I first heard of Fitz-James O’Brien from the book Dictionary of American Literature by Robert F. Richards that I read in 2008 (see earlier review). The Dictionary had an interesting and sad description of O’Brien and his work. It described how he came to the U.S. from Ireland after wasting his 8,000 (pound) inheritance in London and Paris. After periods of success from his writing and poverty he served in the American Civil War during which he was cited for gallantry. Unfortunately he was wounded and died from a tetanus infection in 1862 at age 34. The Dictionary blurb described his stories as “written in the tradition of Poe.” The most interesting part of the blurb was the one-sentence summary of O’Brien’s most well-known story, “The Diamond Lens”: “a story about an inventor whose powerful microscope enabled him to see a tiny female in a drop of water with whom he fell in love.” (Richards, p. 159)
The whimsical description made me want to check out the story and possibly other stories. There was nothing by Fitz-James O’Brien at the Covina Public Library but the Cal State L.A. library had The Diamond Lens and Other Stories that contains all the stories by Fitz-James O’Brien. His name, incidentally, translates to “bastard son of James, grandson of Brien”. The book contains seven stories, each one 20-60 pages long. The longer ones, including “The Diamond Lens” have chapters of 8-12 pages each. The book was never published during O’Brien’s lifetime and the stories originally appeared in magazines. “The Diamond Lens” originally appeared in Atlantic magazine in January 1858. This book was first compiled in 1932 and the edition at the Cal State L.A. library was published in 1970. According to the table of contents, the first story is “The Diamond Lens” and at 47 pages plus a 17-page introduction that mean I only had to read 14-15 pages over the rule of 50 to finish it. The book is light blue-green in color and has ten illustrations by Ferdinand Huszti Horwath depicting scenes from the stories.
The book begins with an introduction by Gilbert Seldes that gives more biographical information and some discussion of O’Brien’s writing style. It seems to have been written long after the stories were originally published. I think the intro was written in 1932 for the first edition of the collection. It uses one word I didn’t know when discussing “an intellectual gap between the ratiocination of (Poe’s) detectives and the deeper mysteries he declared but did not expound.” (p. 11) My Random House Dictionary defines “ratiocinate” as “to carry on a process of logical reasoning.” So Poe’s stories have a gap between what the detectives in the story figure out and the full mystery. Seldes describes O’Brien as “a Poe in the minor mode.” (p. 10) Seldes also goes into more detail about O’Brien’s service in the Civil War. I think the event for which he was cited for gallantry was when he rode ahead of his regiment with General Lande at Bloomery Gap. The two of them charged a Confederate force and demanded that the rebel commander surrender. He complied.
The first and title story, “The Diamond Lens” reads fairly quickly. There’s a little more to it than the Dictionary blurb’s one-sentence summary. It’s told in the first person by the inventor of the microscope who seems to be an anti-social, obsessive, and somewhat disturbed individual. The story covers most of his life though it focuses primary on his invention and discovery. The title comes from his needing a rare diamond to make the microscope. Though it is about a scientist, the story includes several elements of fantasy. It also turns out to be darker than whimsical and does not end happily. The moral seems to be to not get carried away by your obsessions and don’t tamper with the occult. It is similar to Poe or perhaps that old scary fable “The Monkey’s Paw”.
After finishing the title story I thought I’d try the next one, “The Wondersmith”. The first page describes a poor dirty street that the unnamed narrator likes because it has “outward character”. But by the 15th page the story becomes even stranger and darker than “The Diamond Lens”. I found myself not wanting to know how it ends or even what happens next so I stopped reading at about 21 pages in. I had past 50 pages and finished nearly 90 pages, but I had enough. Perhaps there was a reason O’Brien’s works cannot be found at the Covina Public Library.
The whimsical description made me want to check out the story and possibly other stories. There was nothing by Fitz-James O’Brien at the Covina Public Library but the Cal State L.A. library had The Diamond Lens and Other Stories that contains all the stories by Fitz-James O’Brien. His name, incidentally, translates to “bastard son of James, grandson of Brien”. The book contains seven stories, each one 20-60 pages long. The longer ones, including “The Diamond Lens” have chapters of 8-12 pages each. The book was never published during O’Brien’s lifetime and the stories originally appeared in magazines. “The Diamond Lens” originally appeared in Atlantic magazine in January 1858. This book was first compiled in 1932 and the edition at the Cal State L.A. library was published in 1970. According to the table of contents, the first story is “The Diamond Lens” and at 47 pages plus a 17-page introduction that mean I only had to read 14-15 pages over the rule of 50 to finish it. The book is light blue-green in color and has ten illustrations by Ferdinand Huszti Horwath depicting scenes from the stories.
The book begins with an introduction by Gilbert Seldes that gives more biographical information and some discussion of O’Brien’s writing style. It seems to have been written long after the stories were originally published. I think the intro was written in 1932 for the first edition of the collection. It uses one word I didn’t know when discussing “an intellectual gap between the ratiocination of (Poe’s) detectives and the deeper mysteries he declared but did not expound.” (p. 11) My Random House Dictionary defines “ratiocinate” as “to carry on a process of logical reasoning.” So Poe’s stories have a gap between what the detectives in the story figure out and the full mystery. Seldes describes O’Brien as “a Poe in the minor mode.” (p. 10) Seldes also goes into more detail about O’Brien’s service in the Civil War. I think the event for which he was cited for gallantry was when he rode ahead of his regiment with General Lande at Bloomery Gap. The two of them charged a Confederate force and demanded that the rebel commander surrender. He complied.
The first and title story, “The Diamond Lens” reads fairly quickly. There’s a little more to it than the Dictionary blurb’s one-sentence summary. It’s told in the first person by the inventor of the microscope who seems to be an anti-social, obsessive, and somewhat disturbed individual. The story covers most of his life though it focuses primary on his invention and discovery. The title comes from his needing a rare diamond to make the microscope. Though it is about a scientist, the story includes several elements of fantasy. It also turns out to be darker than whimsical and does not end happily. The moral seems to be to not get carried away by your obsessions and don’t tamper with the occult. It is similar to Poe or perhaps that old scary fable “The Monkey’s Paw”.
After finishing the title story I thought I’d try the next one, “The Wondersmith”. The first page describes a poor dirty street that the unnamed narrator likes because it has “outward character”. But by the 15th page the story becomes even stranger and darker than “The Diamond Lens”. I found myself not wanting to know how it ends or even what happens next so I stopped reading at about 21 pages in. I had past 50 pages and finished nearly 90 pages, but I had enough. Perhaps there was a reason O’Brien’s works cannot be found at the Covina Public Library.
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