785. Robert Southey to Mary Hays, 23 May 1803 ⁠* 

Dear Madam

My letter would be a valuable one if the ability of suggesting any fit subject for your talents were equal to the good will with which it is attempted.

Novels are generally interesting in proportion as they excite our attention by what is new. I think the manners & customs of other countries & other times afford mines of such novelty as yet unransacked. the materials are easily acquired from our numerous books of travels. It will be far more difficult to keep up the metaphysical costume. if I did not believe you were capable of overcoming this difficulty I should <not> offer the suggestion. some materials for thinking may be afforded by thus contrasting the opinions & institutions of different countries, & enforcing what is true everywhere.

The French Atala [1]  owed all its celebrity to its scenery & manners – it had the effect of the serious pantomimes at our theatres – Oscar & Malvina [2]  – or the Death of Captain Cook. [3]  & all its scenery, & tenfold as much painted with ten-thousand fold more genius is to be found in Bartrams Travels. [4]  S^t Pierres Tales [5]  have this advantage in a high degree. I do not know a single English novel that possesses it. Many plans have at various times occurred to me – but the seed never remained long enough to germinate. I remember one which would almost be the antithesis to Atala – a Portugueze on her way from India to the mother country to become a nun, wrecked on the coast of Africa & falling into the power of the Caffers – the best savages of whom we have yet heard – to convert her & her father Confessor till he marries her to a negro might form the groundwork of a story. [6]  If you like to dwell upon the darker side of the picture, the scene <of a gloomier action> may be laid among the fiercer American tribes – or in Hindostan. Mango Capac, the Civilizer of Peru has always appeared to me an excellent hero for a philosophical romance, but I have felt the full difficulty of forming any solution, short of miracle, for his appearing where he did & improving savages by so wonderful a conquest of intellect over ignorance. [7]  Should you think of building any story upon foreign ground, I can perhaps save you some trouble by referring you to the readiest sources of information.

Whenever I have thought of writing a novel among my own ways & means, to develope some single character has been the main object of the plan. Such for instance as a man who accustoms himself to look at every thing in a ridiculous point of view, till by laughing at every thing, he laughs away every good principle. A great mind ruined by a little failing would well deserve to be delineated – by indecision – or procrastination, or by that excess of good humour which submits to weaker intellects rather than inflict pain. I have dwelt with more pleasure upon the ideal character of a man renouncing fair prospects for principle, throwing himself upon the world with the belief that while he can obtain food, raiment or shelter it is beneath him to be unhappy, & being happy in consequence of that belief. [8] 

The narrative of Madame Godin [9]  has been translated, & is so very short that I once transcribed it. I should be sorry to see you employed in translation. nor is it easy to point out any work of merit which has not already been made English. I remember a wild Ariosto-like Romance by Cazotte called Ollivier.  [10]  Gibbons recommendation [11]  induced me to read it. one volume would comprize it & perhaps the Authors name might give it a saleable notoriety. There is a romance of far higher merit by the Abbe Terrasson [12]  of which there is a translation by a M^r Lediard, [13]  some fifty years old, not enough known nor common enough to prevent the success of another. Sethos is the book I mean. it has as much learning as the Anacharsis, [14]  tho unfortunately the Author has given no references & therefore gained no credit. the character of the hero is very finely conceived – a philosopher who voluntarily resigns a kingdom, & a mistress, & the friends if you could find a bookseller who would set out this book with good maps, & prints for which Denons book [15]  would supply noble scenery I am certain it could not fail to answer. It would fill two octavo volumes.

There is a good history of Charlemagne in four duodecimo by Gaillard. [16]  a history of the Arabs of the same length by the Abbe Marigny. [17]  but this last I think has been Englishd. [18]  Booksellers are the people to judge of the saleableness of such works. their merit is another thing. Travels are more saleable. Sir John Chardin [19]  is the best traveller that ever went eastward & only one volume was ever translated. this would be expensive on account of reengraving many prints – but books sell the better for prints. Something might be added to his accounts from modern later travellers. there exists no translation of Niebuhrs travels except a miserable mutilation by that wretched Scotchman Heron. [20]  these writers are both of great & established merit. the former I should prefer were I a bookseller. & should be sanguine in my expectations of success. I think it extends to six small volumes – about half was published in our language in one folio. three quartos might comprize it. but your powers of language ought not to be wasted upon translation.

In whatever plan you may adopt, if there be any way in which I can be of the smallest service I shall be very glad to prove that the proffer is not designed a mere form of courtesy. Should you like my first suggestion I have a trick of dreaming stories & could send you some rude outlines which you might work upon at your own pleasure, & fill up – or use as painters use their daubs. In the course of next month I expect to visit London, & will then look for Ollivier [21]  (which is somewhere among my poor scattered books) that you may cast your eye over it. meantime if you can make me in any way useful, command me freely. the points on which we differ are fewer than those on which we agree, & our hopes of mankind are the same.

yrs truly & respectfully

Robert Southey.

Kingsdown. Bristol.

May. 23^rd 1803.