Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
pleasure . It is not—thanks be to the authoress—a romance as romances are now-a-days Avritten . There is too much common sense and reality in it , and , moreover , too little of what is usually known as " fine writing . " For these reasons , it will repay the time spent in its perusal , for it will be found to have passed pleasantly ; and if Ave may now and then detect a slightly-exaggerated tone , that is , if the leading characters are a little overdrawnor the game they are made to play somewhat too apparent ,
, we are easily induced to forget such trifling faults in the excellence of the general treatment , the probability of the story , and the just moral Avhich is capable of being drawn from the whole tale . "Maude Talbot , " * by Holme Lee ; "Progress and Prejudice , "t by Mrs . Gore ; "Janet Mowbray , " ! by Caroline Grantoff ; " Aubrey , " § by the author of " Emilia Wyndham ; " and Mr . Fullom ' s " Great Highway , " |] are all readable fictions , and , although differing essentially from
each other , are far superior to the general run of novels of the present day ; and in each there is quite sufficient character and incident to make an evening hour pass pleasantly enough . The spring quarter is pre-eminently the season of the Fine Arts . Society devotes it to them ; and in its peripatetic mood journeys cheerfully from gallery to gallery and from exhibition to exhibition , until the eye wearies with the constant succession of colour , subject , and shape . Sameness is necessarily incident to such labours ; yet each succeeding year finds us as
curious and as anxious to mark the progress which art has made during its recess , as our philanthropists and philosophers are eager to fix landmarks in the history of human development . In notices , however , on matters artistic it is not easy to observe much method or order . To descend gradually from general and superficial observation to particular criticisms would take more space than Ave could give , and perchance demand of our readers more of their patience than they would be willing to spare . We shall therefore but brieflnote such thoughts as have occurred to us
y , leaving the blanks which necessity , and not inclination or idleness , obliges us to leave , to be filled up at the leisure of our readers . One fact , however , has forced itself of late years upon our notice with . reference to that branch of art which comes peculiarly Avithin the realm and dominion of the painter . We allude to the growing prominence given to colouring over drawing and the minor details of accurate representation . It is particularly apparent in all the galleries now open . The
eye is dazzled by the brilliancy of the hues , and not so often gratified by striking harmonies of colour as we could desire . Pictures look as if they were painted for the moment , and not for time , —to last as long as the exhibition is open , and with it to fade away . We do not mean to say that there is any direct evidence of this fading ; but it is curiously , and , as if in contradiction , suggested by the startling brilliancy to which Ave refer . The pictures of Maclise and Hunt are particularly suggestive in this respect , and so is the dead glare of the pictures exhibited-by the French school of the Fine Arts . With all the light , there is to us a want
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
pleasure . It is not—thanks be to the authoress—a romance as romances are now-a-days Avritten . There is too much common sense and reality in it , and , moreover , too little of what is usually known as " fine writing . " For these reasons , it will repay the time spent in its perusal , for it will be found to have passed pleasantly ; and if Ave may now and then detect a slightly-exaggerated tone , that is , if the leading characters are a little overdrawnor the game they are made to play somewhat too apparent ,
, we are easily induced to forget such trifling faults in the excellence of the general treatment , the probability of the story , and the just moral Avhich is capable of being drawn from the whole tale . "Maude Talbot , " * by Holme Lee ; "Progress and Prejudice , "t by Mrs . Gore ; "Janet Mowbray , " ! by Caroline Grantoff ; " Aubrey , " § by the author of " Emilia Wyndham ; " and Mr . Fullom ' s " Great Highway , " |] are all readable fictions , and , although differing essentially from
each other , are far superior to the general run of novels of the present day ; and in each there is quite sufficient character and incident to make an evening hour pass pleasantly enough . The spring quarter is pre-eminently the season of the Fine Arts . Society devotes it to them ; and in its peripatetic mood journeys cheerfully from gallery to gallery and from exhibition to exhibition , until the eye wearies with the constant succession of colour , subject , and shape . Sameness is necessarily incident to such labours ; yet each succeeding year finds us as
curious and as anxious to mark the progress which art has made during its recess , as our philanthropists and philosophers are eager to fix landmarks in the history of human development . In notices , however , on matters artistic it is not easy to observe much method or order . To descend gradually from general and superficial observation to particular criticisms would take more space than Ave could give , and perchance demand of our readers more of their patience than they would be willing to spare . We shall therefore but brieflnote such thoughts as have occurred to us
y , leaving the blanks which necessity , and not inclination or idleness , obliges us to leave , to be filled up at the leisure of our readers . One fact , however , has forced itself of late years upon our notice with . reference to that branch of art which comes peculiarly Avithin the realm and dominion of the painter . We allude to the growing prominence given to colouring over drawing and the minor details of accurate representation . It is particularly apparent in all the galleries now open . The
eye is dazzled by the brilliancy of the hues , and not so often gratified by striking harmonies of colour as we could desire . Pictures look as if they were painted for the moment , and not for time , —to last as long as the exhibition is open , and with it to fade away . We do not mean to say that there is any direct evidence of this fading ; but it is curiously , and , as if in contradiction , suggested by the startling brilliancy to which Ave refer . The pictures of Maclise and Hunt are particularly suggestive in this respect , and so is the dead glare of the pictures exhibited-by the French school of the Fine Arts . With all the light , there is to us a want