The Essays of Douglas Jerrold

The Essays of Douglas Jerrold

Much of Douglas Jerrolds writing took essay form although he only applied the title to five short pieces which were added as Essays to The Chronicles of Clovernook in 1846. Those five pieces are included in this volume along with others from his collected works, and from among those scattered contributions to periodicals which have been brought together at various times since his death. Born in London on January 3rd, 1803, Douglas William Jerrold was the youngest son of a theatrical manager then of the Kent circuit. His baby years were passed at Cranbrook, his childhood at Sheerness, and then, not having quite attained the mature age of eleven, he was entered as a first-class volunteer on board the Namur, guardship at the Nore, on December 22, 1813. Here in the ships school his education was continued, and here the midshipman was allowed privileges dear to the boyish heart; he was permitted to keep pigeons, and not the least of his privileges was the being permitted the use of the captains collection of booksthat captain, it is pleasant to recall, being a brother of Jane Austen. About fifteen months after joining the Namur he was transferred to the brig Ernest, engaged in convoying transports and in bringing home wounded soldiers from the Continent. Then came Waterloo and Peace. In October 1815 the Ernest was paid off and the boy-officer returned to civil life. At the end of the year the Jerrold family left Sheerness for London, and Douglas made a new start as printers apprentice, and perseveringly pursued a rigorous plan of self-education. Then he began writing verses and plays, xiiand when he was eighteen his first piece was represented on the stage. Play-writing and slight journalism were combined with the compositors work for a few years before, throwing aside the composing stick, he relied entirely on the pen. Numerous playsof many of which nothing beyond the names is now recoverablewere written before Douglas Jerrold made his hit with Black-eyed Susan in 1829. Thenceforward he was a busy playwright and a constant contributor to the magazines, annuals and newspapers. In 1841 the advent of Punch introduced him to a medium peculiarly suited to his genius, and to that periodical he contributed his most popular work, Mrs Caudles Curtain Lectures, and one of his best novels, The Story of a Feather. To the Illuminated Magazine (1843-4) and Douglas Jerrolds Shilling Magazine (1845-8), both of which he edited, he contributed many characteristic essays and stories, but later he devoted himself more particularly to political writing as editor of Douglas Jerrolds Weekly Newspaper (1846-8), and of Lloyds Weekly Newspaper (1852-7). He died on June 8th, 1857. We have heard much within recent years for and against fiction with a purpose, as though this was some new literary manifestation. Among the best remembered writers of the early Victorian era are just those who had a purpose other than that of merely amusing their readersThackeray and Dickens are of course the two most striking examples. The authors purpose is often the salt not only flavouring his work for immediate contemporaries, but also preserving it for future readers. That with Douglas Jerrold this purpose counted for much we have his own words to show. Prefacing one of his serial ventures he said: It will be our chief object to make every essayhowever brief, and however light and familiar in its treatmentbreathe with a purpose. Experience assures us that, especially at the present day, it is by a defined purpose alone, xiiiwhether significant in twenty pages or in twenty lines, that the sympathies of the world are to be engaged, and its support insured. That this conviction was at the back of the greater part of Douglas Jerrolds writings no student of his work can fail to recognise. The fact is perhaps answerable for much of his work having enjoyed but a temporary popularity, for there are two ways of writing with a purposethe first the topical or journalistic way, and the second the general or more philosophical. Yet if Douglas Jerrold expended himself to a considerable extent over the particular, he by no means neglected the general, of which there is abundant testimony in this volume, as well as in St Giles and St James, The Story of a Feather, Punchs Letters, and that little book of golden philosophy, The Chronicles of Clovernook. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 65191
Author: Jerrold, Douglas William
Release Date: Apr 29, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Jerrold, Walter, 1865-1929
Illustrator: Brock, H. M. (Henry Matthew), 1875-1960