文档介绍：OUR VILLAGE
OUR VILLAGE
MARY RUSSELL MITFORD
1
OUR VILLAGE
Introduction by Anne Thackeray
Ritchie
I.
There is a great deal of admirable literature concerning Miss Mitford,
so much of it indeed, that the writer of this little notice feels as if she
almost owed an apology to those who remember, for having ventured to
write, on hearsay only, and without having ever known or ever seen the
author of 'Our Village.' And yet, so vivid is the homely friendly presence,
so clear the sound of that voice 'like a chime of bells,' with its hospitable
cheery greeting, that she can scarcely realise that this acquaintance exists
only in the world of the might-have-beens.
For people who are beginning to remember, rather than looking
forward any more, there certainly exists no more delightful reading than
the memoirs and stories of heroes and heroines, many of whom we
ourselves may have seen, and to whom we may have spoken. As we read
on we are led into some happy bygone region,--such as that one described
by Mr. du Maurier in 'Peter Ibbetson,'--a region in which we ourselves,
together with all our friends and acquaintances, grow young again;--very
young, very brisk, very hopeful. The people we love are there, along with
the people we remember. Music begins to play, we are dancing, laughing,
scampering over the country once more; our parents too are young and
laughing cheerily. Every now and then perhaps some old friend, also
vigorous and hopeful, bursts into the book, and begins to talk or to write a
letter; early sights and sounds return to us, we have NOW, and we have
THEN, in a pleasant harmony. To those of a certain literary generation
who read Miss Mitford's memoirs, how many such familiar presences and
names must appear and reappear. Not least among them that of her
biographer, Mr. Harness himself, who was so valued by his friends. Mrs.
Kemble, Mrs. Sartoris, Charles Allston Collins, always talked of him with
a great respect and tendernes