Olla Podrida   By: Frederick Marryat (1792-1848)

BY

CAPTAIN MARRYAT

[Illustration]

LONDON J. M. DENT AND CO. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND CO. MDCCCXCVI

Contents

THE MONK OF SEVILLE 1 Metropolitan Magazine , 1833.

THE GIPSY 85 Metropolitan Magazine , 1834.

ILL WILL 159 New Monthly Magazine , 1837.

HOW TO WRITE A FASHIONABLE NOVEL 179 Metropolitan Magazine , 1833.

HOW TO WRITE A BOOK OF TRAVELS 200 Metropolitan Magazine 1833, 1834.

HOW TO WRITE A ROMANCE 214 Metropolitan Magazine , 1835.

S.W. AND BY W. 3/4 W. 225

THE SKY BLUE DOMINO 243 New Monthly Magazine , 1837.

MODERN TOWN HOUSES 260 New Monthly Magazine , 1837.

THE WAY TO BE HAPPY 275

THE LEGEND OF THE BELL ROCK 282

MOONSHINE 293

THE FAIRY'S WAND 313 New Monthly Magazine , 1840.

A RENCONTRE 328

Prefatory Note

This edition of Olla Podrida does not include the "Diary on the Continent" which appeared first in the Metropolitan Magazine 1835 1836 as "The Diary of a Blasé " continued in the New Monthly Magazine 1837, 1838, as "Confessions and opinions of Ralph the Restless." Marryat himself described the "Diary" as "very good magazine stuff," and it has no fitting place in an edition of his novels, from which the "Diary in America" is also excluded.

The space thus created is occupied by "The Gipsy," "The Fairy's Wand," and "A Rencontre," which I have ventured to print here in spite the author's protest,[A] that the original edition of Olla Podrida contained all the miscellaneous matter contributed by him to periodicals that he wished to acknowledge as his writing. The statement may be regarded as a challenge to his editors to produce something worthy; and I certainly consider that the "Gipsy" is superior to some of his fragments, and may be paired, as a comedy, with "The Monk of Seville," as a tragedy.

[Footnote A: Preface to first edition of O.P. printed below.]

But I have not attempted any systematic search for scraps. "The Fairy's Wand" was published in the same year as, and probably later than, Olla Podrida itself, and need not therefore be "considered as disavowed and rejected" by him. "A Rencontre" was always reprinted and acknowledged by its author, being, for no ostensible reason, bound up with Joseph Rushbrook, or The Poacher , 1841.

This seems the most appropriate occasion to supplement, and in some measure to correct, the list of novels contributed to periodicals by Marryat, which I compiled from statements in The Life and Letters by Florence Marryat (also tabulated in Mr David Hannay's "Life"), and printed on p. xix. of the General Introduction to this edition.

TO THE METROPOLITAN MAGAZINE.

(Edited by Marryat, 1832 1835.)

The Pacha of Many Tales , May 1831 February 1833; and May 1834 May 1835.

Peter Simple , June 1832 September 1833. The novel is not completed in the Magazine, but closes with an announcement of the three volume edition.

Jacob Faithful , September 1833 September 1834.

Japhet in Search of a Father , September 1834 January 1836.

Snarleyyow , January 1836 January 1837.

Midshipman Easy. One specimen chapter only. August 1835.

TO THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

The Privateersman , 1845 1846.

Valerie (the first eleven chapters), 1846 1847.

The Phantom Ship , 1838 1839.