Thaddeus of Warsaw

Thaddeus of Warsaw

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Title: Thaddeus of Warsaw
Author: Jane Porter
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6566] [Yes, we are more than
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[Illustration: DR. MIDDLETON.]

THADDEUS OF WARSAW
BY
JANE PORTER
AUTHOR OF "THE SCOTTISH CHIEFS," ETC.

"Loin d'aimer la guerre, il l'abhorre; En triomphant même il déplore
Les désastres qu'elle produit Et, couronné par la victoire, II gémit de sa
propre gloire. Si la paix n'en est pas le fruit."

A NEW AND REVISED EDITION WITH NEW NOTES, ETC., BY
THE AUTHOR

THE AUTHOR, TO HER FRIENDLY READERS.
Written for the new edition of "Thaddeus of Warsaw," forming one of
the series called "The Standard Novels."
To such readers alone who, by the sympathy of a social taste, fall in
with any blameless fashion of the day, and, from an amiable interest,
also, in whatever may chance to afford them innocent pleasure, would
fain know something more about an author whose works have brought
them that gratification than the cold letter of a mere literary preface
usually tells: to such readers this--something of an egotistical--epistle is
addressed.
For, in beginning the republication of a regular series of the novels, or,
as they have been more properly called, biographical romances, of
which I have been the author, it has been considered desirable to make
certain additions to each work, in the form of a few introductory pages
and scattered notes, illustrative of the origin of the tale, of the historical
events referred to in it, and of the actually living characters who
constitute its personages, with some account, also, of the really local
scenery described; thus giving, it is thought, a double zest to the
entertainment of the reader, by bringing him into a previous
acquaintance with the persons he is to meet in the book, and making
him agreeably familiar with the country through which he is to travel in
their company. Indeed, the social taste of the times has lately fully
shown how advantageous the like conversational disclosures have
proved to the recent republications of the celebrated "Waverley
Novels," by the chief of novel-writers; and in the new series of the
admirable naval tales by the distinguished American novelist, both of
whom paid to the mother- country the gratifying tribute of making it
their birthplace.
Such evidences in favor of an argument could not fail to persuade me to
undertake the desired elucidating task; feeling, indeed, particularly
pleased to adopt, in my turn, a successful example from the once Great
Unknown--now the not less great avowed author of the Waverley
Novels, in the person of Sir Walter Scott, who did me the honor to
adopt the style or class of novel of which "Thaddeus of Warsaw" was

the first,--a class which, uniting the personages and facts of real history
or biography with a combining and illustrative machinery of the
imagination, formed a new species of writing in that day, and to which
Madame de Staël and others have given the appellation of "an epic in
prose." The day of its appearance is now pretty far back: for "Thaddeus
of Warsaw" (a tale founded on Polish heroism) and the "Scottish
Chiefs" (a romance grounded on Scottish heroism) were both published
in England, and translated into various languages abroad, many years
before the literary wonder of Scotland gave to the world his
transcendent story of Waverley, forming a most impressive historical
picture of the last struggle of the papist, but gallant, branch of the
Stuarts for the British throne. [Footnote: It was on the publication of
these, her first two works, in the German