A Lover's Diary, Complete

by Gilbert Parker

'A Lover's Diary' has not the same modest history as 'Embers'. As far
back as 1894 it was given to the public without any apology or excuse,
but I have been apologising for it ever since, in one way--without avail.
I wished that at least one-fifth of it had not been published; but my
apology was never heard till now as I withdraw from this edition of A
Lover's Diary some twenty-five sonnets representing fully one-fifth of
the original edition. As it now stands the faint thread of narrative is
more distinct, and redundancy of sentiment and words is modified to some
extent at any rate. Such material story as there is, apart from the
spiritual history embodied in the sonnets, seems more visible now, and
the reader has a clearer revelation of a young, aspiring, candid mind
shadowed by stern conventions of thought, dogma, and formula, but
breaking loose from the environment which smothered it. The price it
pays for the revelation is a hopeless love informed by temptation, but
lifted away from ruinous elements by self-renunciation, to end with the
inevitable parting, poignant and permanent, a task of the soul finished
and the toll of the journey of understanding paid.

Genres: Poetry

184 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1894

About the author

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker, 1st Baronet PC (1862- 1932), known as Gilbert Parker, Canadian novelist and British politician, was born at Camden East, Addington, Ontario. He was educated at Ottawa and at University of Trinity College at the University of Toronto. Parker started as a teacher at the Ontario School for the deaf and dumb (in Belleville, Ontario). From there he went on to lecture at Trinity College. In 1886 he went to Australia, and became for a while associate editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. He also traveled extensively in the Pacific, Europe, Asia, Egypt, the South Sea Islands and subsequently in northern Canada. In the early nineties he began to make a growing reputation in London as a writer of romantic fiction. The best of his novels are those in which he first took for his subject the history and life of the French Canadians; and his permanent literary reputation rests on the fine quality, descriptive and dramatic, of his Canadian stories. His works include: Mrs Falchion (1893), A Lover's Diary (1894), The Battle of the Strong (1898), The Lane That Had No Turning (1900), The Right of Way (1901), Cumner's Son (1904), The Weavers (1907), Northern Lights (1909), and The Judgment House (1913).

Reviews

[Aman Dhindsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some sonnets are super beautiful. But, some on the other hand just did not impress me that much