THE LITERARY WORLD: A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW OF CURRENT LITERATURE. VOLUME XI. JANUARY-DECEMBER, 1880. BOSTON: E. H. HAMES & COMPANY, 1880. The Literary World. Choice Readings from the Best New Books, and Critical Reviews. FORTNIGHTLY. ENTERED AT THE POST OFFICE AT BOSTON, MASS., AS SECOND CLASS MATTER. VOL. XI. No. 1. E. H. HAMES & Co., Publishers, P. O. Box, 1183. Charles Scribner's Sons HAVE RECENTLY PUBLISHED: I. The Life and Works of Gilbert By GEORGE C. MASON. Containing ten reproductions of II. Brazil: the Amazons and the Coast. By HERBERT H. SMITH. Illustrated from Sketches by J. THE GREATEST D. APPLETON & CO. HAVE RECENTLY PUBLISHED: Frances Power Cobbe, The Memoirs of Madame de Re Duke of Argyll, Wm. Black, of Littell's Living Age. Jan. 1, 1880, THE LIVING AGE entered upon its 144th Volume, admittedly unrivalled and continuously successful. A weekly magazine, it gives more than WELLS CHAMPNEY and others. 1 vol., 8vo, extra cloth. TBREE AND A QUARTER THOUSAND $5.00. musat. 1802-1808. With a Preface and Notes by her Grandson, PAUL DE REMUSAT, Senator. Part I. In three volumes. Volume I now ready. 8vo, paper, 50 cents. Madame de Rémusat was maid of honor to Josephine from 1802 to 1808, and these memoirs are derived from a diary which, though afterward destroyed, yet formed the foundation of the present work, which was carefully guarded by her son, and is now published by her grandson. The value of the memoirs rests on the general pictures which they give of the character of Napoleon, his relatives, and his favorites, and of the life of the Court. sents in an inexpensive form, considering its great amount of The World's Paradises; matter, with freshness, owing to its weekly issue, and with a entire body of Foreign Periodical Literature. It is therefore invaluable to every America reader, as the Or, Sketches of Life, Scenery, and Climate in Noted Sanitaria. By S. G. W. BENJAMIN. Forming No. 44 of Appletons' "New Handy-Volume Series." Paper, 30 cents. only satisfactorily fresh and COMI LETE compilation of an The Alpenstock. indispensable current literature - indispensable because it ABLEST LIVING WRITERS "It covers the whole field of literature, and covers it com- To read it weekly is a liberal education."-Zion's Herald, "With it alone a reader may fairly keep up with all that is "There is no other way of procuring the same amount of excellent literature for anything like the same price."-Boston Advertiser. "It is INDISPENSABLE TO EVERY ONE who desires a thor- "The prince among magazines."-New York Observer. EXTRA OFFER FOR 1880. To all new subscribers for 1880 will be sent gratis six num bers of 1879, which contain, besides other interesting matter, the first chapters of two new serial stories recently begun in THE LIVING AGE from advance sheets, viz.: "HE WHO WILL These books are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, NOT WHEN HE MAY," by MRS. OLIPHANT, and "ADAM prepaid, upon receipt of price, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. Nos. 743 and 745 Broadway, New York. AND EVE," by the author of those remarkably attractive LITTELL & CO., Boston. A Book about the Alps and Alpine Adventure. Edited by Comedies for Amateur Acting. Edited, with a Prefatory Note on Private Theatricals, by J. BRANDER MATTHEWS. Forming No. 46 of Appletons' "New Handy-Volume Series." Paper, 30 cents. The comedies in this volume were adapted from the French, and were selected specially for their fitness for parlor perfor mance. Vivian the Beauty. A Novel. By Mrs. ANNIE EDWARDES. Author of "Jet: Macaulay's Essays. Essays Critical and Miscellaneous. By LORD MACAULAY This is a remarkably cheap edition of Macaulay's Essays. A Gentle Belle. A Novel. By CHRISTIAN REID, author of "Valerie Aylmer," "Morton House," etc. 8vo, paper, 75 cents, D. Appleton & Co., Publishers, 549 and 551 Broadway New York. 6 Hawley Street, Boston. "A New Volumes of Poems." "RISK," The Leading Art Works. By J. MABERLEY. With an Appendix con- AND OTHER POEMS, cloth, gilt tops, $6.00; half levant, $12.00. BY CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES. 1 vol., 16mo, red edges, price $1.00. "With Miss Bates a poem is a thonght, a single flash of sentiment or taney, caught on the wing, as it were, and caged in the silver meshes of 1hythmical expression. Each plece makes one sharp and clear im ression on the mind. She does not deliver a scattering fire, but a single shot which goes straight to the mark. Her verse is marked by unfailing purity and sweetness."