Roland Cashel (Complete)

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, New Age, History, Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book Roland Cashel (Complete) by Charles James Lever, Library of Alexandria
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Charles James Lever ISBN: 9781465561312
Publisher: Library of Alexandria Publication: July 29, 2009
Imprint: Library of Alexandria Language: English
Author: Charles James Lever
ISBN: 9781465561312
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Publication: July 29, 2009
Imprint: Library of Alexandria
Language: English
I first thought of this story—I should say I planned it, if the expression were not misleading—when living at the Lake of Como. There, in a lovely little villa—the "Cima"—on the border of the lake, with that glorious blending of Alpine scenery and garden-like luxuriance around me, and little or none of interruption or intercourse, I had abundant time to make acquaintance with my characters and follow them into innumerable situations, and through adventures far more extraordinary and exciting than I dared afterwards to recount. I do not know how it may be with other story-tellers, but I have to own for myself that the personages of a novel gain over at times a degree of interest very little inferior to that inspired by living and real people, and that this is especially the case when I have found myself in some secluded spot and seeing little of the world. To such an ascendancy has this deception attained, that more than once I have found myself trying to explain why this person should have done that, and by what impulse that other was led into something else. In fact, I have found that there are conditions of the mind in which purely imaginary creations assume the characters of actual people, and act positively as though they were independent of the will that invented them. Of the strange manner in which imagination can thus assume the mastery, and for a while at least have command over the mind, I cannot give a stronger instance within my own experience than the mode in which this story was first conceived. When I began I intended that the action should be carried on in the land where the tale opened. The scene on every side of me had shed its influence, the air was weighty with the perfume of the lime and the orange. To days of dazzling brilliancy there succeeded nights of tropical splendor; with stars of almost preternatural magnitude streaking the calm lake with long lines of light. To people a scene like this with the sort of characters that might befit it, was rather a matter of necessity with me than choice, and it was then that Maritaña revealed herself to me with a charm of loveliness I have never been able to repicture. It was there I bethought me of those passionate natures in which climate and soil and vegetation reproduce themselves, glowing, ardent, and voluptuous as they are. It was there my fancy loved to stray among the changeful incidents of lives of wild adventure and wilder passion; and to imagine the strange discords that could be evoked between the traits of a land that recalled Paradise and the natures that were only angelic in the fall
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
I first thought of this story—I should say I planned it, if the expression were not misleading—when living at the Lake of Como. There, in a lovely little villa—the "Cima"—on the border of the lake, with that glorious blending of Alpine scenery and garden-like luxuriance around me, and little or none of interruption or intercourse, I had abundant time to make acquaintance with my characters and follow them into innumerable situations, and through adventures far more extraordinary and exciting than I dared afterwards to recount. I do not know how it may be with other story-tellers, but I have to own for myself that the personages of a novel gain over at times a degree of interest very little inferior to that inspired by living and real people, and that this is especially the case when I have found myself in some secluded spot and seeing little of the world. To such an ascendancy has this deception attained, that more than once I have found myself trying to explain why this person should have done that, and by what impulse that other was led into something else. In fact, I have found that there are conditions of the mind in which purely imaginary creations assume the characters of actual people, and act positively as though they were independent of the will that invented them. Of the strange manner in which imagination can thus assume the mastery, and for a while at least have command over the mind, I cannot give a stronger instance within my own experience than the mode in which this story was first conceived. When I began I intended that the action should be carried on in the land where the tale opened. The scene on every side of me had shed its influence, the air was weighty with the perfume of the lime and the orange. To days of dazzling brilliancy there succeeded nights of tropical splendor; with stars of almost preternatural magnitude streaking the calm lake with long lines of light. To people a scene like this with the sort of characters that might befit it, was rather a matter of necessity with me than choice, and it was then that Maritaña revealed herself to me with a charm of loveliness I have never been able to repicture. It was there I bethought me of those passionate natures in which climate and soil and vegetation reproduce themselves, glowing, ardent, and voluptuous as they are. It was there my fancy loved to stray among the changeful incidents of lives of wild adventure and wilder passion; and to imagine the strange discords that could be evoked between the traits of a land that recalled Paradise and the natures that were only angelic in the fall

More books from Library of Alexandria

Cover of the book A School History of the United States by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book Calumny Refuted by Facts from Liberia Presented to the Boston Anti-Slavery Bazaar, U.S. by the Author of A Tribute For The Negro by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book Diffinição da sécia by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book Devil's Cargo by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book The Confession of a Child of the Century (Complete) by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book Heroines of Service: Mary Lyon, Alice Freeman Palmer, Clara Barton, Frances Willard, Julia Ward Howe, Anna Shaw, Mary Antin, Alice C. Fletcher, Mary Slessor of Calabar, Madame Curie, Jane Addams by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book Wisdom of the Ages by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book A Prisoner of the Khaleefa: Twelve Years Captivity at Omdurman by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book Ad Nationes (Complete) by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book Studies in Islamic Mysticism by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book The Bondman: A Story of the Times of Wat Tyler by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book The Spider's Web by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book Hooded Detective, Volume III No. 2, January, 1942 by Charles James Lever
Cover of the book History of Friedrich II. Of Prussia, Frederick the Great (Complete) by Charles James Lever
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy