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Aug. 1:1, 1860.J ±'lie Saturday Analyst ...
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THE BROWNEIGG PAPERS.* THIS volume consi...
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• The Jh'owiu'Unt I'aitcrs, by Oovuuah J...
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REAL LIFE NOVELS.* rr^HE short but brill...
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•Marttou /<!»>•% ulnJrHonnl Mlotfrnpliy....
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Vicissitudes Of Families.* In A Former S...
A . similar story is told of Tom Ward , the Prince of Ijichtenstem ' s stable-boy , who subsequently rose to be the Prime Minister of the Duke of Lucca and of Parana , under the title of Baron Ward . Sir Bernard . gives a long account of this honest and shrewd Yorkshireman . It is one of the most wonderful stories we ever read , and has the advantage of being- literally true . That of the Bonapartist family , which follows , is , in our opinion , less wonderful , and less morally available as an example teaching the value of honesty and
fidelity . The remaining chapters deal with the family of Maecarthy , the fortunes of Bulstrode , the vicissitudes of the O 'Melaghlin ' s and the Laws of Lauriston , with the sorrows of the old Countess of Desmond , the last of her kin . In her 140 th year the elderly dowager crossed the channel , and presented herself a suppliant before James I . A portrait yet exists of the aged woman , which bears , on the back , an inscription , stating the fact of her age and appearance at Court , and adding , " Thither she came , from Bristol , to seeke relief , ye house of Desmond having been ruined by attainder . She was married in ve rcigne of King Edward IV ., and in ye course of her long pil' -rimag-e renewed her teethe twice . " She died the same year ( 1 G 04 )! " But , in the Earl of Leicester ' s " Table-Book , " it is stated , " Shoe might have lived much longer , had she not met with a kind of violent death ; for she must needs climb a liutt-tree , to gather nutts , soe , falling down , she hurt her thigh , which brought a fever , and that brought death . "
The life of De Vere , Earl of Oxford , concludes the volume . This is a race of which Lord Macaulay wrote with enthusiasm . Edward de Verc , the hero of these memoirs , was a soldier and poet , renowned in the tournaments , and at the brilliant Court of Elizabeth , and was the first who introduced perfumes and embroidered gloves iuto England ,. the iirst pair of which he presented to his royal Mistress , who was so charmed with the gift that she had her picture painted Avith these very gloves on . But he dissipated his inheritance , -and his descendants have degenerated . The last Earl ' s son died in a miserable cottage-This volume of Sir Bernard Burke's is quite equal to its predecessors ; and . ; furnishes-incidents of great value to the novelist and poet . The diligence in collecting materials is as extraordinary as the skill with which they have been treated .. A more interesting book is not exiaut .
Aug. 1:1, 1860.J ±'Lie Saturday Analyst ...
Aug . 1 : 1 , 1860 . J ± 'lie Saturday Analyst ana J ^ eaaer . tz ±
The Browneigg Papers.* This Volume Consi...
THE BROWNEIGG PAPERS . * THIS volume consists of articles which Mr . Jerrold contributed to periodicals and annuals , between the years 1830 and 1840 . The admirers of this author will be glad to have all that fell from his peri , although no author was more anxious than Jerrold that only his best works should be collected . No one , indeed , had ^ a more modest estimate of his own productions than he himself ; and we happen to know that lie studiously concealed many dramas and other works that , during his earlier career he had produced , to answer the needs of the moment . We have now before us a unique Copy of a series of essavs equal in bulk nearly to the present volume , which , though : printed , he would never allow to be published , and ' which he paid a price to have destroyed , so justly iealous was he of his reputation after he had won it by as hard an -jmpmntitiesliiip as any writer ever served to literature . The extreme uiuiuiiu & ui
polish oi ins style , wic peuueni s » ns tAjH ^ ppwu , ... » apt and copious powers of illustration , were all the fruit of a life of practices and the most ; earnest feeling for literature as an art . Fastidious to an extreme with regard to , bis own style , he was by no means a harsh critic towards others , but we really believe that he wpuld , if he could , have had the greater proportion of his own works destroyed , . , » i .,.. The public , however , are neither such nice nor such fastidious judges , and are more anrused by the eccentricities of character and pungency of expression , than charmed by the delicacies and refinements of style . The nineteen essays and articles hero reprinted have a flavour of the works in which they originally appeared being brief and slihtthough the author , could never write without the
g , purpose of exposing the small vices and the indomitable selfishness that pervades . conventional society . The false standard of character net up by the slavishness of mankind , and the false idolatry of its worship of mere position and power , were always present to the writer ' s mind , and he is ever aiming showers of sarcasms at these pests of our existence . His love of the good was singularly simple , and of the old school . The women he shadows forth were rather tho native nymphs of cherry-cheeks and sloe-black eyes , than the cultivated creatures of modern existence ; and tho qualities he held up Us examples of human excellence are tho unadorned und unsophisticated things of nature's forming . In so much ho belongs more to . tho last than to the present century ; and , it must bo nuul . 0 for his les
ho draws rather on his fancy than his uxpononc . Rump . Every one of these essays has a good moral , and tends to exalt natural " goodness and talent over mere accidental wealth and conventional ckhns . They are slight , becnuso the passions uro never pvodueod-in _ them ,. uiid-. tlia . tlu > yt ? "i "Jy 1 »«« L OH 8 l im dee P- \ " ° fmic-y iw kindled , and the sonsibfiiticH nro H 0 uictime 7 T 3 Uim < tr ~ lnit beyond this , it wus seldom the wont iov the author to go ; and we have every reason to doubt his capability of proceeding further . His aim was to expose the false and to uphold tho genumo , und to this his whole lil ' u and writings tended . He was a ttfuu , but peculiar satirist ; and if ho did not do bis spiriting gently / ho always did it lightly ; never darkening to the fury of a Juvenal , and never approaching tho vonemouH rancour of Swift . Satirist an ho wus , wo
much doubt his knowledge of human nature ; for we found , in all his characters , more of the fanciful notions of the theatre than the endless varieties of real existence . This dramatic , or rather theatrical faculty , tended to give pojmlarity to his productions ; for unobservant or unreflecting readers or spectators take that for true which the are assured is so ; and , doubtless , there are persons to be found who believe the operatic ballet to represent a state of exists ence at some time , or insome place , of the world . It would be exceedingly unjust to the reputation of this able and , in many respects , fine writer , to take it as an example of his best style and his noblest thoughts , but as a link in the chain of his literary progress , for it will be interesting to the students of style ; and , to the mere reader of amusement , it certainly will yield a few hours of enjoyment .