--Literary World. "Miss Bates's poetic inspirations burn themselves into the memory with the depth of the ir passion, which is always 18strained, however, within due limits. The translations from Gutier can be characterized by no other adjective than exquisite."-Traveller. "Marked by directness and concentration."-Journal. alist. If we try to express in a single word what seems to us the marked characteristic of these poems, that word will be LIFE. The pages live. We feel the coursing of the bl od along the lines. It is not too much to say that a substantial addition has been made to our best modern poetry."-Cambridge Tribune. Lubke's History of Art. A new translation from the seventh German Sold by all Booksellers and by Dodd, Mead & Company, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK. WEDDING GIFTS. Fine Watches, Chains, Diamonds, Bracelets, French There are gems of verse in the little volume crystalliza Clocks, Sterling Silver Ware, tions of subtle thoughts and tancies which should secure th ir publication from every Risk.' Some poems are weighty with thought.”—John G. Whittier. JUST PUBLISHED. MEMOIR OF Henry Armitt Brown, TOGETHER WITH FOUR HISTORICAL ORATIONS. The biography of this brilliant young orator, who rose to eminence so rapidly and was cut off in the midst of his strength and usefulness so suddenly, embraces an account of European travel; his labors and speeches in the cause of his college days at Yale; his early professional career; his political reform, both in the city of Philadelphia and on the wider field of national politics; and, above all, his historical orations inade during the Centennial epoch. These have been declared to be the best addresses which were delivered during that whole period. ** For sale by Booksellers, or will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, on receipt of the price, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., Publishers, 715 and 717 Market St., Philadelphia. Lippincott's Magazine FOR JANUARY: BEGINNING THE NEW VOLUME. Limoges and Faience, Vases 1. SARGENT'S RODEO. Illustrated. A graphic descrip and Plaques, Folding Mir-2. SUMMERLAND SKETCHES; or, RAMBLES IN THE Copies sent by mail, free of postage, on receipt of rors and Objets d'Art. For price. Address sale at low rates by Palmer, Bachelder & Co., No. 394 Washington Street, BOSTON. MENDELSSOHN MUSICAL INSTITUTE Pursues a system of instruction differing essentially from THEORETICAL STUDY is peculiarly interesting and attractive, and its method of tends to strengthen and equalize the voice, producing purity 9. Pupils carefully graded, and promoted according to pro- 8ICAL COMPOSITION, are its special departments, and the ficiency. 10. The ablest instructors are employed. 11. Mendelssohn says: "It has advantage over private instruction; it produces industry, spurs on to emulation, and perseveres against one-sidedness of education and taste." 12. Musical atmosphere of the Conservatory conducive to broader culture. 13. The best instructors educated in Europe are graduates of conservatories. 14. A finished musical education attainable from the first rudiments to final graduation. 15. Its graduates rank high and fill the best positions. 16 Frequent recitals by eminent artists. 17. Beginners are received. 18. Evening classes are formed each term. 19. Private lessons if preferred, at teachers' regular rates, with over 100 hours of other musical instruction without charge. 20 All branches in music, languages and elocution are taught. 21. The class system in the Conservatory is the same as in pupil glimpses of the science, while it teaches the art. The our Colleges and best schools. 22. Access is given to a fine musical library. 