New Novels (article 4 march 1889)
New Novels is an article published in The Scotsman on 1 march 1889.
Review of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel : Micah Clarke (1889).
New Novels
(1 march 1889, p. 3)
If it be said that Mr Conan Doyle has given ns in Micah Clarke (1) a book for boys such as appears but at rare intervals, a very inadequate idea may be given of the character and excellence of the book as a work of literature. It is the work of a literary artist, fashioned with patient and skilful labour out of solid and enduring materials, and glowing with the warmth and light and colour of imagination and humour. It is a story of personal adventure, rich in incidents and situations, and alive with picturesque characters ; but this is only the foreground of a powerfully conceived and clearly delineated picture of one of the most stirring episodes of English history. The larger theme is Monmouth's rebellion in 1685. The individual narrative is the story of Micah Clarke, a Hampshire youth of twenty-one — the son of an old Cromwellian soldier who, in narrating his own adventures to his grand-children, makes the old time and the tragic events live again. Micah tells his own story from boyhood, and, the interest of the early chapters about his home and school life, his parents, and his early friends — Zachary Palmer, the philosophic carpenter, and the old sea-dog, Solomon Sprent — is scarcely surpassed by the more stirring themes that culminate at Sedgemoor. Micah's father is a man known to the faithful in foreign lands, who have chosen Monmouth as their leader; and he is one of those informed by letter of filet impending invasion. The bearer of the letters is picked up in a comical and amazing way by young Micah out of the waters of the Solent. This man, Decimus Saxon, becomes almost the chief figure in the story. He is a Dugald Dalgetty, less gross and more cunning and unscrupulous ; a brave soldier, and an accomplished hypocrite ; a self-seeking knave, and yet a man who shows in the end that he is capable of doing a good turn to a friend. There is a touch of caricature in the representation of Saxon ; yet it is an exceedingly clever and amusing as well as masterly portraiture. In his company, and attended by Reuben Lockarby, a young comrade, Clarke sets out for the scene of the insurrection. The adventures of the journey from Havant to Taunton are highly entertaining, and become of a stirring character before they terminate. Then we reach the theatre of great events, and are introduced to historical characters. The great merit of the book is that, while following the fortunes of Micah Clarke, it gives a vivid dramatic picture of the south-west of England in a state of insurrection, shows the springs and vital currents of the movement in action, and makes the men and women of the time live again. We see them and hear them, leaders and multitude, representatives of the classes that gave character to the time, if not in very truth as they lived and spoke, yet surely represented with genuine force of imagination, and with painstaking fidelity to the light that history and literature cast on the time. Mr Doyle has not drawn a hasty and random sketch. It is a most earnest, faithful, and conscientiously laboured picture ; yet of free flowing outlines, without any mask of stiffness or artificiality. The literary style is quite equal in merit to the dramatic action and life of the story. There are several capital characters besides the masterpiece of Saxon, among which may be mentioned the ruined court exquisite, Sir Gervas Jerome, who, in action and danger, displays traits of the hero. There is much in this book that suggests comparison with Scott. But Scott would have made a great deal more of the romantic element, which is a very slight ingredient in Mr Doyle's story. There is a little love-episode between Reuben Lockarby and Ruth Timewell, the Mayor of Taunton's beautiful daughter, but it can hardly be said to affect the texture of the narrative. This is perhaps not a real defect, but it may prevent the book from rushing into popularity. It will not prevent it from being recognised by good judges as a genuine work of literature, and while it is much more than a boy's book, it is one in which boys will revel.
(1) Micah Clarke: His Statement, as Made to his Three Grandchildren — Joseph, Gervas, and Reuben — during the Hard Winter of 1734, &c. By A. Conan Doyle. London ; Longmans, Green, & Co.
