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764 THE LEADER. OiFo. 385, August 8, 185...
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NEW NOVELS. Lueian Play/air. By Thomas M...
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LATTER-DAY POETRY. (CONCI-UDEI> FAOM LAS...
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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.
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A Company Of Travellers. Travels In The ...
him into contradiction with , the best Orientalists , he is obviously an optimist in Chinese matters ; but iF we had to select from the multitude of works on China one of the most popular and reliable , we should not hesitate to take up Mr . Milne ' s . '
764 The Leader. Oifo. 385, August 8, 185...
764 THE LEADER . OiFo . 385 , August 8 , 1857 .
New Novels. Lueian Play/Air. By Thomas M...
NEW NOVELS . Lueian Play / air . By Thomas Mackern . 3 vols . ( Smith , Elder , and Co . ) —Mr . Mackern has written a novel of theories , containing very little romance , but full of views and suggestions . It is eccentric in form , although the purpose is honest , and the social sympathies are strong . We doubt , however , the propriety of introducing corpses as Dart of an artistic machinery . In Lucian Play / air , the body of a young girl is disinterred , and the hero , bending over it , is reminded of the virgin martyrs of old . ' The draped body of a dead bride' is laid upon a couch ; a cry breaks from it ; the graveclothes are torn aside ; the eyes open ; * it was not death—it was not life ; but the truth flashed upon the minds of the students ; they looked upon the inexplicable phenomenon of catalepsy . ' Medical as well as geographical lectures appear out of place in such volumes ; but Mr . Mackern brings in both , with chapters headed ' A Patent Murder Association ( limited ) , ' ' The Tyrant Typhus , ' and * Fruit from the Gallows Tree . ' It will be at once perceived what his aim is , and what his style .
Quinland ; or , Varieties in American Life . 2 vols . ( Bentley . )—The writer dedicates his book to Mr . Carlyle in an epistle promising badly for the story to come , —which is , in fact , no story , but a fantastic diorama , in gart satirical , in part grotesque , with broad dashes of rebuke directed against American creeds and manners . The novel is one long spasm , a tumult of words thrown together with infinite effort , the result being a certain amount of originality marking a tale which is sadly deficient in interest , and in evidences of constructive skill . The groups upon the stage are peculiarly theatrical : Yoando and his princess ; Dr . Hoogshooten in a white robe , who sits on the beach with his face to the east and dies ; Dr . Vampire ; Uncle Quinland , who becomes a Mormon ; Bully Bill with his Juliet and a runaway slave girl ; Sir Vincent Delorme , and a host of others- ^—more , in truth , than the author knows how to arrange . Quinland is an uncommon but not an attractive work .
The Artist ' s Family . By the Author of ' Saville Ham . ' 3 vols . ( Newby . ) —This is a pleasingly written novel , which , with a good deal of picturesque exaggeration , evinces a considerable amount of acquaintance with the practical results of modern manners . The author has some knowledge of character , and produces an interesting story , Leonora J ? Oreo . ByG . P . R . James . ( Newby . )—The revival of Mr . G-. P . R . James as a novelist is an event which is sure to flutter the provincial circulating libraries . Here are three volumes in his old strain—cavaliers in the first chapter riding through an open glade , white-armed , high-born maidens , proud , pompous princes , and tapestried palaces , all bright with reflexions from Mr . James ' s favourite field—that of the Cloth of Gold . The fashion is
obsolete , but Leonora D'Orco may be sought for , if only for the sake of gratifying the curiosity of a generation which has heard more than it has read of his productions .
Latter-Day Poetry. (Conci-Udei> Faom Las...