23. The London Choir says: "The New England Conservatory of Music is far in advance of our own Academy, and indeed of every English institution." It goes to work on the plan that pupils should not be made to pursue their studies in the tedious, mechanical methods, which, while making the fingers supple, dwarf and warp the mental faculties. The MUSICAL CURRICI LUM" early opens up the beauties of the theory of music, and gives the gradnal development of the subject is fascinating; at every step something is gained, and that something is clearly defined and exemplified. Whatever is of an abstract nature is continually relieved by the introduction of pleasing exercises or songs, which, while constantly progressing, furnish, also, agreeable relaxation. 24. Harper's Monthly characterizes it as the "Model Mu- Give the "Musical Curriculum" a tion of cattle-driving in California. By F. M. OSBOURNE. 3. AN UNTHRIFT. A Poem. By EMILY A. BRADDOCK. 4. UMILTA. A Tuscan Sketch. By "Ouida." 5. FROM A CORNER. BY CELIA THAXTER. 6. FORTY YEARS AGO: or, SOME PAST DANGERS TO AMERICAN LIBERTIES. An able paper on matters of national interest. 7. FROM THE FARM TO THE SHOP. A humorous sketch of town and country life. By MARY DEAN. 8. ADAM AND EVE. A deeply interesting Serial Story. By the author of " Dorothy Fox." Part I. 9. THE BULL-FIGHT. Illustrated. A spirited description of that brutal but exciting sport-a Spanish bull-fight. By J. M. 10. A LITTLE PIECE OF HEAVEN. A Christmas Story. By CHARLOTTE ADAMS. 11. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. An interesting pa per on this important subject. By Prof. WILLIAM F. 12. ABOUT MARY ANN. A Story. By R. C. MEYERS. Lippincott's Magazine FOR 1880. This Magazine enters its Twenty-fifth volume with the number for January, 1880. The Publishers take pleasure in again assuring the patrons of the journal that in the future, as in the past, the more popular and prominent features will be maintained, and that they will continue the introduction of such new attractions as may prove of interest, and sustain the high reputation gained for this Magazine. They will spare no efforts to supply their patrons with a fund of The Best and Most Attractive Reading, aiming to furnish entertainment, in the best sense, for every diversity of taste-to be of no class, of no party, but belonging to all and profitable to all. Probation. Young Mrs. Jar dine. Figs and Thistles.-The Twins of Table Mountain.-Vivian the Beauty.— Di Cary.— A Gentle Belle. A Mysterious Disappearance. Through Winding Ways.- Women's Husbands CURRENT POETRY. Mrs. Piatt's Dramatic Persons and Moods. Nora Perry's Her Lover's Friend.Anna Maria Fay's Idylls and Poems.- Mrs. Dodge's Along the Way.- The Street Singer.- Poems by Henry Abbey MINOR NOTICES. The History and Poetry of Finger Rings Hovey's Causerie King's The Egotist Allibone's Great Authors that those who do the most mischief are "the original fabricators of error, to wit: the men generally who write for the newspapers." Next to these he puts the "authors of the vapid, trashy, 'sensation novels' of the day." The fact, therefore, that the main portion of this book appeared in a New York newspaper probably accounts for the 3 rhetorical, grammatical, and linguistic shortcomings which disfigure it from beginning to end. 3 4 7 9 11-12 12 13 13 8 : 8 8 0000 00 8 9 12 13-14 word, and repeats it in other places. He condemns the use of words of Latin origin, and yet uses commence" for begin, and "denominate" for name or call. He points 13 out instances in which the subjunctive mode is neglected, and then writes his own sentences in the same faulty style. He gives an entire chapter to the subject of misused words, and then writes, "It may be well to remark here . . on," "the student should practise line by line on," and speaks of 8" rendering" the Church service. He writes of avoiding the "contraction" of a habit of formal utterance, forgetting that the word 14 contraction means "the act of bringing into a narrow compass," and should not be used in that connection instead of "contracting." He pleads strongly for precision and against the use of expletives, and yet uses "scholar" for pupil, and crowds his pet expletives into his phrases until they become tiresome. For construction we present the following sentence (?) as an example: "Just as a man will write his own name more illegibly and therefore worse-than he writes anything "The entire diameter of the system" (of else." We notice the following expressions: elocution), a" depreciating vulgarism (for a depreciative vulgarism); "made rather a happy hit" (for a rather