Some Account of My Cousin Nicholas by Richard Barham (1841)

This was originally published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1834. It is proof, if any is needed, that Barham was far more than a one trick pony, and that, though The Ingoldsby Legends were a staple of Victorian literature, and are the only thing for which he is now remembered (if our current minimal interest can be called remembrance), he was capable of much more. This harks back to the eighteenth century in its farcical, blustering satiric swipe. It is the story of a practical joker, and exactly what whirlwinds his activities reap. Nicholas Bullwinkle is the son of a minor landed gentleman, Sir Oliver Bullwinkle, who, in true Ingoldsbyish fashion, has confounded and disturbed ideas of his family's importance, for which he relates 'family history' which is highly dubious but heartily and comically believed. The story of Nicholas' escapades, as evidenced by the title, is related by his cousin Charles Stafford, each jape overreaching its predecessor, steadily losing taste and proportion as time goes on. Nicholas is not only a joker, he's also a reprobate, running up gambling and other bills all over the land, and a cad, with queues of the disgruntled and offended ever expanding. Almost all of this we see at second hand through Charles' eyes, which adds to the fun as we discover exactly where in the nefarious web Nicholas' impositions apply along with him. His final joke is catastrophic, but only after a long puzzlement, and much digging by Charles and Sir Oliver. Having felt his own version of love for a young heiress to whom Charles is about to become engaged, he constructs a vast web of imposture, tale-telling, evasion, financial fiddling and nonsense to bamboozle them, and tries incognito to grab the gorgeous Amelia from under Charles' nose. Charles' reputation ends up in tatters and Amelia's father despises him. Through a few different agencies, but mainly his own failings, Nicholas is finally exposed - and then commits what will become his fatal mistake: he advertises that his father has died in a less rigorous newspaper. He has, to all extents and purposes, succeeded to the baronetcy, and tradesmen and fellow gamblers all over will extend him any credit he desires, at least for a while! He doesn't think too far ahead, and is considering "some time away on the continent", to let the heat die down. Hiding out at the family country house, in a final confrontation in the dark of his father's study, he is unknowingly surprised by him trying to steal some cash from his bureau; Sir Oliver shoots him as a burglar, and then is horrified as his identity is revealed. A gloriously funny and lackadaisical novel which updates the 'evil' characters of writers like Smollett to a new century. My edition also includes a classic supernatural tale, The Trance, which covers the alchemical summoning-up of the soul of a loved one in a stylish and serious way.