• The Jh'owiu'unt I'Aitcrs, By Oovuuah J...
• The Jh'owiu'Unt I ' aitcrs , by Oovuuah Jhiiuomj . Halted by HlanelmrU JorroW , With a coloured llliwtrntloii , by Ck'ortfQ ( JrulKuliuuU . Jolm Oiunaon Uottun .
Real Life Novels.* Rr^He Short But Brill...
REAL LIFE NOVELS . * rr ^ HE short but brilliant career of Mr . Kofcert Brough , of which I a brief summary is prefixed to the present volume , from the pen of Mr . Augustus Sala , naturally invests the writings of the above-mentioned gentleman with more than ordinary interest . More than once since the death of this popular . author and humorist has the public been called upon to testify their appreciation of his talents by actively sympathising with the misfortunes and sufferings of his bereaved and afflicted family . The number of untimely deaths which have lately taken place amongst some of our most able compilers of light and entertaining literature has cast a gloom , not only around their brethren labouring- , in the same vineyard with themselves , but , alas ! around that portion of
the public who have been accustomed to derive edification and amusement from the productions of their fertile pens . Few , indeed , can escape the prevailing epidemic of grieving sincerely over the memory of those who have fallen early martyrs to their over-zeal in contributing to the enjoyment of others ; for , in a large majority of instances , the premature deaths of rising literary men are the immediate results of hard work , and ah . injudicious overtension of the whole mental system . Unfortunately , our highest and most brniiaht intellectual faculties are subject to the tyrannical la \ vs of nature , arid even the man of dazzling genius dare not break through the regulations thus submitted for his guidance , without entailing upon himself the iiievitable consequences . The sad fate of Mi-. Brough ( whose latest literary emanation , in the shape of a novels-entitled " Marston Lynch , " we are now called upon to
notice ) , is most ably and toucbingly depictedJby his friend arid biographer ^ Mr . Sala ; and it is with feelings of the deepest commiseration and most unfeigned regret / that we turnover the pages of the present -volume , and give the reader a slight analysis of its contents . The hero ^ of this wo rk , " Marston Lynch , " a young gentleman , of superior attainments , but who is , unfortunately , endowed with little power of self-reliance , and even less strength of mind wherewith to resist the temptations into Which he is thrown by the irresistible tide of circumstances , is , at the age of eighteen , thrown apparently upon his own resources by the death of his father , Everard Lynch ; a family pf distant relations , including Mr . and Mrs . Merrypebbles , and their daughter Maud , magnanimously come forward to the assistance of their suffering kinsman , and to them he owes his first . ^ H ^ i ^^^^ - ^ existence . Marston is , ¦ however ,
unconsciously the heir -to a considerable property , which , atrthe commencement of the story , is held in the name of his uncle , Gregory Lynch ; this last > mentiohed personage having , at the time of his father ' s death ; feloniously abstracted a will , in which his own claims had been set aside for those of his nephew . Marston begins life as a painter , but subsequently discovers his forte to be literature , and becomes , under peculiar circumstances , the editor of a provincial satirical newspaper , in which position ho achieves for himself a smart , though not exactly an enviable , reputation . Our author then becomes ambitious of metropolitan fame , migrates to London , sets to work at several dramatic compositions , and is rewarded by one or two ephemeral successes . He has , however , eventually t 6 D-othrmiirh that fierv Ordeal of misappreciation , poverty , and
laceration of the spirit , to which many a man of genius is subjected before he can arrive at the wished-for goal . We will not spoil the reader ' s enjoyment of this story by going too closely into the details of the plot Suffice it to say , that the characters are all well conceived , and efficiently developed , . especially' that of tho villain of the drama , Don Snncho do Simmarez , which appellative , by-the-byc , i » but one of tho numerous aliases by which this gentleman has contrived to obscure , and render a mere matter of conjecture the original cognomen handed down to him by his insulted ancestors . In short , this novel possesses a double chum to the sympathies of the public its individual meritsand
nivstly , that wliich is founded on own ; , secondly , tho fact of its being the death-bed production of an univcrHally lamented and deservedly celebrated author . From , Jlaij Time to Hupping , b y the author of " Our Farm of Four Acres / ' is a remarkably well written and interesting story . Perfectly unassuming in its general details and construction , it poRsoWos-thnt- ivrwistiblo-churuu otLtruthi \ ilncss _ AEdjunfi h eii ^ which -often •¦ uchiovcH a gixater success in Hecuring the symputhieH of the reader than fulls to the lot of more inflated and high-toned compositions . The author has , moreover , in his present production , taken cure to keep all his ehuructers and incidents within the limits
•Marttou /<!»>•% Ulnjrhonnl Mlotfrnpliy....
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 11, 1860, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11081860/page/9/
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