1807-1815.
For things we never mention,
For Art misunderstood—
For excellent intention
That did not turn to good....
Kipling.
It was, however, not without secret apprehension Maturin went forth to realize his literary aspirations. The unfortunate conflict between his bent and his profession—as understood by the multitude—asserted itself at the very beginning of his career; ‘Maturin’s friends,’ as a biographer[23] puts it, ‘being a little evangelical, he could not risk offending or scandalizing them by appearing publicly as a writer of novels.’ He was, accordingly, compelled to choose a pseudonym, and lighted upon the rather unhappy one of Dennis Jasper Murphy. So, at least, it was judged afterwards by those who were interested in Maturin’s productions. A writer[24] describing a visit he paid to the novelist in the days when his fame was at its highest, says, with reference to this nom de plume:
I remarked that his assumed name of Dennis Jasper Murphy, from its vulgar and merely Irish sound, must have injured the character of ‘Montorio’ and his other romances. In this he seemed to agree with me, observing, that at the time he was inexperienced, and in some instances badly advised.
That the author was an Irishman, and without any ‘literary friend or counsellor,’ is explicitly stated in the preface—the last-named circumstance remaining, for the future, a constant theme of lamentation for Maturin. No doubt there is an air of helplessness about the publication of Montorio. Being unable to dispose of the copyright, Maturin had no choice but to publish it at his own hazard; and the bookseller again, at his hazard, thought it proper to embellish the title of the book by adding the words The Fatal Revenge, the name intended by the author being only The Family of Montorio. In the preface to Women (1818) Maturin mentions this, admitting the addition to have been ‘a very bookselling appellation;’ but how bookselling it was is best seen by the fact that the book did not reach a second edition before 1824.