Duty and Inclination

Duty and Inclination (1838)
by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Title Pages

4070500Duty and Inclination — Title Pages1838Letitia Elizabeth Landon

DUTY AND INCLINATION:

A NOVEL.

EDITED BY

MISS LANDON,

AUTHOR OF "THE IMPROVISATRICE,"

"ETHEL CHURCHILL," ETC.

"Thought contending with thought;
Reason and the affections at variance with each other."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,

GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1838.

PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

INTRODUCTION.

An Editor’s task is something of an agricultural process—the garden of literature lies before him, and there he has to introduce some new shrub or flower.

Dahlias were unknown in England till within the last few years, when they were brought over, we believe, by the late Queen Charlotte. We can well imagine the interest which the gardener to whose care they were intrusted would take in the stranger root, and with what mingled pride and pleasure he would see the rich leaves expand, and the autumn bright with beauty unknown before. A similar interest belongs to the literary flower; nature has done her part, and the gardener and the editor have alike; to watch the unfolding, and then to draw attention to the fulfilled promise.

The novel which it is my pleasant task thus to introduce belongs to a class peculiarly English. From the days of the romances of chivalry down to those of Miss Austin, our writers have delighted in painting the actual,—our fictions have been so many mirrors of men and manners—idealised as all things must be, reproduced by the agencies of the memory and of the imagination. Richardson was the first inventor of the domestic novel. He asked of poetry only its pathos, not the gorgeous richness of the drama—the earliest shape always taken by fiction. He began that delineation of middle life which is a peculiar feature in our literature, perhaps because the English middle classes have more independence, consequently more character, than those of any other country. We know no delineations more perfect than those of the whole Selby family: the only pendant to that most perfect old lady Mrs. Selby, is the equally exquisite Mrs. Bethune Baliol of Sir Walter Scott. The Scotch and the English portrait, high-bred, kind-hearted, with their lady-like niceties and peculiarities, are each admirable, charming as individuals, and historical as the representatives of a class.

Among the numerous followers in a path particularly calculated for feminine observation, namely, that of domestic life, occur the names of Miss Edgeworth and Miss Austin: each might be considered the type of her national genius, as far as such could be embodied in a woman.

Miss Edgeworth has all the humour so especially Irish. There is one touch in Castle Rackrent perfectly inimitable—it is the simple surprise expressed by the narrator concerning the departure of the last baronet's widow; she has been ill-used, almost imprisoned, by her husband, yet the only comment is the wonder that she could be in such a hurry to leave Ireland. The story of Vivian might be pointed out as a model of its style—the inevitable presides over it from first to last. The great object of Miss Edgeworth's writings is to point out the influence of character over circumstance. Weak, irresolute, the die of Vivian's fate is cast from the beginning, while the stern lesson deepens in interest to the last. Humour is the great characteristic of Miss Edgeworth's writings; but it makes good the assertion, that humour is as nearly allied to tears as to laughter.

Miss Austin's mind is of another class. The thoughtful analysis, the passionate, and the pathetic are not the elements with which she works; but for an actual, living, breathing representation of English country-life her pictures are unequalled. I do not know whether this may be the most strongly felt by one who has chiefly resided in London, but I never paid a visit in the country without fancying I was living a chapter in some one of Miss Austin’s novels.

The work which I have now the pleasure of introducing, is of the familiar and living class whose progress I have thus slightly endeavoured to sketch. It contains a

⁠"Living lay,
Familiar matter of to-day;
The natural loss and pain
That has been, and may be again."

"Duty and Inclination" are too often at war with each other in this world of trial and of trouble. To show how the very contest works together for ultimate good, how the character is strengthened and elevated by the contest, has been our author's object.

Hopes that deceive, yet leave behind
A better state within the mind;
The meek and yet exalted mood
Of strong, yet tender, fortitude—

Such is the material wrought up in the following pages; such is the course here traced of "Duty and Inclination." It cannot fail to excite the sympathies of the young, while it must equally satisfy the judgment of the old. Among the characters, I shall only permit myself to draw attention to those of the heroines, forming a singularly sweet and original picture: the tender calm at the close is what we might fancy a twilight would be by Claude Lorraine.—May I conclude with Wordsworth’s noble lines?

"Dreams, books, are each a world, and books we know
Are a substantial world, both pure and good;
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow."

⁠L. E. L.

London, July, 1838.

Volumes (not listed in original)

Chapters (not listed in original)

Duty and Inclination

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3