happy hit). The tone of the book is very dogmatic, and one would suppose that the author's statements were beyond question, and that his style was unimpeachable. The style is, on the other hand, far from perfect, and we find the writer constantly offending against the canons of criticism which he lays down. Mr. Gould writes with a stiffness which seems to come from an attempt at an unnat ural precision, cultivated by one the rudi ments of whose education were not based upon thorough instruction. Dean Trench and Noah Webster are his bêtes noir, and he pursues the latter with the unrelenting spirit of a Spanish Inquisitor. He finds the English language deteriorating remarkably, he tells us, and says on one page that the responsibility for the deplorable condition of affairs rests "mainly" on our good writers; but on another he says • Good English; or Popular Errors in Language. By Edward S. Gould. Revised edition. A. C. Armstrong & Son. $1.25. should like to see observed. It must not be supposed that there are no merits in this book. One chapter on clerical elocution, for example, though hardly pertinent to the main topic, and though addressed only to the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church, contains suggestions that we It is in many respects the best short address of its kind we have ever read, and ought to be put into a tract. But the astonishing coolness and positiveness with which the author condemns others for errors which he constantly commits himself, makes it fitting that his own efforts should be treated with exact example, as his precepts are sound in the way of direct teaching, it seems appropriate in a book on Errors in Language,' to point out some of his blunders, that they may be avoided, instead of imitated, by his students." Without approving the teachings of either Trench or Gould, we feel that duty demands of us to commend the ingredients of the former's chalice to the lips of the author of Good English, a book that is better described by the second portion of its title, "Popular Errors in Language," than by the first. AN ENGLISH WOMAN IN COLORADO.* THE author of this volume is an Englishwoman of the traditionally plucky type, who, having completed a six months' visit to the Sandwich Islands, crossed to the United States at San Francisco, and plunged into the recesses of the Rocky Mountains in search of such scenes and adventures as the region might afford. Entirely alone, with no little experience of life in the rough, fearless and resolute, an accomplished horsewoman, possessed of a ready tact which enabled her to fit into the most incongruous and difficult circumstances, carrying herself everywhere with unfailing dignity, and withal the mistress of a strong common sense, she was equipped as few women are for the rude and exhausting, and sometimes perilous, situations in which she was constantly placed. There is not one woman in a thousand capable of achieving such an adventure, or indeed who would be likely to live to tell the story of it. Miss Bird's letters home to her sister, which are the basis of the present volume, were first published in an English periodical, and richly deserve reproduction in this more permanent form. The book makes no delay in San Francisco, but begins promptly with the ascent of the mountains on the way to Colorado, where the author was to seek and make her first acquaintance with the wonders and beauties of the great American wilderness. At Truckee she bravely left the train in order to pay a visit to Tahoe and Donner Lakes. It was near midnight as she entered the rough hotel, with its crowded and noisy bar-room. She made the best of such accommodations as could be provided for her, and slept the sleep of the just, notwithstanding the tumult around her. The next morning she donned her riding suit, called for a horse, and set out unattended for Lake Tahoe. The horse proved unsuitable, was frightened by a bear which crossed the path, threw his rider, and ran away, leaving Miss Bird to shift for herself as well as she could until the fractious steed was captured restored to her. by some friendly wagoners and finally At last she reached the A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. Illus. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.75. |