On this page
-
Text (3)
-
426 THE LEADER. [No. 319, Saturday,
-
NEW NOVELS. Beyminstre. By the Author of...
-
A BATCH OF BOOKS. An Essay on Liberty an...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Grecian Scenery. Tae Scenery Of Greece A...
established the principle that in future all Hellenic antiquities existing in Greece were to be considered national property . At the same time , local officers , called Conservators of Antiquities , were appointed in every province , under the control of a Conservator-General , who is subordinate only to the Minister of Public Instruction . Every person discovering antiquities is bound , under penalties , to report the circumstance , within three days , 4 b the Conservator . No one is permitted to export a work of antiquity , eculpture , or architecture ; and private individuals are . prohibited , under heavy penalties , from destroying or mutilating any ruins or objects of art on their property . A similar association was proposed a few years ago to the Duke of Northumberland , with a view of preserving from utter ravage the slowly-crumbling monuments of Egypt , but the duke being jj ui uiy ^ u * .
< tnen an assiduous oju mo numu , «'" - "' .. — — — archaeology of the Valley of the Nile . In Greece , however , the proiecfc has succeeded , and the Temple of Theseus , one of the most perfect works of antiquity , has been converted into a museum . ^ f Grecian relics . It may be hoped , therefore , that the columns < x £ Jupiter Olympus , " the little gem of Lysicrates "—now entirely freed ¦ from rubbish—the portico of the Agora , the Clepsydra , the Academy , the Pnyx , and the Areopagus , in Athens , may not share the fate of the kittle white Ionic fane which , fifty years ago , stood near Callirhoe , but has disappeared , leaving no vestige . From Athens Mr . Linton traces his way to Sun "I m , diverging thence for the tour of Northern Greece , across the ¦ Campagna , through the pass of Phyle , to the Bceotian capital , and to every
pictorial city , valley , and ruin , thence through the entire country into the jE < rea . n Sea , to JEgina , Syra , Delos , Hydra , and Poros . His next excursion is tnrough the Morea , bringing Argos , Sparta , Corinth , the Messenian plains , Lake Stymphalos , Mount CyTlene , and the most picturesque of monasteries 4 Kt Megaspilin into his series of landscapes . From the Morea he crosses the Ionian Sea to Zante , Cephalonia , and Corfu , thus completing the Grecian ¦ tour . As a work of art , Mr . Linton ' s volume is remarkable ; it will be a . treasure to the Grecian traveller . The letter-press is not merely a techni-• . cal description of the plates , but a fresh and instructive narrative , with many graphic touches and critical suggestions .
426 The Leader. [No. 319, Saturday,
426 THE LEADER . [ No . 319 , Saturday ,
New Novels. Beyminstre. By The Author Of...
NEW NOVELS . Beyminstre . By the Author of "Lena , " "King ' s Cope , " & c . 3 vols . ( Smith and Elder . )—In Beyminstre there is little plot and little incident . The narrative is vague and slow . Character-sketching and dialogue occupy 3 nost of the space , the intervals being filled in with English rural scenery , or studies of ladies' heads and figures ; studies in which we miss the ease of the natural artist . The young girl who stands with her back to the light in Mr . "Winter ' s saloon , has evidently been dressed and tinted with sedulous care , to 4 brm a p icture . Her face lias " the dim radiance of a ground-glass lamp . " Qer " sharply-cut features , clear and transparent like a cameo , are illumined toy dark grey eyes , shadowed beneath long-curved lashes as black as ink . " JEIer dark brown hair , " shining like satin , is plaited into a long tress , that encircles her head like a crown . " There is an " opaque whiteness" in her
skin . It is impossible that the author of Beyminstre ., while choosing words and comparisons with such obvious deliberation , should have intended to : Buggest the apparition of a shining leprosy , but the portrait is certainly that of an Albino . Continually , as we follow the calm and uneventful story , this ^ angelic Regina stands in the foreground , always amid an effulgence , whether of the sun or of lamps , looking pale , " transparent , and spiritual , " the incarnation of arsenic . She is , at length , " transparent as porcelain , " and , again -illumined , like a moon in the water , with " a long veil of silver gauze hanging Jike a cloud behind , " the " orbed maiden , with white-fire laden , " is seen at a & ncy ball , with Alban , the hero of her life , in an Egyptian costume of black -and gold . This elaborate extravagance is the sin of Beyminstre . It is to be detected also in Alban , who is the best-drawn personage in the
novel—* j no means an immaculate example of modern chivalry , but , in many respects , a living character , full of English warmth and candour , and only in his conversation stiff and unreal . In the art of constructing a dialogue , < the author is conspicuously deficient . Even the gossip of the music-master with his pupils is hard , formal , and dry . Mrs . Winter is more at her ease ; JMiss Hopper is , probably , a portrait , and takes a part in some really liumoroua scenes . But , as a novel , Beyminstre is not a success . It displays aikculty of social observation , and presents several careful outlines of character . The story , however , is slight and confused ; there is not sufficient interest excited in the fortunes of the estate of Beyminstre , or in the relations of Alban and Regina to stimulate or sustain the attention . The Heirs of Blackridge Manor : a Tale of the Past and Present . By Diana Sutler . 8 vols . ( Chapman and Hall . )—A large proportion of modern ISnglish novels resemble long cases in Chancery . It is quite a relief to read three volumes without a disputed will , or a lost heir , or an estate that coined at last into the hands of the rightful owner . Miss Butler has not travelled
