Opening of the book
Introduction
I have long wished to write a novel, but I could not determine what it was to be about. I could not bear anything commonplace, and I did not know what to do for a hero. Heroes are generally so much alike, so monotonous, so dreadfully insipid —so completely brothers of one race, with the family likeness so amazingly strong —“This will not do for me,” thought I as I sauntered listlessly down a shady lane, one fine evening in June; “I must have something new, something quite out of the beaten path: —but what?” —aye, that was the question. In vain did I rack my brains —in vain did I search the storehouse of my memory: I could think of nothing that had not been thought of before.
“It is very strange!” said I, as I walked faster, as though I hoped the rapidity of my motion would shake off the sluggishness of my imagination. It was all in vain! I struck my forehead and called Wit to my assistance, but the malignant deity was deaf to my entreaty.
“Surely,” thought I, “the deep mine of invention cannot be worked out; there must be some new ideas left, if I could but find them.” To find them, however, was the difficulty.
Thus lost in meditation, I walked onwards till I reached the brow of a hill, and a superb prospect burst upon me. A fertile valley richly wooded, studded with sumptuous villas and romantic cottages, and watered by a noble river, that wound slowly its lazy course along, spread beneath my feet; and lofty hills swelling to the skies, their summit lost in clouds, bounded the horizon. The sun was setting in all its splendour, and its lingering rays gave those glowing tints and deep masses of shadow to the landscape that sometimes produce so magical an effect. It was quite a Claude Lorraine scene; and more fully to enjoy it, I entered a hayfield, and seated myself upon a grassy bank. The day had been sultry; and the evening breeze, as it murmured through the foliage, felt cool and refreshing.
“It is a lovely world,” thought I, “notwithstanding all that cynics
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Readnara