LATTER-DAY POETRY . ( CONCI-UDEI > FAOM LAST WJBEK . ) Much carmot be said for Mrs . Frank F . Fellows ' s Poems ( Smith , Elder , and Co . ) . Their composition was no doubt very pleasant to the lady and her husband , to whom she writes a loving dedication ; but the greater number of these verses should hardly have gone beyond the family circle . There is something pretty , however , in * Fancies in the Fire' and Two Sketches '—the last poems in the volume . Poems and Translations by Mrs . Machell ( John W . Parker and Son ) are weak and uninteresting , with the exception of a few lines here and there , which indicate a womanly tenderness of feeling . Mrs . Machell , like Mrs . Fellows , dedicates her book to her husband in some concluding verses of touching earnestness ; and it would seem to be owing to his counsel that she publishes . The advice of over-confident affection has often led to the better have remained in the
printing of a great deal which had manuscript j critic being thus obliged to say ungracious things of productions which , while they remained in privacy , were consecrated by the loving regard of friends and relatives . It is a pity that those who doubt their own powersand Mrs . Machell confesses to doubting hers—do not resolve to remain quietly within the domestic sphere which they adorn and please . We pass to some gentlemen , and take up Queen Eleanor ' s Vengeance , and Other Poems , by W . C . Bennett ( Chapman and Hall ) . The first of these poems is unreadable doggerel . Some of the other verses are far better ; and Mr . Bennett seems to have a special feeling for the old Greek mythology and legends . * The Boat-race , ' also , ia a beautiful tale beautifully told , and would be perfect were it not so absolute a copy of those autobiographical poems of modern , and more especially collegiate , life , which Tennyson ia fond of writing in blank verse . The whole feeling of the poemthe bits of description—the mixture of familiarity with poetical thought
—the very formation of the sentences and turn of the verse—are singularly like the Laureate in some of the most peculiar of his manifestations , and indeed show a remarkable capacity for imitation . Several ballads complete the measure of Mr . Bennetts volume . They arc of a character likely to be popular , but do not demand » ny close criticism . Lota , and Other Poems , by Devon Harris ( Smith , Elder , and Co . ) , contain several striking passages , but are full of that feverish excess of ornament , that flush of extravagant imagery , and that half-asleep mumbling ovor inscrutable mysteries , which lie at the bottom of the present decadence of poetry . Mr . Hams is fond of introducing professedly poetical gentlemen , with withered hearts and aching aspirations towards the Beautiful and the Eternal , and of painting queenly maidens who fall into depths of passionate love with the poetical gentlemen ,, and talk in a disagreeable strain of metaphysics . Surely , the idea of a dissatisfied soul , with a morbid tendency to Bolr-unalyKation , and to despairing criticisms on ' our ago , ' hns been rather overdone of late ; mid we have had moro than enough of that undue familiarity with the Divine Name , in connexion with the stars , the spheres ,
space , Eternity , & c , which , though it may arise from a really religious feeling , has the effect of irreverence from sheer excess . Yet these are the main characteristics of this volume . There is real poetry in Mr . Harris's book ; but it is disordered and overwrought . Mr . Alexander T . M'Lean , who publishes Oran and Other Poems ( Glasgow : Murray and Son ) , professes ' to avoid the mystical and ambiguous form and expression which are the prevailing objections to modern poetry ; ' but he only substitutes in their stead a great deal of prosy sermonizing and weak common-place , mingled with broken metaphors , such as— " Mammon reigns with golden chains ; " or , the smiling Spring will come , And , with victorious love , the widowed Earth Lead forth to dance upon the daisied meads .
