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Title: McMahon Glynn, Patrick to Glynn, James P., 1883
ID4374
CollectionPatrick McMahon Glynn: Letters to his family (1874-1927) [Gerald Glynn O'Collins]
Fileglynn/24
Year1883
SenderMcMahon Glynn, Patrick
Sender Gendermale
Sender Occupationlawyer
Sender Religionunknown
OriginKapunda, South Australia, Australia
DestinationGort, Co. Galway, Ireland
RecipientGlynn, James P.
Recipient Gendermale
Relationshipsiblings
Source
Archive
Doc. No.
Date
Partial Date
Doc. Type
Logunknown
Word Count629
Genreliterature, acquaintances, prospects
Note
TranscriptKapunda
April 6th 1883

My dear James
I received your letter this morning after my return from a trip
round the Local Courts on York's Peninsula and have just time to write a few words in reply. Owing to pressure of business which
had accumulated in my absence I have been only able to read your
first sketch and consider it very good. You avoid being guilty of
what is perhaps the greatest fault in style, that is, being pointedly
ornate or working in quotations for the sake of effect where the
sense does not naturally extract them. Dickens, for instance, sometimes
affords us an example of want of chasteness. He constructs
his scenes so as to have an opportunity of displaying his powers
in pathos and humour, thus making his plot subservient to the desire
for effect. The incidents should suggest sorrow rather than speak
of it. Take the Death bed scene in the first chapter of Dombey &
Son where the stern father, the hard old women, and the general
harsh surroundings of Mrs Dombey's exit from life are all evidently
introduced to embellish the picture of his main idea — the pathetic
— and compare it with the story of Lizzy Hexam in Our Mutual
Friend where true pathos is displayed. The low associations which
surround such a woman (all material to the story), her hopeless
and disguised love for that scap[e]grace of a barrister Edward
Wrayburne, only incidentally hinted at; the honour of her thoughts,
and the unobtrusive way in which her actions are made to tell the
secret of her heart in spite of her patient reticence, all make us
love and pity her and are the sources of true pathos. Dickens does
not here talk to us of her sorrow, the story quietly and without any
blow forces us to discover it — a circumstance well suited to such
a character. See also the passage in the first scene of All's Well
That Ends Well where Helena deplores the departure of Bertram
in the lines beginning with
There is no living, none, if Bertram be away
for a beautiful suggestion of hopeless love. But I have not time
to write about these things. I am glad to see you have, like myself,
found what a world of pleasure is to be found in literature.
I think I sent you home letters of mine over "Spes" in the Kapunda
Herald, and one on Capital Punishment in the Chronicle. Anylitical
sketches, like the latter, I prefer.
Hardy went home on Saturday last by the Paramatta on
business. I gave him a letter of introduction to P. B. Tyrrell
amongst others, so that you may come across him. When I am
admitted here we will enter into a partnership which at my desire
is capable of being dissolved after one year by 3 months notice, as
I intend on the first opportunity to shift into Adelaide where in
time I feel sure of making a stir in Court Business. As it is, I get a fair share of it, during the last week having gone over two hundred
miles on circuit. The paper I send you, today's, contains a short
report of two of the cases. But I am still, previous to admission,
on £3 a week, wih a bonus of £ 10 in lieu of a rise. On Partnership
I will take 2/3 and Hardy & Davis 1/3 — the business to be in my
name, and the goodwill their's. Any opportunities I got have procured
me a certain amount of Reputation, but until I am settled
in Adelaide my chances won't be very many.
I am glad you have reached the £100 a year, but . . . [The rest
of the letter is missing.]

[P. McM. Glynn]