In the Metropolitan Magazine, where this novel
originally appeared (Sep. 1834-Jan. 1836), Marryat
prepared his readers for its reception in the following
words:—
“And having now completed ‘Jacob Faithful,’
we trust to the satisfaction of our readers, we will
make a few remarks. We commenced writing on our
own profession, and having completed four tales, novels,
or whatever you may please to call them” (viz.,
Frank Mildmay, The King’s Own, Newton Forster,
Peter Simple), “in ‘Jacob Faithful’
we quitted the salt water for the fresh.
From the wherry we shall now step on shore, and in
our next number we shall introduce to our readers
’The Adventures of Japhet, in search
of his Father.’”
The promise was faithfully kept, and Japhet, with
all his varied experience, never went to sea.
There were indeed few companies on land to which he
did not penetrate. Reared in a foundling hospital,
and apprenticed to a Smithfield apothecary, his good
looks, impulsive self-confidence, and unbounded talent
for lying, carried him with eclat through the professions
of quack doctor, juggler, and mountebank, gentleman
about town, tramp, and quaker: to emerge triumphantly
at last as the only son of a wealthy Anglo-Indian
general, or “Bengal tiger,” as his friends
preferred to call him.
Japhet’s “adventures,” of course,
are shared by a faithful friend and ally, Timothy
Oldmixon, the Sancho to his Quixote, originally an
orphan pauper like himself, composed of two qualities—fun
and affection. He encounters villains, lawyers,
kind-hearted peers, “rooks” and “pigeons,”
gipsies, leaders of fashion, fair maidens—enough
and to spare. In a word, Marryat here makes use
of well-worn material, and uses it well. He has
constructed a tale of private adventure on the old
familiar lines, in which the local colour—acquired
from other books—is admirably laid on,
and the interest sustained to the end. The story
is well told, enlivened by humour, and very respectably
constructed.
The reader will find Japhet thoroughly exciting,
and will have no difficulty in believing that, while
it was running in the pages of the Metropolitan,
“an American vessel meeting an English one in
the broad Atlantic, instead of a demand for water
or supplies, ran up the question to her mast-head,
‘Has Japhet found his father yet?’”
Japhet, in search of a Father, is here re-printed,
with a few corrections, from the first edition in
3 vols. Saunders & Otley, 1836. On page
360 a few words, enclosed in square brackets, have
been inserted from the magazine version, as the abbreviated
sentence, always hitherto reproduced from the first
edition, is unintelligible.
R.B.J.
* * * *
*
Japhet, in Search
of a Father
