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June 20,1857.] THE LEABEB. 595
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A BATCH OF BOOKS. Some of the books incl...
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THE ILLUSTRATED TENNYSON. The Poetical W...
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THE HAtfDEJQ FESTIVAL. Tub Handel Festiv...
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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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June 20,1857.] The Leabeb. 595
June 20 , 1857 . ] THE LEABEB . 595
A Batch Of Books. Some Of The Books Incl...
A BATCH OF BOOKS . Some of the books included under this head deserve , no doubt , more conspicuous notice than our space allows us to bestow on them ; but it might be impossible to review them at all , if not . summarily . We prefer , therefore * , to close our critical accounts from time to thane , by dealing at once with a . battalion of writers , rather than to neglect , them altogether . We give priority to The Memoirs and Adventures of Felice Orsini , wri . tten by himself , an < l translated from the original manuscript . By George Carbonel . ( Edinburgh : Constable and Co . )—Orsini has thoroughly established in England disreputation as an Italian patript , a brare soldier , and an eloquent pleader for the rights of his countrymen . His new volume is a deeply interesting record , abounding in details illustrative of recent Italian history * and enriched by a collection of curious official documents—unpublished state papers , revealing the policy of the Roman court- We recommend the book to all our readers . A narrative of a very different complexion is contained in The Militiaman at Home and Abroad : Being the History of a Militia
Regiment from its first Training to its Disembodiment . By Emeritus . ( Smith , Elder , and Co . )—A word of prefatory praise must be given to the _ illustrations from the magio pencil of Leech . The volume is light and varied , with a pleasant mingling of humour and sketchy story . The writer has evidently witnessed the seenes he describes , and the result is a book which will please all military readers , and pass rapidly from hand to hand through the circulating libraries . ' An Englishwoman' publishes A Month at Klssingen , with an analytical table of the mineral springs , and accounts of Cologne , the Rhine , Frankfort , & c . ( Longman and Co . )—She professes no more than volume is
to honestly set down what she has seen and thought ; and if her not l one of the pleasantesfc aud most , original tjJ . es ever written , ' it is agreeable , and overflows with -warm-hearted gossip . It will be , as the author hopes , ' pleasant to some , useful to others , ' and tourists may rationally put it into their portmanteaus . To a similar purpose Mr . M . C . Turner has written A Saunter Through Surrey , ( Walker . )—Surrey people and their visitors will make discoveries through Mr . Turners agency : there is no knowing what a country contains , quite as interesting as Timbuctoo , until some one resembling Mr . Turner in diligence and enthusiasm has explored its old sites and histories . Dr . PincofFs has issued a book of a more
important class , Experiences bu a Civilian in JEastem Military Hospitals . ( Williams and Norgate . )—This must be seriously recommended to the medical authorities of the army , as it states some excellent criticisms on the English , French , and other medical systems , and on the organisation of military medical schools , aod hospitals . The subject could not have been more sensibly discussed . The very reverse of sensible is a wild , pretentious book , e » titled , The-Press , the Pulpit , and the Platform , ; or , the Future of the French Empire . ( Newby . )—It . is fierce , weak , and fantastically exaggerated . The writer believes that nunneries are still dens of physical despotism , with little inquisitorial cells in which the penitents are racked , mangled , flagellated , and sliced to pieces with knives , after the fashion of the Marquesas . A famitfarname—that of Leitch Ritchie—appears on the title-page of an elegant little volume in green and gold , The New Shilling . ( Brown and Co . ) is 1 he