into pastures new . The materials were at hand , and she used them—a manor , a mystery , wrongs endured and avenged , the time-hallowed bases of A . hundred stories . She peoples her stage with a well-managed set of charmctecs , keeps the narrative in motion , eludes " the probabilities" by a Hying leap or a flank march , and brings the tale of Blackridge to a very satisfactory conclusion . Her style is light and easy , and flavoured by welltoned allusions . She has a hi g h-bred , rural taste , discourses complacently en parks And trout streams , old woods and fallow deer , places in sharp contrast the manners of populous , busy , flourishing Walford , and the still life of the great people who dream proudly amid the picture galleries , cabinets , velvet ,-oak , and silken tapestries of Audleigh . The moral of Miss Butler's 4 hree volumes consists , we infer , in the comparison between these represenfcatives of ancient and modern epochs—a comparison which is illustrated , at large , by the conversation of divines , economists , and politicians , who are forced into the service of the heirs of Blackridge Manor . An involved plot , abundance of mystery , an array of variously assorted individuals , an exquisite heroine , und a very proper horo , give animation to the narrative , which is , however , crude , and imperfectly developed .
Modem Society in Rome : a Novel . By J . R . Beste . Author of " The Wabash . " 3 vols . ( Hurst and Blackett . )—This is not a novel—though the title-page says it is—or a book of travels , or a history . It is an attempt to produce a picturesque , historical , romantic account of the Roman revolution of 1848 , and the result is , a dull and impertinent failure . . Mr . Beste seizes on the Pope , or Cardinal Antonelli , Gavazzi , Mazzini , Garibaldi , and General Oudinot , and compelling them to associate with his Mr . Middleton Agelthorpe and Mr . Oilier , his Caroline , Mary , Horace En derby , and Casavecchia , turns the siege of Rome into a riotous burlesque . One of his heroines is lost for two days in the Catacombs , and lapses into a beatific
trance , whence a flaming torch , and the eyes of an English lord , revive her . The love passages reler , almost exclusively , to strangers in Italy , for , says Mr . Beste , who obviously considers himself an authority , " Italians expect no favour from those they woo ; and are satisfied with anything short of demonstrative aversion . " His theory of the national character is also illustrated by a sententious antithesis , offered by H . Enderby , who remarks to an Italian gentleman , " The minds of your countrypeople are always oscillating between the heroically-sublime and the diabolically-base . " During the period in which the Italian nation , inspired by centuries-of oppression , held it 3 ground against a combination of enemies , Mr . Beste affirms that Italy was in the hands of the rabble , and that this rabble committed innumerable
atrocities . The Roman Triumvirate he asperses as " the despicable government of a revolutionary minority , " invariably urging , however , that he sympathises with the Italians , and desires their happiness and freedom . And what is Mr . Beste ' s peroration ? That the military powers of Europe should determine upon the joint occupation of Italy , until Italy can restore herself to independence and prosperity . The reader will judge how far Mr . Beste is likely to amuse or to inform him . Leonora . By the Hon . Mrs . Maberly . 3 vols . ( Smith and Elder . )—Mrs . Maberly ' s tale also opens upon a vista of Italy . Sir Edward Devereux , younof , handsome , rich , and a baronet , fills the foreground . He sits in the principal room of a Florentine hotel , grieving and weeping because he has shot his friend , the Marchese Colonna , in a duel . The Marchese , who , a few hours since , had stood " in all the splendour of his matchless beauty , " now lies in his palace dying , and on his death-bed he confides to Devereux a secret and a letter . With the secret the curious reader will become
acquaiuted , if he p leases ; the letter is addressed to Leonora Stratford , the heroine , but not the angel , of the piece . Leonora is , in fact , an adventuress , with a heart like a Dead Sea apple , and at Whittington , whither the story is transferred , after the'tragic scene in Florence , she intrigues like a second-hand Borgia . The p lot revolves , to the end , around her . Whatever interest it possesses is melancholy , morbid , disagreeable . Indeed , to describe Leonora without periphrasis , it is the history of a liar , thick-set with stage situations and contrivances , but as unlike life as a fashionable novel can be . We imagine that the school of writers to which Mrs . Maberly belongs—the school of theatrical passion and melodramatic effect—has passed away , and we do not think these three volumes will aid its revival .
