Trelawny was by at the burning; and he was an ocean-rover, too!
"...the prototype of Melville's early works is Childe Harold, or, to name a more specific model flavored with Byronism, Trelawny's Adventures of a Younger Son."
-Henry A. Murray, Intro to Pierre Or The Ambiguities (Hendricks House, 1949)."Scenes Beyond the Western Border," Southern Literary Messenger (September 1851): 570-571. Scenes and Adventures in the Army (1857), 254-5.
I. F.—'The Adventures of a Younger Son' by Trelawny, is another instance; a book which I have read twice with delight; but it is out of print; I know no one who has read it.
"Excuse me, but I have,—and laughed till my sides ached. What a keen sense of the ridiculous. An original work altogether."
I. F.—And how superior to the sentimental tribe of heroines, is the Arab bride; and Van Scalpvelt [Van Scolpvelt] is a jewel.
"Yes, the eccentric and inhuman martyr of science; he is food for much laughter."
I. F.—De Witt and the nameless hero, are every inch sailors and soldiers too.
"Do you remember the Malay chief and his red horse?"
I. F.—Remember them! It is a splendid picture of glorious bravery—of heroic action!
I. F. stands for "Imaginary Friend." Later on, starting with the August 1852 installment of "Scenes Beyond the Western Border," I. F. becomes F. for "Frank." In the book version Scenes and Adventures in the Army, the Captain's prairie pal is never identified as "Frank" or "Imaginary Friend," only as "Friend."
ReplyDelete