A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Johnstone, Mrs.
JOHNSTONE, MRS.,
Is a native of Scotland, and well deserves a distinguished place among contemporary writers of fiction. Her first work, "Clan Albin," was among the earliest of that multitude of novels which followed "Waverley" into the Highlands; but Mrs. Johnstone neither emulates nor imitates in the slightest degree the light that preceded her. Many writers, who were quite lost in the eclipse of the "Great Unknown," have since asserted that he did not suggest the idea of Scotland, as a scene for fiction; that their works were begun or meditated before "Waverley" appeared; among whom, Mrs. Brunton, author of "Discipline," whose testimony is unquestionable, may be placed. Perhaps, there was at that time a national impulse towards "Scotch Novels," just as the taste for nautical discoveries produced Columbus, and the attempt at steam-boats preceded Fulton.
"Clan Albin" is decidedly of the genre ennuyeux, the only kind that Voltaire absolutely condemns. It is full of good sentiment, but insipid and tiresome, and gives no indication of the talent afterwards abounding in Mrs. Johnstone's works. Her next book was "Elizabeth De Bruce," very superior to her first, containing portions that were highly praised by able critics. A very charming, well-written work, in that difficult class—"Children's Books," succeeded. "The Diversions of Hollycot" may take place near Miss Edgeworth's "Frank and Rosamond." Like her stories for juvenile readers, it is sprightly and natural—inculcates good principles, and much useful knowledge; and, what is rarer, it is totally free from anything sentimental or extravagant. Mrs. Johnstone has continued to improve in style, and to develop many amiable qualities as a writer; her humour is sui generis, equal in its way to that of Charles Lamb. Some of the sketches in her "Edinburgh Tales"—those of "Richard Taylor," and "Governor Fox," are not surpassed by any thing in Elia. These and many others were published In a monthly periodical, established at Edinburgh about the year 1830, bearing the title of "Johnstone's Magazine," of which she was the editor, and, we believe, proprietor. It was continued ten or fifteen years. In this was published the "Story of Frankland the Barrister," which is one of the most perfect gems of this kind of literature—wit, pathos, nice delineation of character, are all to be found in it, while the moral lesson is enforced very powerfully. "The Nights of the Round Table" was published in 1835, and contains some admirable tales. "Blanche Delamere" is still a later work; in it she has attempted to show what might be done, and ought to be done by the nobility, to lessen the load of misery pressing on the working classes. We may add, that in all her later works, Mrs. Johnstone, like most thinking writers in the British empire, directs her pen to subjects connected with the distresses of the people. Her tales illustrative of these speculations have neither the wit nor the fancy of their predecessors; the mournful reality seems "to cast a cloud between, and sadden all she sings."