faults; and beneath all the biting and scorn there is a stratum of genuine feeling, which shows that he does not, like too many satirists, indulge his satire for the love of it, but uses it as an effective instrument for the accomplishment of higher good. Now and then, indeed, the denunciation loses its fierceness and takes on the tones of indignant sorrow, as in the following apostrophe, which is put in the mouth of the hero of the story: "Our people has become free, but its hand, as of yore, hangs powerless by its side. Nothing, nothing is changed. In one respect alone have we surpassed Europe, Asia, the whole world. No, my dear fellow-countrymen have never slept so terrible a sleep. Every one is asleep everywhere in the village, the city, in the talega, the sleigh, day and night, sitting and standing-the merchant, the tchinovnik sleeps; in his tower sleeps the watchman, under the cold of the snows, beneath the heat of the sun. And the criminal sleeps and the judge slumbers; the peasants are sleeping the sleep of death; they gather in the harvest, they toil in the fields-they sleep; they thrash the corn, still sleeping; father, mother, and children, all asleep. He who beats and he who is beaten, both sleep. The tavern alone is awake, its eye always open. And, clasping between its five fingers a jug of brandy, its head toward the north-pole, its feet at the Caucasus, sleeps in an eternal sleep-Russia, the holy country!"

Of course, in a work with a purpose such as we have indicated, the story is a comparatively subordinate matter; yet in the present case the story is not without interest of itself, and it is told with the author's characteristic power, and ease, and finish. The end is penetratingly sad and tragic, but it is not depressing, and the book is, on the whole, less calculated to cause us to despond than is customory with Turgénieff's stories. For one thing the hero is actuated by higher motives than usual-his very failure is a kind of triumph; and he does what we had almost concluded that Turgénieff held to be impossible—namely, resists successfully the seductions of a beautiful and unprincipled woman.

It is not the least of the misfortunes of Edgar Allan Poe that, in order to rehabilitate his name and fame, his admirers appear to find it necessary to assail the character and impugn the motives of nearly everybody who had anything to do with him. It is not surprising that Dr. Griswold should be to them an object of bitter hostility. There can no longer be any doubt that Griswold not only, as was to have been expected, misunderstood and misinterpreted Poe, but grossly and shamefully calumniated him, deliberately inventing incidents and circumstances that would lend support to his view of Poe's character, and as deliberately suppressing or ignoring evidence that would seem to demand a more lenient judgment. He betrayed the trust confided in him as literary executor by traducing and vilifying a name which it was peculiarly his duty to protect; and he did this, so far as

pletely spoiled by a misconception of the manner in which such an exposure can be most effectually made. Through many portions of the volume it is difficult to decide whether the author's primary intent is to narrate the life of Poe or to vituperate Griswold, and the whole tone of the work is vulgarized and lowered by the incessant recurrence to a subject that is rendered doubly disagreeable by the manner of treating it. The proper way and the only way to discredit and supersede Griswold's "lying memoir" is to provide a new, authentic, and obviously trustworthy biography of Poe-a biography which shall satisfy by the fairness and frankness of its tone as well as by the completeness of its information; but Mr. Gill is as misleading in one direction as Griswold is in another, and perhaps with less excuse. Nothing can be gained at this late day by attempting to ignore or palliate the undeniable vices and weaknesses of Poe's character and conduct. If his fame has steadily grown and widened in spite of Griswold's misrepresentations, it can certainly now stand a plain presentment of the truth; and in one whose faults wrought chiefly his own hurt, the public would readily forgive even if it could not extenuate.

