Chapter I: Preface

On August 10, 1845, Marryat wrote to Mrs S., a lady for whom, to the time of his death, he retained the highest sentiments of friendship and esteem:--

"I really wish you would write your confessions, I will publish them. I have a beautiful opening in some memoranda I have made of the early life of a Frenchwoman, that is, up to the age of seventeen, when she is cast adrift upon the world, and I would work it all up together. Let us commence, and divide the tin; it is better than doing nothing. I have been helping Ainsworth in the _New Monthly_, and I told him that I had commenced a work called _Mademoiselle Virginie_, which he might perhaps have. Without my knowing it, he has announced its coming forth; but it does not follow that he is to have it, nevertheless, and indeed he now wishes me to continue one" (_The Privateersman_) "that I have already begun in the magazine."

However, Mrs S., with whom at one time Washington Irving also wished to collaborate, declined the offer; and _Mademoiselle Virginie_ was ultimately published in the _New Monthly_ under the title of _Valerie_. The first eleven chapters appeared in the magazine 1846, 1847, and the remaining pages were added--according to _The Life and Letters of Captain Marryat_--by another hand, when it came out in book form.

There are two special features in _Valerie_, beyond its actual merits, that inevitably excite our attention. It is Marryat's last work, and the only one in which the interest centres entirely on women. For this reason, and from the eighteenth century flavour in some of its characters, the book inevitably recalls Miss Burney and her little-read _The Wanderer_, in which, as in _Valerie_, a proud and sensitive girl is thrown on the world, and discovers--by bitter experience as governess, companion, and music mistress--the sneer that lurks beneath the smile of fashion and prosperity.

The subject is well handled, on the old familiar lines, and supplies the groundwork of an eminently readable story, peopled by many life-like "humours" and an attractive, spirited heroine. The adventures of _Valerie_ are various and well-sustained; her bearing throughout secures the reader's sympathy, and he is conscious of a genuine pleasure in her ultimate prosperity and happiness.

_Valerie, an autobiography_, is here reprinted from the first edition in two volumes. Henry Colburn, 1849.

R.B.J.

After Marryat's death a fragment of a story for the "Juvenile Library" was found in his desk, and has been published in the _Life and Letters_ by Florence Marryat. It describes the experience of a man who, like Marryat himself, was compelled by the failure of speculations to live in the country and manage his own estate. It was projected "because few young people have any knowledge of farming, and there are no books written by which any knowledge of it may be imparted to children." Marryat himself was not a very successful farmer, but probably his theory was in advance of his practice.