What are we to understand by the earth dancing on the meadows ? Mr . M'Lean writes a Preface , which , for the sake of originality , he simply describes by the one word * Prefatory ; ' and in this , after the old story about c the approbation of gentlemen whose taste , ' & c , we are informed that' it has always been the author ' s aim in his poetry to advance the cause of morality , and to refine and exalt the human mind . ' Truly , a stupendous and godlike aim ; but Mr . Alexander T . M'Lean is manifestly not equal to the task . We likewise gather that Oran * is the result of ^ close and anxious study , ' though it is added immediately afterwards that it | was composed during the intervals of an onerous profession which allowed little ^ leisure for cultivating the favours of the Muse . ' We always find that this strain of simpering vanity and affectation promises a bad book ; and we have not been disappointed in the present instance . Oran is a drama representing the mental struggles and misery of a wandering gentleman with an unhappy disposition . The same thing , as we have already remarked , has been done
to repletion by the young poets of the last ten years ; and we see no qualities in Mr . M'Lean for giving freshness to a worn-out subject . To somewhat the same effect must we speak of Poems and Songs by James McDougall ( Arthur Hall , Virtue , and Co . ) , except that Mr . McDougall writes no Preface , which says much in his favour , and may be allowed to go in mitigation of judgment . He ought , however , just to have stated that he is in his teens , as we Cannot but conceive he is , not on account of the rawness of his thoughts , but because of the liberties he takes with the language , with composition , with versification , and with rhyme—a special sign of youth . However , here and there in the smaller poems we observe some lines which , if the author really be in his teens , indicate a chance for the future , as they already show a feeling for natural beauty . Melancholy , by Thomas Cox ( Saunders and Otley ) , is admirably calculated to provoke the state of mind which it celebrates , unless you happen to be in a very jocund mood ; when it may excite laughter .
m , a Poems of Past Years . By Sir Arthur Hallam Elton , Bart ., M . P . ( Smith , Elder , and Co . ) . —A refined , scholarly , and gentlemanly mind is apparent all through this small volume ; but the author succeeds best in neatly-polished verses on familiar subjects . Here is a book entitled Modern Mutiicheism , Labour s Utopia , and Other Poems , by a Poet hidden In the light of thought , Singing hymns unbidden , Till the world is wrought To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not , Literally , that quotation from Shelley is the only ascription of authorship on the title-page . The writer , therefore , assumes in the nrst place , that he is a Poet ( with " a capital P ) ; in the second , that he is absolutely obscured in the
radiance of his own thoughts— ' dark with excess of bright '; and thirdly that his hymns will have the effect of rousing the world ' to sympathy with hopes and fears' of which it has hitherto taken no notice . Vast promise , followed by but small performance ! With less assumption , the volume might have passed muster among those of average excellence and dulness ; but , as it is , we are provoked to a special act of condemnation . To the first poem—Modern Manicheism—is affixed a motto from Carlyle , affirming that 4 in the heart of the speaker there ought to be some kind of gospel tidings burning till it be uttered ; ' which of course implies that the Poet in question has those tidings . Yet we find nothing but a very prosaic enforcement of the old Persian notion of a dual Deity , one good , the other bad , to account
for the ejustence of evil . There can be no possible objection to reproducing thia reverend speculation , which indeed is at the bottom of the Christian system ; but a great deal might be said , if it were worth while , against the pretence and egotism which are perpetually revealing themselves in two volume before us . The most startling thing in the book is a passage in a poem describing the intrigue between Lancelot du Lac and Arthur a Queen : —* That outbreak of illegal love Needs must your frigid voice condemn , Whoso clay-cold tones ne ' er rose above Decorum ' s droning requiem ;
So might it too my censure move But that I own I envy them . This la certainly plain speaking . The writer then asks—If such * foretaste of bliss' could endure , What further need , What lack of other world than thia ? The ensuing stanzas we decline to quote . . * We conclude by simply notifying the publication of certain volumes i \ t > oui which there is nothing to be said . Specific criticism is impossible wucra there arc no specific features to be criticised : — Fancies and Feelings ; Collected and Edited by Henry Parkinson , Barviatcrat-Law ( Dublin ; M'Glaalmn . and GUI ) , — Cloud-Shadows ; Jto / xr / W aita Miscellaneous Poems , by John William Fletcher ( Longman and ^ ° - ^ Sacttla Tria : an . Allegory of Life , Pad , Present and To Come CBogu / VNeoile Howard , by Lqntus in Umbra ( N owby ) . — # ** , a Romance */'« ¥% and other Poems , by Caroline Giffard Phillipson ( John Moxon ) . —My roc * et Lyre , Src , by the Rev . J . W . Tomlinson ( Judd and Glass ) .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 8, 1857, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08081857/page/20/
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