—Though not a disappointment , however , the title-page a deception . book is not by Mr . Leitch Ritchie , but principally by his daughter , Miss Grace Norman Ritehie r whose tale , The Little Heroine ^ filling three-fourths of the volume , is altogether suppressed on the title-page . It is a charming story for the young , written with sweetness , grace , and cordiality , and has an excellent moral intention . Mr . Ritchie ' s little tale , also , is in his peculiarly pleasing style . To the same class belongs The Barefooted Maiden . By Berthold Auerbach . Illustrated by Edward H . Wehner . ( Low and Co . )—We have in this story of a shoeless maiden one of those simple yet exquisite fictions which stand unrivalled in their own especial department of romance , the faculty of producing which seems to belong to some peculiar element of the German mind . It is characterized by the rare charm of freshness , a spontaneity , and a purity which x * enders
the perusal , like inhaling the breezes of spring , redolent of mingled perfumes from gardens , meadows , and groves . It would be stinted praise to say this little volume has excellence ; for it possesses the many excellences essential to a truly artistic production . In design it is appropriate throughout , ever natural and truthful . A depth of guileless wisdom speaks in the tender , earnest strain of the story , the reflective tenor of which is relieved Toy the perpetual play of a sparkling fancy , and warmed by irrepressible utterances of the highest and sweetest intuitions of the soul . Descriptions of Nature in her varied aspects of beauty are graphic as the colours on a camera . Nor is the power of portrait-painting less strikingl y displayedthe conception of Ainrei , the heroine , not unworthy to rank in originality and beauty—though of a . less ethereal subtle kind—with the surpassingly graceful creations of Undine and Use . We watch with unwonted interest the development of the inner life of the lonely orphan child Amrei , whoso unfolding spirit apprehends readily the teachings of nature—her solo
instructor—hopelessly echoing the thousand joyful voices of creation arounu licr . Herr Auerbach shows the facility and power of a mastur , whether in depicting nature or humanity , both which ho studies with a philanthropic feeling and a philosophic sense . We next lay bands upon a goodly volume , « alled Wise to Win Souls , which turns out to be a memoir of the Mav . Jenhaniah Job . By Sarah S . Farmer . ( Hamilton , Adams , and Co . )— - \\ e tfiiink Mr . Job would not have confided his diaries to Miss Farmer had ho known to what use she would put them . It is really too bad to print such entries as these : — March 8 Qth . —Tried by discovering that I throw a five-pound noto into the lire yesterday with waste paper . March BUt . — -Unwell . Mind at peace . Thought that my little loss of yesterday , and ray present iadianoaition , a gentle chastisomont of my heavenly father to try a ^ v patience . Deo , M < A . —Rather anxious about a cheque sent to Childrey , not yet acknowledged .
Zteo . Xlth . —Prayed against anxiety about Qhocuie . Half the volume is made up- of similar entrios . Id it a par 6 dy , or waa Misa Farmer only too much in earnest P Wo would point , us to an infinitely higher example of devotional literature , to the calm , pure , excellent Sermons
Preached at Trinity Chapel , Brighton , by the late F . W . Robertson , M . A . ( Third Series , Smith , Elder , and Co . ) With this- vr & may notice a twelfth volume of the Select Works of Thomas Chalmers , edited by his son-in-law , the Rev . W . Hanna , LL . D . ( Edinburgh : Constable and Co . ) , Israel in . the Apocalypse , by the Rev . George Ewing Winslow , M . D . ( Partridge and Co . ) , Geology and Genesis ; or , the Two Things Contrasted , by ' C ( Whittaker and Co . ) , and Part II . of An Essay on Intuitive Morals j being a , n Attemp t to Popular ise Ethical Science ( John Chapman ;) . ; The last is a masculine and eleverly-reasoned essay . Dr . Schmitz has compiled , as a , companion to his
admirable Manual of Ancient . History , an equally admirable Manual o Ancient Geography , with a Map showing the Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks under Xenophon . ( Edinburgh : Adam and Charles Black . ) It will afc once take its place among scholastic text-books , being clear , concise , pleasantlywritten , and , as far as possible , complete . We know of no such work on the same subject . We have to chronicle the publication , among second editions , of Greece under the Romans ^ by Geoi-ge Finlay , LL . D . ( Edinburgh : William Blackwood ) , and Vol . VI . of Lord Campbell ' s Lives , of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal . ( John Murray . )
The Illustrated Tennyson. The Poetical W...
