ffred's
nearly-forgotten treasures"Be neither too candid in your remarks, nor too fulsome in your flattery. Too palpable deviations from fact might appear a satire on your master's understanding."
———
"Hear both sides of the question!" exclaimed he in utter astonishment. "Why, that is just the way never to come to a conclusion, and to remain in suspense all the days of one's life! Wise men first adopt an opinion, and then learn to defend it. For my part I make it a rule never to hear but one side; and so do all who wish to settle their belief."
This 1819 novel by Thomas Hope defies simple categorization: I first learned of it after encountering a reference in William North's essay "The Grand Style." It has been compared favorably to the writings of Lord Byron. While the story (not to mention its understated humor) bears at times more than a little resemblance to The Adventures of Gil Blas, it uniquely benefits from the author's extensive travels and studies, and as a result is much richer for its cultural, political, and historical context. Whatever objections one may raise to the various prejudices related of the times and places, the realistic style and copious annotations lead one to believe in the novel's overall fidelity. Yet all such details aside, it is at once a profane satire and somber reflection of the human condition: for all its comedy, it is by no means light reading.
At first I worked with these scans of Volumes I, II, and III of the original 1819 edition. However, upon discovering that the 1820 edition had extensive revisions by the author, as well as some corrections of printing errors, I turned instead to these scans of Volumes I, II, and III for the text, making any additional corrections as deemed necessary. Some archaic spellings (such as "birth" for "berth") were updated. Some inconsistencies in spelling were also standardized in favor of the more numerous or modern version. Unfortunately, I failed to find a good way to implement the original system of end notes divided by chapter in a way that converted well into Kindle format, so to keep it simple I combined and renumbered them in a single section.
So here it is: the master HTML version, the home-brew Kindle version, and the actual Amazon publication.
September 28, 2024