Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
Russia , I owe entirely to the reports of Austrians and Prussians—men of high station , unquestioned honour and veracity . They had an exhaustless fund of anecdotes of Russian mendacity , cheating , venality—pilfering , even ; in short , every form and kind of improbity , which nothing but absolute faith in the narrator , and the concurring testimony of various witnesses , could have rendered it possible for me to believe . On the other hand , the few young Russians who have eome in my way impressed me very favourably ; they were well-bred ,
wellinformed , enlightened , and apparently eager to be more so . Perhaps they were exceptions ; and , if so , the more to be admired—and pitied . I particularly remember two , each sprung from one of the most conspicuous families of the empii-e ; the one a representative of the Sclavonic , the other of the Teutonic element of the population , who were quite on a level with the most instructed and accomplished young Englishmen or Frenchmen . Bufc ifc is certain that in Vienna and Berlin the reputation of Russians generally stood afc a very low point . The Prussian officersespeciallywho had latelreturned from the of Kalisch
, , y camp , spoke with disgust and contempt of what they had witnessed . " Nothing ever seems to stop or limit the production and reproduction of novels . The good old Scripture rule , indicating the duty of man in respect to the increase of population , is strictly followed by authors in providing a constant succession of this style of marketable literature ; to sell the romances ofthe day they must , and that at a profit , or Printers End Publishers could hardly live in the extremely comfortable and luxurious manner
in which , now and then , a lucky author has the opportunity afforded him of reporting to tlie public . Our list for the last three months numbers no less than twenty-four separate and distinct works of this description , making a gross total of upwards of fifty-one volumes , and yet we have
literally selected but some few of tho most Avorthy of notice from the vast collection which has been submitted to our editorial vision . To read through eA-en so small a proportion , of the whole , is no light task ; and were it not that we are sustained and animated by the consideration of the labour and fatigue we are probably saving our readers , the good work would be almost beyond the strength and energies of even a Ereemason . Moreover , we are constantly perplexed by the extraordinary similarity of passages in new works which Ave feel certain we have met with in old ones
, and of scenes and incidents , plots and denouements which are quite familiar to us . Sometimes we feel almost inclined to set to Avork and expose the plagiarisms which meet us on turning over every page ; and , indeed , it is most frequently but the ephemeral consideration of the character ofthe pi-oduction itself , that deters us from an exposure , which possibly might have the effect of inducing some novel-writers to trust a little more to their imagination than to their memory , or , in default of possessing but a small
modicum of the former , to some handicraft pursuit , in which at least a decent livelihood might be honestly earned . We do not mean these strictures to apply to any of the novels Ave are about to introduce to the notice of our readers , but rather to some that we have purposely omitted referring to . The first on our list is from the pen of Mr . Talbot Gwynne ; * and although it may be said to lack many of the essential points of what is
usually considered a first-rate novel , yet it developes an interesting tale in a pleasing and inoffensive manner . Nannette , the heroine , is a simple Ei-ench peasant girl , ivith much that is pleasingly Ereneh in her composition , and withal very devout and unobtrusively good . She has two lovers , one a reckless , good-humoured , handsome scapegrace , called
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
Russia , I owe entirely to the reports of Austrians and Prussians—men of high station , unquestioned honour and veracity . They had an exhaustless fund of anecdotes of Russian mendacity , cheating , venality—pilfering , even ; in short , every form and kind of improbity , which nothing but absolute faith in the narrator , and the concurring testimony of various witnesses , could have rendered it possible for me to believe . On the other hand , the few young Russians who have eome in my way impressed me very favourably ; they were well-bred ,
wellinformed , enlightened , and apparently eager to be more so . Perhaps they were exceptions ; and , if so , the more to be admired—and pitied . I particularly remember two , each sprung from one of the most conspicuous families of the empii-e ; the one a representative of the Sclavonic , the other of the Teutonic element of the population , who were quite on a level with the most instructed and accomplished young Englishmen or Frenchmen . Bufc ifc is certain that in Vienna and Berlin the reputation of Russians generally stood afc a very low point . The Prussian officersespeciallywho had latelreturned from the of Kalisch
, , y camp , spoke with disgust and contempt of what they had witnessed . " Nothing ever seems to stop or limit the production and reproduction of novels . The good old Scripture rule , indicating the duty of man in respect to the increase of population , is strictly followed by authors in providing a constant succession of this style of marketable literature ; to sell the romances ofthe day they must , and that at a profit , or Printers End Publishers could hardly live in the extremely comfortable and luxurious manner
in which , now and then , a lucky author has the opportunity afforded him of reporting to tlie public . Our list for the last three months numbers no less than twenty-four separate and distinct works of this description , making a gross total of upwards of fifty-one volumes , and yet we have
literally selected but some few of tho most Avorthy of notice from the vast collection which has been submitted to our editorial vision . To read through eA-en so small a proportion , of the whole , is no light task ; and were it not that we are sustained and animated by the consideration of the labour and fatigue we are probably saving our readers , the good work would be almost beyond the strength and energies of even a Ereemason . Moreover , we are constantly perplexed by the extraordinary similarity of passages in new works which Ave feel certain we have met with in old ones
, and of scenes and incidents , plots and denouements which are quite familiar to us . Sometimes we feel almost inclined to set to Avork and expose the plagiarisms which meet us on turning over every page ; and , indeed , it is most frequently but the ephemeral consideration of the character ofthe pi-oduction itself , that deters us from an exposure , which possibly might have the effect of inducing some novel-writers to trust a little more to their imagination than to their memory , or , in default of possessing but a small
modicum of the former , to some handicraft pursuit , in which at least a decent livelihood might be honestly earned . We do not mean these strictures to apply to any of the novels Ave are about to introduce to the notice of our readers , but rather to some that we have purposely omitted referring to . The first on our list is from the pen of Mr . Talbot Gwynne ; * and although it may be said to lack many of the essential points of what is
usually considered a first-rate novel , yet it developes an interesting tale in a pleasing and inoffensive manner . Nannette , the heroine , is a simple Ei-ench peasant girl , ivith much that is pleasingly Ereneh in her composition , and withal very devout and unobtrusively good . She has two lovers , one a reckless , good-humoured , handsome scapegrace , called