The Ring and the Veil . By J . A . St . John . Author of Isis , " " Margaret Ravenscroft , " & c , 3 vols . ( Chapman and Hall . )— . We close our list with The Ring and the Veil—the story of a contest between religion and human love . From the beginning to the end Mr . St . John works out the idea of the passion inspired in Angelica , his heroine , gradually penetrating her nature , destroying its mystical enthusiasm , superseding the influences of culture , meditation , and habit . The narrative takes the form _ of an autobiography , the narrator , Mowbray Rivers , inviting his reader into a confessional , in which he lays bare the sins and excesses , the afflictions and temptations of his life . Mr . St . John ' s theory is , that romance may be found outside of castles and mansions , and in other company than that of the peerage and its connexions . Accordingly , the personages of his drama arefor the most partplain people , neither very well connected , nor very
, , rich , but , in almost every instance , polished and scholarly . Several of them are professors of art or literature , and their London experience gives the opportunity of describing those annual soirees , in the drawing-rooms , of presidents and patrons , which are supposed to indicate a recognition of the polite professions . Only a small part of the novel , however , has satire for its object ; still less is the interest thrown into passages of melodramatic adventure . Every character is subordinated to that of Angelica , the halfinvested nun ; every incident is kept in the background of her passionate struggle between a morbid unearthly conscience and a fresh and womanly love . This is the spirit of the drama , it is this that gives it warmth and colour . The young Penserosa is represented in full contrast with Mowbray Rivers , who withdraws her from her conventual vows , and who , by her purer fascination , is himsftlf withdrawn from a . life of sensuous egotism . In the course of the
narration , from the point at which he enters the scene , homeless and penniless , to the point at which , enriched by fortune and by "happy love , he bears Angelica from the Nunnery , passages of English life and character are sketched . in many varieties . As a specimen of style , we prefer a glimpse of Angelica : — Rather above the middle height , with , aa I have said , bright auburn hair , such aa Sasso Ferrato sometimes given to hia virgins , her eyes were large , and of a liquid dark blue , with a tinge of the violet . Occasionally , one flees such magnificent lustrous eyes in Italy and Northern Greece , as well as in England , when the eyelashes which fringe the lids are darker than the hair , and throw a softening shadow upon the eyo . Her eyebrows aleo were dark , though not so dark aa the laahea ; they wore besides slightly arched and silky , and seemed to expand under the forehead to support its lofty whiteness . Angelica was one of those women with broad , smooth , intellectual brows , who are the despair of frivolous men .
A Batch Of Books. An Essay On Liberty An...
A BATCH OF BOOKS . An Essay on Liberty and Slavery . By Robert Taylor Bledsoe , Professor of Mathematics in the University of Virginia . ( Trubner and Co . )—This « i » reply , triumphant in tone , though in logic not very successful , to Vt . Wtiyland ' s treatise upon slavery . It is sometimes imagined that the study oi geometry enables a student—and how much more a Professor—to reason correctly . Evidently , however , it ia easier for Professor Bledsoe to con-
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 3, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03051856/page/18/
-