THE ILLUSTRATED TENNYSON . The Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson . With Illustrations . Moxon and Co . We have already alluded to the perfect taste displayed in the elegant exterior , the noble type , and the stately pages of Mr . Moxon ' s recent edition of the Poet Laureate ' s collected works—an exquisite volume , which the genius of Art and the muse of Poetry unite to beautify . It remains for us to note how in the productions of the several masters employed , the interpretations of the artist have answered the conceptions of the poet . In some instances we find the characteristic touches of their pencils in peculiar har-This is
mony with the peculiar attributes of Alfred Tennyson . especially the case with the illustrations of Mr . Millais . The pervading mark of bis genius is a severe , uncompromising spirit of artistic truth , which , while it gives vigour to his delineations , renders them occasionally deficient in that ideality of grace and beauty which we associate with pure art ; and as in the poet whose imaginings he illustrates , so also in the artist we are sometimes startled by an inexorable adherence to reality in its harshest outlines . This concord of style it is which constitutes Mr . Millais so able an interpreter of Tennyson in his sternest moods , as we find in the " Mariana of the Moated Grange , " " the Death of the Old Year , "
and " St . Agnes' Eve . " The tension of expression called for in these pieces , the solemnity , earnestness , pathos , and even desolation impressed upon them , are adinirably realized by Mr . Millais , whose capacity for treating subjects of a sombre east is shown as much by his signal success in these pieces as by his failure in lighter essays , such as " Dora , " and the " Miller ' s Daughter . " A notable exception , however , is the " Day Dream , " where the fancy of the artist , yielding to the seductions of the scene , depicts vividly the picture of luxurious repose , portraying faithfully every minute detail which can enhance the charm of the piece and render it suggestive of a blissful dream of poetry . We wish that _ Mr . Millais had carried the same flexibility of iancy into the " Dream of Fair Women , " his illustration of its heroine resembling more some nightmare apparition of an Ashantee Traviata than the vision of Cleopatra in queenly grace for which it is intended .
Pre-eminent among the several beautiful conceptions of Mr . Stanfield stands his illustration of the " Lotos Eaters "— the whole scene redolent of balmy languor , suggesting the ' land in which it seemed always afternoonthe charmed sunset lingering low down in the red west . ' A hush of piety reigns over his convent sketch in the " St . Agnes' Eve . " A pensive charm han » s round Mr . Creswick ' s tomb of Claribel , while the " G olden-1 ear ^ by this " master shows in telling contrast the versatility of his powers . The piece is irradiated from earth to sky by a flood of mellow light . Mr Mulready also exhibits his genius diversely in the sprightly delicate o-race of his " Sea Fairies , " contrasted with the solemn grandeur of the k Maclise esentation of the Morte d'Arthur
« Deserted House . " Mr . ' a repr " " is vivid and energetic . Mr . Hunt ' s first illustration of the " Oriana" is bold , expressive , and true to the accessories of time and circumstance ; but in the second—the " Knight Lamenting "—an irresistible comparison convoys to the mind that some ancient monster , in the guise of an ungainly warrior , is about to clutch his prey . But Mr . Hunt redcema the Honour of his pencil by his skilful treatment of " Godiva , " whoae high resolve seems to speak in the nobility of her bearing , adding to the charm of exquisite feminine beauty in her form that of commanding dignity . Indeed , not a single artist does injustice to his name ; but , on the contrary , cannot but receive an accession to his fame through this noble volume .
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The Hatfdejq Festival. Tub Handel Festiv...
THE HAtfDEJQ FESTIVAL . Tub Handel Festival , which opened on Monday last with the iWWaA , is , without question , the event of tho season . Let those who doubb whether the English nation is a musical nation only consider that the great Master , to whose memory this last week lias been devoted , passed his days and acquired his fame in this country—that oven after tho lapse of a century he still retain * l » ia apell aver tho English mind—and thon suroly thqir doubts muai cease . We have heard it said that tho suppressed thunder of murmurous applivuso which rose from the multitudinous Him of a London audionco had more power to thrill the heart of tho
Swedish songster than tho more vociferous plaudit * Qf foreign listeners . Wo can well believe it . There is assuredly in this people an intensity of fooling / or music which it is difficult to over-estimate . And tho 15 , 000 persons who flocked fion every yrorinco to listen to tlie choir of 2000 voices and tho 500 instrumentB , ^^ SiS ^^^^^^ StSS ^ SSi Old -ns the subject wae , tho performance was wholly now . It was now to listen
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 20, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20061857/page/19/
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