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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 57
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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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.
French Women "Adele Of Letters ," &C . ....
other , —with much of the fine gradations of feeling * and passion which were the great charm of Mademoiselle de Scudery ' s writings . As
the skilful painter or sculptor will reduce a picture or statue , g K iving avana all h reproduces the poetry , in passion pettoin , or these beaut sketches y of the of French original Women , so Miss of
g , , Letters and their works , all that made them what they were ; and as we find room in our modern houses for statuette copies of the world ' s
wonders in art , so will many among us be thankful to give place on our "bookshelves to these two volumeswhich present a faithful
, epitome of more than two centuries of literary life and labor , already fast fading from knowledge and remembrance .
"No French novelists , " says Miss Kavanagh , " were more eminent or opular in their day than Mademoiselle de Scudery and Madame de
Stael p , though two centuries divided them . " Miss Kavanagh / s book commences with the one and ends with the other , embracing
In its course Madame de la Fayette , Madame de Tencin , Madame RiccoboniMadame de GenlisMadame de CharriereMadame de
Kru & e _3 _Eter , and Madame Cottin , most of them well , -known by name to Eng , lish readersthough , we imagine very few are either
, perfectly or imperfectly read in the majority of their works . Nor is it reasonable to expect they should be , for if , as Miss Kavanagh
says , and Madame Dudevant said before her , even more emphaticall " novels have become the teachers for good or for evil of
y , many , '' the lessons they convey , _though generalized in proportion to the genius of the writer , must , for the most part , be
specially applicable to the age in which they are written . The most successful novels of the present day are undeniably those
which bear upon some one or more of the peculiar phases of civilization through which we are at present passing ; and we saspect
Mademoiselle de Scudery recognised this element of success when she chose for her great work " The Grand Cyrus" a " remote age ,
historical characters of classical , fameand some known , events ; and out of these fashioned a romance on which , she grafted the feelings ,
manners , and language of her own times , "—a mode of proceeding which Miss Kavanaghfrom an art point of view , considers as
, " offensive to modern taste . " " The historical characters , places , and events , are made to fit
the men and women , the localities , the incidents , and the feelings recommended of Louis the Fourteenth the * Great 's court Cyru , s rei } to gn its , and coteniporaries kingdom . If it any was thing this
, want of classic truth , for which Mademoiselle de Scudery substituted French reality . But strange to say , neither the author nor her
friends were aware of her deficiencies in this respect . " Is Miss-Kavanagh quite sure of this ? for it does not follow , because
Mademoiselle de Scudery " knew on what principles a good historical romance should be framed" that she wasas Miss Kavanagh
,, argues , " unconscious of having * violated "the laws she laid down . "
Well-known laws of literature and art , then as now , we fear , _aro
Notices Of Books. 57
NOTICES OF BOOKS . 57
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1862, page 57, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031862/page/57/
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