WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.*
THE desire so strongly expressed by Thackeray himself that no biography of him should be written cannot, we suppose, ho regarded as a perpetual injunction. It will be forty-six years next Christmas Eve since the great novelist passed away, and a vast mass of published material has accumulated which sooner or later was bound to be utilised in more permanent and more connected form. At the same time, we cannot help a strong sense of repugnance at the thought that Thackeray's earnest wish has not been respected, at any rate during the life- time of his daughter. Mr. Lewis Melville contends, however, that the original embargo applies only to the members of the Thackeray family, and ten years ago he produced a Life which is the foundation of the two handsome volumes now before us. It is impossible to say that Mr. Melville is not legally within his rights ; but the perusal of this, the latest tribute to the genius of the author of Vanity Fair, does not diminish our regret that Thackeray's desires have been disregarded. This regret is increased by the fact that under the existing conditions any biography is bound to be unsatisfactory. A Memoir by one of his contemporaries, by some member of that brilliant band of Mid-Victorian penmen who knew him so intimately and loved him so well, might have done for Tbackeray what Lockhart did for Scott or Sir George Trevelyan for Macaulay. Forster's Life of Dickens is by no means a model of biography, but it leaves at any rate a vivid personal picture from the band of one who had been the novelist's close companion for the greater part of his working career. Mr. Melville enjoyed no such advantage, and he cannot lay claim to the literary skill or the delicacy of per- ception which sometimes compensates for the lack of first-hand knowledge. He is here, as in all his work, painstaking and indefatigable ; he is enthusiastic and devoted, and there is much in his pages which will be both new and interesting to the majority of readers. He has left no stone unturned; his bibliography is a monument of patient and meticulous industry; but he cannot truthfully be said to have brought us any nearer to the real Thackeray. On the other hand, he has pieced together from scattered sources a lucid if uninspired narrative ; he has traced every step in Thaekeray's literary • William Makepeaes Thackeray : a Biography, including hitherto uncollected Letters and Speeches, and a Bibliography of 1,300 items. By Lewis Melville. With 2 Photogravure Portraits and numerous other Illustrations, 2 win. Lyndon John Lana. [25s.]
pilgrimage ; and he has illustrated his theme with copious and apposite quotations from the novels and the miscellaneous writings. Thackeray was a profuse and most entertaining letter-writer, and he corresponded freely with his friends of both sexes on the other side of the Atlantic ; much of this correspondence has been published in one form or another, and has been drawn upon for the present purpose. Mr. Melville, moreover, presents us with a really admirable collection of portraits of Thackeray taken at all stages of his life and by every variety of artist. We would draw particular attention to the hitherto unpublished drawing by Daniel Allacliee dated 1835, and to the copy of the painting executed after the novelist's death by Sir John Gilbert and now in the possession of the Garrick Club. The book is dedicated to his fellow- members of the Titmarsh Club, of which Mr. Melville was one of the originators, and it will doubtless find an appreciative public among them.
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