Chapter I: Front Matter

bookcover

SOME PRESS OPINIONS

OF OTHER BOOKS BY

COMPTON MACKENZIE

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SOME PRESS OPINIONS OF

Kensington Rhymes

_By_ COMPTON MACKENZIE

_SATURDAY REVIEW:_

“These are particularly jolly rhymes, that any really good
sort of a chap, say a fellow of about ten would like. Mr.
J. R. Monsell’s pictures are exceptionally jolly too.... If
we may judge by ourselves, not only the children, but the
grown-ups of the family will be enchanted by this quite
delightful and really first-rate book.”

_DAILY MAIL:_

“Among the picture-books of the season, pride of place must
go to Mr. Compton Mackenzie’s ‘Kensington Rhymes.’ They are
full of quiet humour and delicate insight into the
child-mind.”

_OBSERVER:_

“Far the best rhymes of the year are ‘Kensington Rhymes,’
by Compton Mackenzie, almost the best things of the kind
since the ‘Child’s Garden of Verse.’”

_ATHENÆUM:_

“Will please children of all ages, and also contains much
that will not be read without a sympathetic smile by
grown-ups possessed of a sense of humour.”

_TIMES:_

“The real gift of child poetry, sometimes almost with a
Stevensonian ring.”

_OUTLOOK:_

“What Henley did for older Londoners, Mr. Compton Mackenzie
and Mr. Monsell have done for the younger generation.”

_STANDARD:_

“Our hearts go out first to Mr. Compton Mackenzie’s
‘Kensington Rhymes.’”

_SUNDAY TIMES:_

“Full of whimsical observation and genuine insight,
‘Kensington Rhymes’ by Compton Mackenzie are certainly
entertaining.”

_EVENING STANDARD:_

“Something of the charm of Christina Rossetti’s.”

_VOTES FOR WOMEN:_

“They breathe the very conventional and stuffy air of
Kensington.... We are bound to say that the London child we
tried it on liked the book.”

MARTIN SECKER, NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET, ADELPHI

SOME PRESS OPINIONS OF

The Passionate Elopement

_By_ COMPTON MACKENZIE

_TIMES:_

“We are grateful to him for wringing our hearts with the
‘tears and laughter of spent joys.’”

_SPECTATOR:_

“As an essay in literary bravura the book is quite
remarkable.”

_COUNTRY LIFE:_

“In the kindliness, the humour and the gentleness of the
treatment, it comes as near to Thackeray, as any man has
come since Thackeray.”

_DAILY CHRONICLE:_

“Thanks for a rare entertainment! And, if the writing of
your story pleased you as much as the reading of it has
pleased us, congratulations too.”

_GLOBE:_

“A little tenderness, a fragrant aroma of melancholy laid
away in lavender, a hint of cynicism, an airy
philosophy—and so a wholly piquant, subtly aromatic dish, a
rosy apple stuck with cloves.”

_GLASGOW NEWS:_

“Fresh and faded, mocking yet passionate, compact of tinsel
and gold is this little tragedy of a winter season in view
of the pump room.... Through it all, the old tale has a
dainty, fluttering, unusual, and very real beauty.”

_ENGLISH REVIEW:_

“All his characters are real and warm with life. ‘The
Passionate Elopement’ should be read slowly, and followed
from the smiles and extravagance of the opening chapters
through many sounding and poetical passages, to the
thrilling end of the Love Chase. The quiet irony of the
close leaves one smiling, but with the wiser smile of
Horace Ripple who meditates on the colours of life.”

_WESTMINSTER GAZETTE:_

“Mr. Mackenzie’s book is a novel of genre, and with
infinite care and obvious love of detail has he set himself
to paint a literary picture in the manner of Hogarth. He is
no imitator, he owes no thanks to any predecessor in the
fashioning of his book.... Mr. Mackenzie recreates (the
atmosphere) so admirably that it is no exaggeration to say
that, thanks to his brilliant scene-painting, we shall gain
an even more vivid appreciation of the work of his great
forerunners. Lightly and vividly does Mr. Mackenzie sketch
in his characters ... but they do not on that account lack
personality. Each of them is definitely and faithfully
drawn, with sensibility, sympathy, and humour.”

MARTIN SECKER, NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET, ADELPHI

SOME PRESS OPINIONS OF

CARNIVAL

_By_ COMPTON MACKENZIE

_ATHENÆUM_ :

“Mr. Mackenzie’s second novel amply fulfils the promise of
his first.... Its first and great quality is originality.
The originality of Mr. Mackenzie lies in his possession of
an imagination and a vision of life that are as peculiarly
his own as a voice or a laugh, and that reflect themselves
in a style which is that of no other writer.... A prose
full of beauty.”

_PUNCH_ :

“After reading a couple of pages I settled myself in my
chair for a happy evening, and thenceforward the
fascination of the book held me like a kind of enchantment.
I despair, though, of being able to convey any idea of it
in a few lines of criticism.... As for the style, I will
only add that it gave me the same blissful feeling of
security that one has in listening to a great musician....
In the meantime, having recorded my delight in it, I shall
put ‘Carnival’ upon the small and by no means crowded shelf
that I reserve for ‘keeps.’”

