CHARLES LEVER
His Life in His Letters
By Edmund Downey
With Portraits
In Two Volumes, Vol. I.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MCMVI
To The Memory of JOHN BLACKWOOD,
a Member of a House whose transactions with Charles Lever are anobject-lesson in the relations which may exist between Author andPublisher.
Contents
PREFACE.
CHARLES LEVER: HIS LIFE IN HIS LETTERS.
| I. | EARLY DAYS 1806-1828 |
| II. | THE LOG-BOOK* OF A RAMBLER 1828 |
| III. | WANDERINGS, 1829-1830 |
| IV. | DUBLIN—CLAKE—PORT STEWART 1830-1837 |
| V. | LETTERS FROM BRUSSELS 1837-1842 |
| VI. | TEMPLEOGUE 1842-1845 |
| VII. | BRUSSELS—BONN—CARLSRUHE 1845-1846 |
| VIII. | IN TYROL 1846-1847 |
| IX. | LETTERS TO MISS EDGEWORTH 1843-1847 |
| X. | COMO—FLORENCE—BAGNI DI LUCCA 1847-1849 |
| XI. | FLORENCE AND SPEZZIA 1850-1854 |
| XII. | FLORENCE AND SPEZZIA 1855-1862 |
PREFACE.
When Charles Lever died (in 1872), his daughters were anxious that hisbiography should be written by Major Frank Dwyer, but Dwyer was unwillingto undertake the task, and Dr W. J. Fitzpatrick volunteered his services.
In 1896 I asked Mrs Nevill, the novelist’s eldest daughter, if she wouldbe willing to furnish a new biography of her father. In replying to me,Mrs Nevill said that although she felt “most intensely the utterinefficiency of Mr Fitzpatrick’s ‘Life,’” she feared her health would notpermit her to undertake a task so serious as the one I proposed, but shewould willingly give me any help in her power either for a new biographyor for a revised edition of the existing ‘Life.’
Mrs Nevill died, somewhat suddenly, in 1897, and, so far as I couldascertain, she left no material for a new or for a revised biography ofher father. Shortly after her death I obtained from Mr Crafton Smith—ason-in-law of Charles Lever—a collect