This is the chief fault of Mr. Gill's work, but it is by no means the only one. He is disingenuous from beginning to end, and not seldom urges propositions which the judgment of a child would reject, and which are an insult to the intelligence of his readers. As a characteristic specimen of this disingenuousness, we may cite his treatment of that melancholy episode in Poe's life, when, after issuing prospectuses of his new magazine, The Stylus, he went to Washington, on money furnished by his partner, to enlist the support of the Presi dent, cabinet officers, and other public men, in behalf of his enterprise. The plain facts are, that he succumbed to a debauch immediately after reaching Washington, wrote false statements to his partner, never saw the President or any other respectable men, and had to be taken away by his friends in order to save him from utter disgrace. All these facts appear in Mr. Gill's narrative or in the letters which he is compelled to insert, and yet he has the audacity to intimate that it was the harsh and unsympathetic reception he met that drove him to drink, and to say, "There is little reason to doubt that his failure to secure the influential support so essential to his material success was mainly due to the jealous, unappreciative atmosphere of the politicians among whom he vainly worked!" Nor is this by any means a solitary instance. While obliged to admit that Poe indulged periodically in furious debauches, and that nothing could restrain him from these, Mr. Gill resents any intimation that they injuriously influenced his professional career, and seems disposed to throw upon society at large the defect of the book arises from the author's reluctance or blame for Poe's failure and sufferings. Another serious neglect to give dates. There are several important and disputed questions concerning Poe's career which a few easily-ascertained dates would effectually settle, but Mr.

It was certainly very unfortunate and not a little discreditable that the only authorized edition of Poe's works should for so long a period have been accompanied by Griswold's calumnious memoir, and the char

acter of that memoir should undoubtedly be exposed and denounced as long as any one shows any symptoms of being misled by it; but it is painful to find that Mr. W. F. Gill's long-heralded "Life of Poe" has been com

1 The Life of Edgar Allan Poe. By William F. Gill. Illustrated. Boston: W. F. Gill & Co. 12mo, pp. 315.

tion.

There are a few fresh facts and some interesting ana and letters in Mr. Gill's book, and these constitute its principal claim to favorable notice. As a collection of "Poe material" it will prove useful to the future biog

rapher, but no one will accept it as an adequate delineation of the most subtile and perplexing genius that has arisen in American letters.

IT would hardly be premature to say that the "NoName Series" has substantially failed to fulfill the an

theological, metaphysical, or historical speculations, suggested by the name or the scene. Whatever the subject, however, the interest rarely flags, as the touch of the author is too light and glancing to permit him to become tedious. Mr. Appleton's style is vivid, and pointed, and epigrammatic, possessing the good qualities of sparkling, vivacious, and intelligent talk, rather than of formal and deliberate composition.

FOR a period considerably longer than that spent on stubborn Troy, well-informed novel-readers have enjoyed in Mr. Trollope's novels an effective antidote to the long-drawn dullness of summer days, on the homoeopathic principle of curing like with like. Provided with one or two of his mildly-interesting, placid, ambling, and interminable stories, the summer lounger may contemplate with serene indifference the slow-creeping movement of the hours and the days, and if at the end of the period he is apt to feel that he has been nourished mentally on a milk-and-water diet, he can find ready consolation in the reflection that it was of a kind specially adapted to the season. It makes little difference which of Mr. Trollope's stories may be selected. With two or three exceptions among his earlier works they are all alike, and the newly-published "American Senator "1 will answer as well as any of its recent predecessors. The scene of this story is not laid in America, as would naturally be inferred from its title. During the entire period covered by the narrative the Senator is in England, collecting material for a lecture, and making himself ridiculous in a certain large and ponderous way which will strike the reader rather as characteristically English than American. The character of the Hon. Elias Gotobed is carefully studied, and is delineated with tireless (not to say tiresome) minuteness; but it is too exaggerated for a portrait and too serious for a mere caricature. To depict such a character successfully requires some sense of humor on the part of the author; and in this Mr. Trollope, with all his insinuating satire and delicate irony, is altogether deficient. In the Senator from the State of Mekewe he has drawn a very dull, pompous, and prosaic person, but apparently without knowing it. For the rest the story has the usual amount of tepid lovemaking, of veiled social satire, and of smooth smalltalk, and finally comes to an end without the reader being able to see anything in the nature of things why it should not amble along in the same way forever.

