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128 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
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.
Contempoeaey Germain" Iiitera.Tuhe No. I...
Her father gave her the best education _liis resources could ensure , and left her free in the choice of her religion . She entered the
Christian eoniinunion in her seventeenth year , and subsequently travelled in Germany and France . Returning after some absence
to her home , with her mind enriched by the knowledge she had acquired and her imagination stimulated , by the sights she had seen ,
she commenced writing for the amusement of an invalid sister , and her contributions appeared from time to time in the " Europe" or
in the " Urania . " In the year 1845 , whilst travelling in Italy , she lost her father through a sudden attack of illness , and returned
in sad loneliness to her native country . Still she clung to literature , and found in it a wholesome recreation for her mind , delighting to
beguile her sorrows with the pleasing recreations of fancy . *" The two volumes of her biography which are now presented to
the public contain an account of her residence in her father's house , previous to her first expedition into France . Like all histories of
self , these books prove how imperceptible are the secret springs of feeling _-which often affect the actions of our lives , and how mighty are
the agencies which are hidden from the eyes of others . "I had great pleasure , " says the author of " Villette , " _"in reading a few
books , but not many ; preferring always those on whose style or sentim " Every ent famil the y writer " remark 's individual s Friedrich natur von Hardenb e was erg plainl , " y is something stamped . "
, added to the endless variety of human nature . " " All history , " observes Emerson , " is but the commentary on my own life . " These
assertions are not so contradictory as they seem . Much has been written with truth about the necessary objectivity which should be
the distinguishing characteristic of a great writer . Shakespere is instanced as a mirror reflecting all forms of life , and as a creator
developing creatures different from himself . But Shakespere did not go out of himself to accomplish this result . The greater the
mind , the larger will be the radius of its genius , and the more wonderful all that can be contained within the circumference of that
radius . To trace the character of the writer in his writings , and to detect the genius in all the disguises of its Proteus nature , is the
most pleasing of studies ; but the study is not always possible , so often do the authors of books sham to be other than themselves ;
so often do they imitate the thoughts and feelings of some great original , or play monotonous variations on some world-famed
melody . In many cases the biography is our only means o £ becoming acquainted with the character of an authorand yet the
, qualifications which constitute a candid biographer are so numerous and difficult to acquire that Gothe recommended his countrymen to
write memoirs of themselves as the best means of analysing indi-* Of the graver productions of Fanny _Lewald ' s pen , we may mention " BilderbuclV' Berlin durch 1847 ; " und Err inerungen Schottland aus 1852 1848 , " and Brunswick , 1850 ;
_" 18 Reisetagebuch 53 . England , " ; " Wandlungen , "
128 Notices Of Books.
128 _NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1862, page 128, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041862/page/56/
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