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130 GERMAN" LITERATURE.
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.
A . . „ . No. Iv. It Is Tinie To Draw Th...
after tlie manner of the Kilkenny cats . But ; Madame Mundt succeeds to a far greater degree in the region of historical , romance ..
Here the literary power which she undoubtedly possesses is displayed to advantage , probably because her imagination is
compelled to submit to some sort of restraint . Amongst the most celebrated of these romances we may mention , " Joseph II . and His
Court , " " Memoirs of Queen Hortense , " " Leopold the Second and His Times . " " Frederick the Great and His Court" and " Napoleon
, and Blucher . " * The last-mentioned romance , in four small volumesis a good example of Madame Mundt ! s historical manner .
" Napoleon , and Blucher , " is worth a perusal , not only for the amount of research which has been expended on an interesting
subject , but for the pictorial skill and poetical power which are occasionally seen in its pages .
The English reader will be amused hy the pungency of many of the anecdotes ; though perhaps occasionally irritated by the long
philosophical disquisitions in which some of the characters indulge , and by the minuteness with which every detail is related . It may
provoke a smile to find many pages devoted to pre-Raphaelitisn descriptions of Blucher ' s pipe and the exact way in which Napoleon
stirred a cup of coffee . Occasionally the effects may be thought too theatrical and
the sentiment overdone . We English do not wear our hearts upon our sleevesand tears are not cheap with us . We are apt to
, suspect the genuineness of volcanic enthusiasm , and to see something ludicrous in tender emotions so openly manifested by rough
soldiers inured to horrors from which thought recoils . But perhaps for this very reason it is good for us to remember that if we
see a thing in one light , our neighbour may view it in another . We have no riht to require of the Germans that their visual
g organs should be the same as our own . If they choose to represent the _desxDotic Corsican with dewy drops of sentiment in his
eyes , there is perhaps a _refreshing naivete in the idea . This book is moreover curious as a daring attempt to combine fiction ( or
unprovable tradition ) with the recent events of history . Madame Mundt is so much in earnest herself that she trusts every one , and
draws her information indiscriminately from all sources . Memoirs of unknown gossiof court ladiesletters from soldiers , —
persons , p , all supply her with material , —all is fish that comes to her net . The result is occasionally exciting . The Emperor Napoleon is
the " heros de roman" of the story , the marvellous inconsistencies of his character affording ample room for the painter ' s craft .
Miihlbach depicts him in all his phases—now in the ungracious public manner , his strong features clouded over with gloom , striking
Hortense * " Kaiser " 185 Josep 7 h Leopold der Zweite der _tmd Zweite seine tmd Plof . " seine 1856 Zeit . " " Koni 3 Bde ginn
.. " .. c Friedrieh der G-rosze mid sein Hof . " Neuer Auflage , 1861 . 2 Bde .
" _Napoleon und Blucher . " Berlin .
130 German" Literature.
130 GERMAN" LITERATURE .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1862, page 130, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101862/page/58/
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