| Title: | McMahon Glynn, Patrick to Glynn, James P., 1883 |
|---|---|
| ID | 4374 |
| Collection | Patrick McMahon Glynn: Letters to his family (1874-1927) [Gerald Glynn O'Collins] |
| File | glynn/24 |
| Year | 1883 |
| Sender | McMahon Glynn, Patrick |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | lawyer |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Kapunda, South Australia, Australia |
| Destination | Gort, Co. Galway, Ireland |
| Recipient | Glynn, James P. |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | siblings |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 629 |
| Genre | literature, acquaintances, prospects |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Kapunda 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] |