_OUTLOOK_ :

“In these days of muddled literary evaluations, it is a
small thing to say of a novel that it is a great novel; but
this we should say without hesitation of ‘Carnival,’ that
not only is it marked out to be the leading success of its
own season, but to be read afterwards as none but the best
books are read.”

_OBSERVER_ :

“The heroic scale of Mr. Compton Mackenzie’s conception and
achievement sets a standard for him which one only applies
to the ‘great’ among novelists.”

_ENGLISH REVIEW_ :

“An exquisite sense of beauty with a hunger for beautiful
words to express it.”

_ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS_ :

“The spirit of youth and the spirit of London.”

_NEW YORK TIMES_ :

“We hail Mr. Mackenzie as a man alive—who raises all things
to a spiritual plane.”

_MR. C. K. SHORTER in the SPHERE_ :

“‘Carnival’ carried me from cover to cover on wings.”

_NEW AGE_ :

“We are more than sick of it.”

MARTIN SECKER, NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET, ADELPHI

SINISTER STREET

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
CARNIVAL THE PASSIONATE ELOPEMENT KENSINGTON RHYMES

For some press opinions, see preceding pages SINISTER
STREET: VOLUME II METROPOLITAN NIGHTS These volumes are in
preparation

S I N I S T E R S T R E E T

_By COMPTON MACKENZIE_

L O N D O N : M A R T I N S E C K E R

NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET ADELPHI MCMXIII

TO

THE REVEREND

E. D. STONE

_My dear Mr. Stone,_

_Since you have on several occasions deprecated the length of
my books, I feel that your name upon the dedicatory page of
this my longest book deserves explanation, if not apology._

_When I first conceived the idea of ‘Sinister Street,’ I must
admit I did not realize that in order to present my theme fully
in accord with my own prejudice, I should require so much
space. But by the time I had written one hundred pages I knew
that, unless I was prepared against my judgment to curtail the
original scheme, I must publish my book in a form slightly
different from the usual._

_The exigencies of commercial production forbid a six shilling
novel of eight or nine hundred pages, and as I saw no prospect
of confining myself even to that length, I decided to publish
in two volumes, each to contain two divisions of my tale._

_You will say that this is an aggravation of the whole matter
and the most impenitent sort of an apology. Yet are a thousand
pages too long for the history of twenty-five years of a man’s
life, that is to say if one holds as I hold that childhood
makes the instrument, youth tunes the strings, and early
manhood plays the melody?_

_The tradition of the English novel has always favoured length
and leisure; nor do I find that my study of French and Russian
literature leads me to strain after brevity. I do not send
forth this volume as the first of a trilogy. It is actually the
first half of a complete book. At the same time, feeling as I
do that in these days of competitive reading, the sudden vision
of over a thousand pages would be inevitably depressing, I give
you the opportunity of rest at the five-hundredth page, which
reaches a climax at least as conclusive as any climax can be
that is not death. I do not pretend that I shall not be greatly
disappointed if next January or February you feel disinclined
to read ‘Dreaming Spires’ and ‘Romantic Education,’ which will
complete the second volume. Yet I will be so considerate as to
find someone else to bear the brunt of dedication, and after
all there will be no compulsion either upon you or upon the
public to resume._

_Yours ever affectionately,_

_Compton Mackenzie._

_Let me add in postscript that ‘Sinister Street’ is a symbolic
title which bears no reference to an heraldic euphemism._

_Phillack, August 3, 1913._

VOLUME ONE CONTAINING I.THE PRISON HOUSE II.CLASSIC EDUCATION

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“ _The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature
imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life
between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character
undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition
thick-sighted._ “

J OHN K EATS .

CONTENTS

_BOOK ONE: The Prison House_

I. THE NEW WORLD 1

II. BITTERSWEET 20

III. FEARS AND FANTASIES 39

IV. UNENDING CHILDHOOD 46

V. THE FIRST FAIRY PRINCESS 70

VI. THE ENCHANTED PALACE 85

VII. RANDELL HOUSE 97

VIII. SIAMESE STAMPS 113

IX. HOLIDAYS IN FRANCE 129

_BOOK TWO: Classic Education_

I. THE JACOBEAN 141

II. THE QUADRUPLE INTRIGUE 159

III. PASTORAL 176

IV. BOYHOOD’S GLORY 188

V. INCENSE 208

VI. PAX 232

VII. CLOVEN HOOFMARKS 248

VIII. MIRRORS 262

IX. THE YELLOW AGE 281

X. STELLA 308

XI. ACTION AND REACTION 321

XII. ALAN 346

XIII. SENTIMENT 355

XIV. ARABESQUE 378

XV. GREY EYES 397

XVI. BLUE EYES 416

XVII. LILY 427

XVIII. EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD 447

XIX. PARENTS 469

XX. MUSIC 479