Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/496

480 vivid realization and reproduction of the creations of others, but also by original inventions, the recital of which brought the lad a high renown among his companions, and, spite of poverty, he succeeded in publishing his first novel by the age of twenty-two. Another striking instance is Lytton, who published poems at fifteen and produced his first novel by twenty-two. Among foreign novelists we have Balzac, who, when a schoolboy, excogitated a theory of the will, and began to publish novels soon after twenty; and Hoffmann, who was a marvel of boyish cleverness, and who began to write novels soon after leaving school.

Among lady novelists instances of precocity are Charlotte Brontë and her sister, who, as soon as they could read and write, began to invent and act little plays of their own. By the age of fourteen Charlotte had put together a number of stories as well as poems and plays. But it was not till the age of thirty that she prepared her first considerable novel, "The Professor." Emily, who was two years younger than her sister, completed her "Wuthering Heights" about the same time. Another instance is Miss Burney. As a child she was remarkable; she taught herself to read and write, and became an incessant scribbler of verse and prose. She was not much more than fifteen when she planned the story of "Evelina," though it was not actually written till some years later, and only published when she was twenty-six.

Taking twenty-eight novelists, I find that in twenty-one cases, that is, in three cases out of four, there is evidence of imaginative power showing itself before twenty. Sometimes this evidence is of a curious character, as in the case of Richardson, who at the age of thirteen displayed his skill in letter-writing by acting as confidential secretary to three of his girl acquaintances, inditing or correcting their answers to the epistolary effusions of their lovers.

Novelists exhibit much diversity of habit with respect to the date of their first appearance before the public. In a list of thirty-two names two published their first work before twenty; seven between twenty and twenty-five; nine between twenty-five and thirty; seven between thirty and forty; and seven after forty. It may be observed that names of world-wide reputation appear in each group except the first. Thus Dickens and Hawthorne fall under the first of the four divisions; George Sand, Thackeray, and Victor Hugo under the second; Fielding, Goldsmith, and George Eliot under the third; and Defoe, Richardson, Sterne, Scott, and Cervantes under the last.

The date at which the first notable work appears varies in very much the same way. In a series of thirty-one names, three produce a work of note before twenty-five; nine more before thirty; twelve more before forty; and seven after forty.

The most remarkable examples of late development are Defoe, who, after devoting the best part of his life to political polemics, suddenly