 3 forwards the second volume, in which the heroine, "descending into a lower circle, now partakes of a round of Summer Diversions"; solicits Lowndes's further opinion, and inquires what terms he is prepared to offer. In the next letter (No. 5), the book has been completed, and she is anxious

1 The full text of these appeared in the Cornhill Magazine for April

2 The name was subsequently changed to Grafton.

to submit the third volume to Lowndes forthwith, as her agent in the business (i.e., her brother Charles) is shortly returning to the university. No. 6 presses for the publisher's decision. In No. 7, which follows, she thanks Lowndes for his favourable opinion; but adds that "though it [the book] was originally written merely for amusement," she should not have taken the trouble to Copy and Correct it for the Press had she "imagined that 10 guineas a volume would have been more than its worth," and she hints at obtaining the further opinion of a gentleman experienced in authorship business.

These are all the letters which actually precede the first appearance of Evelina as chronicled in the opening pages of these volumes. The remaining papers relate to the supply of copies to the author, the correction of future issues, the alteration of the sub-title, and so forth.

The chief differences between these letters or drafts, and the hitherto accepted story lies-it will be observed-in (1) the statement that the first two volumes were submitted to Lowndes separately; and (2) in the fact that, with whatever gratitude the fee of £20 was eventually received, there had been an antecedent period when it had not been regarded by the author as "magnificent." These contradictions, of which the second is the more important, may fairly, we think, be attributed to confused recollection on the part of a very old lady, who, as above stated, may even not have had access to these particular papers when, at the bidding of Sir Walter Scott (see ante, p. 411 n.), she began to "collect documents to refresh her memory." But even if these new MSS. are accepted en bloc as representing letters that were actually sent, they leave untouched the fact that Evelina was mysteriously produced and paid for miserably.

1 As to this, it may be noted, that Lowndes himself says, "the two first volumes were sent to get my Opinion" (APPENDIX I. vol. ii. p. 481). 2 In 1828, when she drew up her account of the publication of Evelina, Mme. D'Arblay was seventy-six (Memoirs of Dr. Burney, 1832, ii. 122).

GENERAL INDEX

Note.-The illustrations are given in small capitals.