WIDE reading, a retentive memory, and great fluency of style, are the distinguishing characteristics of Professor William Mathews's works-of "Hours with Men and Books "" no less than of the volumes that have preceded it. Any topic whatever is sufficient to start him off upon a string of lively comments and illustrative quotations; and the four books he has published probably contain the largest collection of literary anecdotes, epigrams, apothegms, and jeux d'esprit, ever brought together by a single writer. There is little originality of thought, and his remarks, though judicious and sensible,

1 The American Senator. A Novel. By Anthony Trollope. New York: Harper & Brothers. 8vo, pp. 190.

"Hours with Men and Books. By Professor William Mathews, LL. D. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 12mo, pp. 384.

"The

are apt to be a trifle commonplace; but he is never at a loss for an apposite story or saying, and he weaves these together with such skill that even the most familiar derive a sort of novelty from their setting. The present volume is a collection of miscellaneous essays, ranging in character from careful biographical and critical studies of Thomas De Quincey and Robert South to cursory chitchat about "Moral Grahamism," 79 64 Book-Buying," Illusions of History," "Literary Triflers," "Working by Rule," and "The Morality of Good Living." A desire to furnish wholesome and refined entertainment is the inspiring motive of the greater part of the contents; but now and then the author becomes didactic, and in such papers as "Strength and Health," and 'Writing for the Press," offers his public some sound and practical advice.

64

AN American Tauchnitz series-in other words, a "Collection of Foreign Authors," which shall include selections from the best current literature of France, Germany, and other European countries-the word "foreign" being used in the sense of "non-English "—has just been begun by D. Appleton & Co. The initial volume of the series is entitled "Samuel Brohl and Company," and is a translation from the French of Victor Cherbu

liez. "Joseph Noirel's Revenge," the only other novel by which M. Cherbuliez is widely known to American readers, was of an intensely tragic character, and seemed to indicate that the author's forte lay in dealing with the darker and fiercer passions of human nature; but the present story is of the purely society type, and is as attractive in its easy grace and sparkling vivacity as "Joseph Noirel's Revenge" was fascinating in its gloomy but impressive delineations of the terrible workings of revenge and hate. M. Cherbuliez is a prime favorite with the cultivated and cosmopolitan readers of the Revue des Deux Mondes, and his stories illustrate French fiction at its highest and best. They are wholly free from that moral taint which so widely pervades current French literature; they portray domestic life in its purer and more natural aspects; they deal by preference with the arch gayety and innocence of youth rather than with the artificial vices of world-weary cynics; and they are as artistic in design, as skillful in execution, as fresh, piquant, sparkling, and vivacious in style, as the better class of French novels always are. "Samuel Brohl and Company' "makes a favorable exhibit of all these qualities. Mademoiselle Moriaz is as charming and winning as one of Mrs. Oliphant's English heroines; and the social adventurer has never been more happily introduced into fiction than in the person of Samuel Brohl. The minor characters are all vividly portrayed, the descriptions are natural and effective, and the style has an indescribable pungency and wittiness which cannot be wholly lost even in translation. It is just the book for a quiet summer day, for a ride in the cars, for a snug corner in the satchel or pocket; and if appreciative friends are at hand there are many passages which one will be tempted to read aloud. In outward appearance the volume bears a general resemblance to the well-known Tauchnitz editions, but it is printed in larger type and on better paper.

1 Collection of Foreign Authors. No. I. Samuel Brohl and Company. Translated from the French of Victor Cherbuliez. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 16mo, pp. 271.

AN IMPORTANT PUBLISHING ENTER

PRISE.

