Richard Bentley first edition - 1844
George Payne Rainsford James (1799 or 1801! - 1860), usually known as G.P.R. James, produced nearly 100 works between 1828 and 1859. Scarcely a year went by that he failed to produce at least one novel, most of them three-deckers. This excessive production was fatal to his permanent reputation, but to his contemporaries he remained a popular writer. So famous was he for his literary proclivity that in The Comic Times of 31st August 1850, the following pasquins appeared:
BIRTHS.
"On the 7th, Mr. G.P.R. James of his 136th offspring. The little stranger, which is a tripod, we are sorry to say, is not doing very well."
ADVERTISEMENTS.
"Mr. Newby begs to announce the following new work in the press:
In Three Volumes.
The Old Oak Chest (made out of his own head),
by G.P.R. James, Esq."
Rather cruel; but it must be admitted (like Sir Walter) the author should have been subjected to severe pruning. Once again, it was the result of the three-decker requirements. There is an equally uneven biography of James - The Solitary Horseman by S.M. Ellis (The Cayme Press, 1927), published in a limited edition of 800 copies. Ellis started to write it in 1912, but various difficulties, including the War, caused it to be laid aside... I have a copy and the biographer certainly details the main thread of James' life, but has very little to say about the books themselves, or their quality.
Inevitably James was baited in Punch, but not as often as Bulwer Lytton or Ainsworth. The humorists included Thackeray - And what Briton can read without enjoyment the works of James, so admirable for terseness. Another satirist put a series of questions to James, which ended, How long do you intend to keep on writing such stuff? The author could well have replied: As long as the public pays me to do so... for he usually received £500 or more for each of his romances.
I have quite a few of G.P.R. James' works:
Novels in First Edition:
1838: The Robber (3 vols)
1844: Agincourt (3 vols.)
1844: Arabella Stuart (3 vols.)
1845: The Smuggler (3 vols.)
1848: Gowrie
1849: The Woodman (3 vols.)
also
The Works of G.P.R. James:
1844: Vol. II Mary of Burgundy
1845: Vol. III The Huguenot
1847: Vol. XIV Forest Days
1848: Vol. XVI De L'Orme
1848: Vol. XVII Gowrie
1849: Vol. XXI Castelnau
Harper & Brothers:
1857: Leonora D'Orco
1858: Peqinillo: A Tale
1858: Agnes Sorel. A Novel
Routledge's Sixpenny Series:
1882: The Brigand or Corse de Leon
1887: The Smuggler
Non-Fiction in First Edition:
1830: The History of Chivalry
1836: A History of the Life of Edward the Black Prince (2 vols.)-0
I read The Smuggler some years ago and have just bought the novel in its three-decker first edition - I will be returning to it soon. But, first I thought I would read Agincourt and then The Woodman. Rather like Major Michel's Henry of Monmouth, the actual battle takes up a tiny portion of the Tale. It commences in true Jamesian style with a dark night, a lonely road, woods and streams, and two travellers. Ellis entitled his biography of James, The Solitary Horseman. Thackeray it was who really branded this literary trade-mark upon James in his burlesque, Barbazure, By G.P.R. Jeames, Esq., etc. In six of James' 57 romances, "a solitary horseman" appears in the first chapter and in two others he delays his arrival until the second; "two cavaliers" caracole in the first chapters of three books and in the second of another. James seems to have taken Thackeray's satire to heart, as in the twenty or more stories he wrote afterwards there is ne'er a sign of horsemen at the start!
The two Agincourt riders play pivotal roles in the story. The first introduces himself to the other as Hal of Hadnock, who turns out to be Prince Hal on his way to his sick father, Henry IV, in London. The second, is Richard of Woodville, the hero of the story. The story has shades of Ivanhoe every so often - the old hall at Dunbury (Rotherwood), the tall powerful old man, Sir Philip Beauchamp (Cedric), Isabel Beauchamp (Rowena/Rebecca) whose hair was as black as jet, her skin soft and clear...her eyes were of a deep clear blue...with long fingers tapering to a point, showed in every line the high Norman blood of her race. In addition there is a fascinating, wilful cousin, Catherine Beauchamp who is also destined to play an integral part in the plot. She is murdered not far into Volume One - or is she?! There is the inevitable baddie - Simeon of Roydon, a distant cousin, whose smooth exterior was but a shell containing a less pleasant core...there was an occasional quiver of the lower lip, as if words which might be dangerous were restrained with difficulty...In addition, there is Sir Henry Dacre, who is betrothed to Catherine but really loves Isabella; Richard of Woodville loves Mary Markham (her surname is yet another 'disguise'), the third woman in the hall. Are you following?
The story moves from Dunbury to London, to Burgundy and then to France. It takes on board other well-rounded characters - Sir Philip de Morgan, England's representative in Ghent; Sir John Grey, exiled under Henry IV, and father to Mary 'Markham', who takes his time in accepting Richard of Woodville as a potential son-in-law; the Count of Charolois and his father, the Duke of Burgundy, also figure in the tale. Ella Brune, whose father is killed by Simeon of Roydon's horse and who is helped by Richard of Woodville, becomes fiercely attached (in love with) the latter - again, shades of Rebecca and Ivanhoe? It is thanks to her that Richard survives more than one 'scrape'. Ned Dyram, a servant foisted on Richard by King Henry V, proves an absolute rotter (he ruthlessly pursues Ella) and inevitably links up with Simeon to try and destroy Richard..
There are glimpses of humour. Near the fine chaste cross at Charing, - which stood hard by the spot where the grand libel upon British taste, called Trafalgar Square, now stands...
Yes, James loves to dwell on descriptions of nature and the dress of the period; like Scott and others of the 19th century, he takes a paragraph when a couple of sentences would do and far too unlikely coincidences help the plot along. But I find him a good companion of a winter evening and am already engaged in The Woodman.
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