Identity area
Reference code
ALL/11/259
Title
Letter from William Harvey to Herbert Allingham
Date(s)
- 08-Apr-33 (Creation)
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Item
Extent and medium
2 pieces, Typescript document
Context area
Name of creator
(1867-1936)
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Scope and content
Headed notepaper: John Leng & Co. Ltd., Courier and Advertiser, My Weekly, People's Journal, People's Friend, 7 Bank Street, Dundee. Signed.
'We think you have a lot of excellent material in your first instalment, and we are wondering if it would not be better to expand the material and make at least two instalments out of it. In our view, you would get an excellent curtain if you stopped at the point when the second doctor comes and tells the villainess that her cousin is dead. If you were to stop there then you would have a good deal of space in which to develop your characters, and show them more active than they are at present.
You might linger upon Hilda, showing her jealous and annoyed at having lost the money. She would pretend to hate being on a charitable footing, and therefore plan to get married to the doctor whom she knew before. As a means of renewing acquaintance with him, she would advise her cousin to call him in.
We should then see Hilda playing her part and trying to angle to get the doctor; then she would be irritated and angry when she discovered that a friendship is developing ebtweenthe doctor and her cousin. We would, on the one hand, see the slow development of the love between the doctor and Fanny, and at the same time the gradual development of Hilda's jealousy.
When Fanny's engagement is announced, Hilda would be chagrined and also angry at her inability to do anything to have it cancelled.
Thereafter we would see the plan to hurt Fanny maturing in Hilda's mind. We would see her tamper with the medicine, putting poison into it. She would suggest to Fanny when she is helping her pack for the honeymoon that there will be no use now of taking her bottle as she is going to be married to a doctor, but Fanny would say, 'Oh, Yes, give it to me, it will be easily carried.' We would see the mind of Hilda as she hands over the bottle and hear her asking herslef, 'Will it work?' From that we would pass on to see her waiting alone in the house and then her surge of satisfaction when the other doctor comes and tells her that her cousin is dead.
If you made that your first instalment then your second instalment might come down at the point where Hilda is writing the anonymous letter. We would see the letter actually being written and thus learn what it contains.
You will gather from the above that we are not asking you to sacrifice any of your material. It will all come in in [sic] its proper place and we think will give us a good story. As we should like to get on with this story at once we can take the altered instalment from you at your very earliest.'
'We think you have a lot of excellent material in your first instalment, and we are wondering if it would not be better to expand the material and make at least two instalments out of it. In our view, you would get an excellent curtain if you stopped at the point when the second doctor comes and tells the villainess that her cousin is dead. If you were to stop there then you would have a good deal of space in which to develop your characters, and show them more active than they are at present.
You might linger upon Hilda, showing her jealous and annoyed at having lost the money. She would pretend to hate being on a charitable footing, and therefore plan to get married to the doctor whom she knew before. As a means of renewing acquaintance with him, she would advise her cousin to call him in.
We should then see Hilda playing her part and trying to angle to get the doctor; then she would be irritated and angry when she discovered that a friendship is developing ebtweenthe doctor and her cousin. We would, on the one hand, see the slow development of the love between the doctor and Fanny, and at the same time the gradual development of Hilda's jealousy.
When Fanny's engagement is announced, Hilda would be chagrined and also angry at her inability to do anything to have it cancelled.
Thereafter we would see the plan to hurt Fanny maturing in Hilda's mind. We would see her tamper with the medicine, putting poison into it. She would suggest to Fanny when she is helping her pack for the honeymoon that there will be no use now of taking her bottle as she is going to be married to a doctor, but Fanny would say, 'Oh, Yes, give it to me, it will be easily carried.' We would see the mind of Hilda as she hands over the bottle and hear her asking herslef, 'Will it work?' From that we would pass on to see her waiting alone in the house and then her surge of satisfaction when the other doctor comes and tells her that her cousin is dead.
If you made that your first instalment then your second instalment might come down at the point where Hilda is writing the anonymous letter. We would see the letter actually being written and thus learn what it contains.
You will gather from the above that we are not asking you to sacrifice any of your material. It will all come in in [sic] its proper place and we think will give us a good story. As we should like to get on with this story at once we can take the altered instalment from you at your very earliest.'
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Status: Open