The Old English Baron

The Old English Baron

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Title: The Old English Baron
Author: Clara Reeve
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The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve

PREFACE

As this Story is of a species which, though not new, is out of the
common track, it has been thought necessary to point out some
circumstances to the reader, which will elucidate the design, and, it is
hoped, will induce him to form a favourable, as well as a right
judgment of the work before him.
This Story is the literary offspring of The Castle of Otranto, written
upon the same plan, with a design to unite the most attractive and
interesting circumstances of the ancient Romance and modern Novel, at
the same time it assumes a character and manner of its own, that differs
from both; it is distinguished by the appellation of a Gothic Story,
being a picture of Gothic times and manners. Fictitious stories have
been the delight of all times and all countries, by oral tradition in
barbarous, by writing in more civilized ones; and although some
persons of wit and learning have condemned them indiscriminately, I
would venture to affirm, that even those who so much affect to despise
them under one form, will receive and embrace them under another.
Thus, for instance, a man shall admire and almost adore the Epic poems
of the Ancients, and yet despise and execrate the ancient Romances,
which are only Epics in prose.
History represents human nature as it is in real life, alas, too often a
melancholy retrospect! Romance displays only the amiable side of the
picture; it shews the pleasing features, and throws a veil over the
blemishes: Mankind are naturally pleased with what gratifies their
vanity; and vanity, like all other passions of the human heart, may be
rendered subservient to good and useful purposes.

I confess that it may be abused, and become an instrument to corrupt
the manners and morals of mankind; so may poetry, so may plays, so
may every kind of composition; but that will prove nothing more than
the old saying lately revived by the philosophers the most in fashion,
"that every earthly thing has two handles."
The business of Romance is, first, to excite the attention; and secondly,
to direct it to some useful, or at least innocent, end: Happy the writer
who attains both these points, like Richardson! and not unfortunate, or
undeserving praise, he who gains only the latter, and furnishes out an
entertainment for the reader!
Having, in some degree, opened my design, I beg leave to conduct my
reader back again, till he comes within view of The Castle of Otranto; a
work which, as already has been observed, is an attempt to unite the
various merits and graces of the ancient Romance and modern Novel.
To attain this end, there is required a sufficient degree of the
marvellous, to excite the attention; enough of the manners of real life,
to give an air of probability to the work; and enough of the pathetic, to
engage the heart in its behalf.
The book we have mentioned is excellent in the two last points, but has
a redundancy in the first; the opening excites the attention very strongly;
the conduct of the story is artful and judicious; the characters are
admirably drawn and supported; the diction polished and elegant; yet,
with all these brilliant advantages, it palls upon the mind (though it
does not upon the ear); and the reason is obvious, the machinery is so
violent, that it destroys the effect it is intended