MESSRS. D. APPLETON & Co. have in press, and will shortly begin to issue in parts, "THE AMERICAN HOUSEHOLD CYCLOPÆDIA," edited by Professor E. L. YouMANS, author of "The Hand-book of Household Science," who has been assisted in its preparation by eminent specialists in the various departments. It will be a complete digest of, modern knowledge, scientific, æsthetic, and practical, for daily consultation and guidance in regard to the varied interests of domestic life. Notwithstanding the importance of the subject, we have no work of this character in the English language. The deficiency of our larger cyclopædias, in valuable information relating to household concerns, is very marked, and is not supplemented by the loose and slovenly compilations which continually appear under the title of dictionaries and cyclopædias of domestic economy. There is, hence, urgent need of a comprehensive, thorough, and trustworthy work, giving the latest results of research, inventive skill, and intelligent experience, in their bearing on the numerous problems of home improvement, and this want it is the purpose of "THE AMERICAN HOUSEHOLD CYCLOPÆDIA" to meet. In its preparation no labor or expense has been spared to gather authentic information, to verify current statements, to test rules and receipts, and to give the greatest amount of accurate knowledge that will be of substantial use in the practical management of household affairs. The work will be well printed, and extensively illustrated in the best style of first-class scientific publications, so as to do something

to elevate the character of a branch of literature hitherto as discreditable in appearance as it is unreliable in quality.

ATTEMPTS have been made to illuminate the Salon, Paris, by means of the electric light, which is said not to decompose color. A qualified success was attained, but the result cannot be accepted as satisfactory. Considerable difficulty is found in regard to softening the light on the one hand, and equalizing it on the other.

PROFESSOR YOUMANS, in introducing to the American public the second edition of Bagehot's admirable work on "The English Constitution" (D. Appleton & Co.) recOmmends it particularly to persons about to visit England as the best key to the understanding of the English system of government and politics. He terms it a free disquisition on English political experience; an acute, critical, and dispassionate discussion of English institutions, designed to show how they operate, and to point out their defects and advantages. The writer is not so much a partisan or an advocate as a cool, philosophical inquirer, with large knowledge, clear insight, independent opinions, and great freedom from the bias of what he terms that "territorial sectarianism called patriotism."

THE REV. T. Lewis O. Davies, Vicar of St. Mary Extra, Southampton, author of "Bible English," is preparing a glossary of words found in our literature that do not occur in the best-known existing dictionaries.

D. APPLETON & Co. have just issued a third edition of Lecky's "History of Morals," reprinted from the third London edition, which bears date January, 1877. In the preface to this edition the author says he has omitted four or five lines in the controversial part of the elucidating or supporting positions which had been misfirst chapter, and inserted three or four short passages

understood or contested, and subjected the book to a minute and careful revision. This book holds a foremost place in the noteworthy literature of the present decade, on account of its boldness and aggressiveness toward the system of moral philosophy prevalent in England at the time of its first appearance, as well as for its able scholarship and close logic. If all are unwilling to admit that it presents the whole truth faithfully, few will deny that it is a very powerful presentation of partial truth.

MR. STODDARD, literary editor of the New York Express, says of Cherbuliez's new novel, "Samuel Brohl and Company," that it is a wonderfully ingenious story, and that it contains at least seven admirable portraits.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT, No. 4, reprints, from the " Encyclopædia Britannica," Professor Robertson Smith's article on "The Bible " (Old Testament), for writing which the author has been suspended from the Free Church of Scotland, and is to be tried for heresy. The article on the New Testament will appear in No. 5 of the SUPPLEMENT. The article has excited much attention in England, and those not subscribers to the " Encyclopædia Britannica" will bə glad to have the articles in the accessible form they are now presented.

THE second issue in D. Appleton & Co.'s new "Collection of Foreign Authors" will be "Gérard's Marriage," by André Theuriet. This is a very charming story, entertaining in plot, excellent in characterization, and of special interest on account of the delightful delineations of French provincial life—in which particular it is very fresh, while the tone of the work is notably good.

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