Fresh books.
A correspondent of the Charleston
Courier, who has run the blockade and arrived safely at
Nassau, N. P., is revelling in the fresh fields of literature, from which the
South has been so long cut off. He gives a resume of the new publications in
England and the
United States, which will interest those of our readers who were wont of old to watch the list of forthcoming publications with so much expectancy.
We make some extracts from it:
The second volume of Buckle's extraordinary "History of Civilization in
England" has been issued.
The author died suddenly about six months ago, while on a visit to the Continent.
It is not known in what condition he has left the materials for the remainder of the work.
Carlyle has published the third volume of his "
Frederick the
Great." The twentieth volume of
Thiers's "History of the Consulate and Empire," treating of the of the Hundred Days, is published work from the pen of his
Guizot. "An Embassy to the Court of St. James in 1840, " which is elaborately noticed in all the Reviews.
The muse of Poetry has been remarkably silent.
Nothing of importance has appeared since
Tennyson's "Idyls." In poetic criticism I notice a "History of Scottish Poetry," by
David Irving, Ll D., and "The Roman Poets of the
Republic," by
Professor Seller, of
Oxford.
The most noticeable poems are "
Elwin of Deirs," by
Alexander Smith; "Ancient Poetry and Some Fresher," by the veteran
Walter Savage Lander: "Victories of Love," by
Coventry Palmore; "The Lady of
La Grange, " by the
Honorable Mrs. Norton, grand daughter of
Sheridan; "Poems," by
Adelaide Proctor, daughter of "
Barry Cornwall," some additional pieces of
Shelley's, edited by
Richard Garnett, and "Ballads from Scottish History," by
Norval Cline. "The Remains, in Verse and Prose," of
Arthur Hallan, the subject of
Tennyson's "In Memoriam," is published by
Murray.
In politics, international law, and political economy, have appeared John Stuart Mills's work on "Representative Government," which is anti slavery in sentiment;
Mr. Spence's admirable essay on the
American Question; a work on International Law, by
Travers Twiss, D. C. L., said to be the best since
Wheaton; "
Jefferson and the
American Democracy, a Study translated from the
Dutch of
Cornelius De Witt; "The Duties of Man," by
Joseph Mazzini, the crazy
Italian reformer, and something from
John Raskin, the
Arts Critic, entitled "Unto This Last," four essays on the first principles of economy.
"The Roundabout Papers" is a series of essays by
Thackeray, republished from the
Cornhill Magazine.
A readable trifle is "A Book about Doctors," by
J. C. Jefferson, who gives all the gossip and scandal about the fraternity.
A learned controversy upon the proper style of translating
Homer is raging between
Matthew Arnold,
Professor of Poetry at
Oxford, and
Francis W. Newman,
Professor of Classics in University College,
London.
Each disputant has issued a brace of books, and the Reviews have ranged themselves on either side.
No department has been more prolific than that of fiction.
At least two-thirds of the publications named in the book lists are of this character.
At the head, in popularity, stands Victor Huge's remarkable political romance of "Les Miserable" It has had an enormous sale in
France, and has been translated by a dozen hands into the
English language.
Numerous editions have been issued in
London and New York.
It might be a table enterprise if one of our ston or
Richmond publishers would print it.
Thackeray's "Philip" has been lately issued in complete form.
The critic think it hardly equal to its predecessors, but it exhibits the same wonderful photography of character and manners so characteristic of the style of the greatest of English novelists. "East Lynne," by
Mrs. Wood, has been exceedingly popular.--"
Lady Audley's Secret," by
Miss Bradden, is described as a "sensation novel," and has had an immense sale.
Among the favorite novelists of the time,
Bulwer has published his "Strange Story;"
Wilkie Collins (author of the "Woman in
White") his "After Dark;"
G. A. Sala, "The Seven Sons of Mammon;" the authoress of "
John Halifax," a domestic story called "Mistress and Maid; " and the authoress of "
Adam Bede," another contribution to the
intese school of romance, entitled "Siles Marner, the Weaver of Raveloe." The cruelties of the
King of
Dahomey are made the subject of "The Negro
Prince," by
a Captain Livingstone who takes his hero to the cotton fields of the
Confederate States, and, perhaps rather strangely, says a good word for the "slaveholders."
Mrs. Stowe, the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," has published two stories--"The
Pearl of
Orr's Island" and "Agnes of
Sorrento," the scene of the first being in
New England and the last in
Italy.
The critics pronounce them inferior, and bid her stick to the "nigger" if she wants to keep alive her popularity.
The posthumous publications of
Major Theodore Winthrop, who was killed at the battle of Great Bethel, "
Cecil Dreeme" and "
John Brent, " are noticed in the
Northern papers.
Among the other popular novels are "Chronicles of Carlingford," by
Mrs. Oliphant; "The Prodigal Son," by
Dalton Cook; "
Abel Drake's Wife," by
John Saunders; "C Wrong be Right?" by
Mrs. S. C. Hall; "
Marietta," by
Anthony Trollope; and "Barren Honors," by the author of "
Guy Livingstone."
In "All the
Year Round"
Wilkie Collins is publishing a mysterious story entitled "No Name."
Ainsworth is writing a serial called "Cardinal Pole," for
Bentley's Miscellany, and the authoress of "
Adam Bede" another; "Romala," for the Cornhill
Magazine. Buliver is contributing some miscellanea for
Blackwood, under the title of "Caxtoniani."
Quite a number of pamphlets on "Cotton Cultivation," as well as upon the
American war, are appearing in
England.
The "rebellion" is a fruitful provocative of pamphleteering at the
North.
Some of the titles are amusing — for instance, "The Present Attempt to Dissolve the
Union a British Aristocratic Plot," "Patriotism and the Slaveholders' Rebellion;" "The Drift of the
War;" "Cheap Cotton by Free Labor," etc., etc
The American civil war has brought forth a "History of Federal Government from the foundation of the
Achaean League to the Disruption of the
United States, a bulky work, by
Edward A. Freeman, of Oxford University; and "Eighty Years of Progress in the
United States," a Yankee glorification affair.
The Westminster Review notices a German work devoted to biographies of German heroes in
America.
Steuben and
DeKalb form the subjects of the first two volumes, and the third is devoted to the notorious
Sigel, who is dubbed "the hero of Carihage and
Pea Ridge."
"The
Washingtons," by
J. N. Simpkinson, an English clergyman — an attempt to trace the ancestry of the "Pater Patriæ" in
England.--[According to the author,
Washington had a right to the title of baronet, which his emigrating ancestry received from James the First; but abandoned upon going to
America.]
Besides
Anthony Trellope's book, the
American Continent is the subject of "Ten Years in the
United States," by
D. W. Mitchell, and "Down
South," by Samuel Phillips Day, correspondent of the
London Herald, who is intensely Southern in his sympathies.
There are two works on the Mormons, "A Journey to the
Salt Lake City," by
Jules Remy, a Frenchman, in two volumes, and "The City of the Saints," by
R. F. Burton.
The
Harpers, of New York, are publishing in numbers a "History of the Great Rebellion. " "The Life and Writings of
General Nathaniel Lyon," who was killed at
Carthage, is the title of a book from the New York press.
