Charles James Lever

Charles James Lever (1806 - 1872) was an Irish novelist and raconteur. Anthony Trollope praised Lever's novels highly when he said that they were just like his conversation. He was a born raconteur and had in perfection that easy flow of light description which without tedium or hurry leads up to the point of the good stories of which in earlier days his supply seemed inexhaustible. With little respect for unity of action or conventional novel structure, his brightest books, such as Lorrequer,...See more

Charles James Lever (1806 - 1872) was an Irish novelist and raconteur. Anthony Trollope praised Lever's novels highly when he said that they were just like his conversation. He was a born raconteur and had in perfection that easy flow of light description which without tedium or hurry leads up to the point of the good stories of which in earlier days his supply seemed inexhaustible. With little respect for unity of action or conventional novel structure, his brightest books, such as Lorrequer, O'Malley and Tom Burke are in fact little more than recitals of scenes in the life of a particular "hero," unconnected by any continuous intrigue. The type of character he depicted is for the most part elementary. His women are mostly roues, romps or Xanthippes; his heroes have too much of the Pickle temper about them and fall an easy prey to the serious attacks of Poe or to the more playful gibes of Thackeray in Phil Fogarty or Bret Harte in Terence Deuville. See less