GEORGE

See also:

• PAYNE, PETER (c. 138o-1455)

PAYNE RAINSFOP

See also:

• JAMES
• JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
• JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
• JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
• JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
• JAMES, EPISTLE OF
• GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP JAMES
• JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
• JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
• JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (d. 1827)

JAMES  .D (1799-1860), English novelist, son of Pinkstan James, physician, was born in George Street, Hanover Square, London, on the 9th of August 1799 . He was educated at a private school at Putney, afid afterwards in France . He began to write early, and had, according to his own account, composed the stories afterwards published as A String of Pearls before he was seventeen . As a contributor to newspapers and magazines, he came under the notice of Washington Irving, who encouraged him to produce his Life of Edward the Black Prince (1822) . Richelieu was finished in 1825, and was well thought of by Sir Walter Scott (who apparently saw it in manuscript), but was not brought out till 1829 . Perhaps Irving and Scott, from their natural amiability, were rather dangerous advisers for a writer so inclined by nature to abundant production as James . But he took up historical romance writing at a lucky moment . Scott had firmly established the popularity of the style, and James in England, like Dumas in France, reaped-the reward of their master's labours as well as of their own . For thirty years the author of Richelieu continued to pour out novels of the same kind though of varying merit . His works in prose fiction, verse narrative, and history of an easy kind are said to number over a hundred, most of them being three-volume novels of the usual length . Sixty-seven are catalogued in the British Museum . The best examples of his style are perhaps Richelieu (1829); Philip Augustus (1831); Henry Masterton, probably the best of all (1832); Mary of Burgundy (1833); Darnley (1839); Corse de Leon (1841); The Smuggler (1845) .

His

poetry does not require special mention, nor does his history, though for a short time during the reign of William IV. he held the office of historiographer royal . After writing copiously for about twenty years, James in 185o went to America as British Consul for Massachusetts . He was consul at Richmond, Virginia, from 1852 to 1856, when he was appointed to a similar post at Venice, where he died on the 9th of June 1860 . James has been compared to Dumas, and the comparison holds good in respect of kind, though by no means in respect of merit . Both had a certain gift of separating from the picturesque parts of history what could without much difficulty be worked up into picturesque fiction, and both were possessed of a ready pen . Here, however, the likeness ends . Of purely literary talent James had little . His plots are poor, his descriptions weak, his dialogue often below even a fair average, and he was deplorably prone to repeat himself . The " two cavaliers " who in one form or another open most of his books have passed into a proverb, and Thackeray's good-natured but fatal parody of Barbazure is likely to outlast Richelieu and Darnley by many a year . Nevertheless, though James cannot be allowed any very high rank among novelists, he had a genuine narrative gift, and, though his very best books fall far below Les trois mousquetaires and La reige Margot, there is a certain even level of interest to be found in all of them . James never resorted to illegitimate methods to attract readers, and deserves such credit as may be due to a purveyor of amusement who never caters for the less creditable tastes of his guests . His best novels were published in a revised form in 21 volumes (1844-1849) .