tailieunhanh - THE ABBOT. BEING THE SEQUEL TO THE MONASTERY.

From what is said in the Introduction to the Monastery, it must necessarily be inferred, that the Author considered that romance as something very like a failure. It is true, the booksellers did not complain of the sale, because, unless on very felicitous occasions, or on those which are equally the reverse, literary popularity is not gained or lost by a single publication. Leisure must be allowed for the tide both to flow and ebb. But I was conscious that, in my situation, not to advance was in some Degree to recede, and being naturally unwilling to think that the principle of decay lay in. | 1 THE ABBOT. BEING THE SEQUEL TO THE MONASTERY. By Sir Walter Scott INTRODUCTION-- 1831. From what is said in the Introduction to the Monastery it must necessarily be inferred that the Author considered that romance as something very like a failure. It is true the booksellers did not complain of the sale because unless on very felicitous occasions or on those which are equally the reverse literary popularity is not gained or lost by a single publication. Leisure must be allowed for the tide both to flow and ebb. But I was conscious that in my situation not to advance was in some Degree to recede and being naturally unwilling to think that the principle of decay lay in myself I was at least desirous to know of a certainty whether the degree of discountenance which I had incurred was now owing to an ill-managed story or an ill-chosen subject. I was never I confess one of those who are willing to suppose the brains of an author to be a kind of milk which will not stand above a single creaming and who are eternally harping to young authors to husband their efforts and to be chary of their reputation lest it grow hackneyed in the eyes of men. Perhaps I was and have always been the more indifferent to the degree of estimation in which I might be held as an author because I did not put so high a value as many others upon what is termed literary reputation in the abstract or at least upon the species of popularity which had fallen to my share for though it were worse than affectation to deny that my vanity was satisfied at my success in the department in which chance had in some measure enlisted me I was nevertheless far from thinking that the novelist or romance-writer stands high in the ranks of literature. But I spare the reader farther egotism on this subject as I have expressed my opinion very fully in 2 the Introductory Epistle to the Fortunes of Nigel first edition and although it be composed in an imaginary character it is as sincere and candid as if it had been .