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204 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
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Humour. By the Author London of : " Hurs...
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.
204 Notices Of Books.
204 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
Humour. By The Author London Of : " Hurs...
Humour . By the Author London of : " Hurst Charles and Anchester Blackett , . and Counterparts . "
It is some years since tlie first of this remarkable set of novels made its appearance , and the incognita then assumed has been
unusually well preserved , since , to this day , the authorship remains uncertain each of course , and is claiming attributed 1 the by exclusive various coteries possession , to various of the secret ladies . ,
That the author is a -woman seems to be the only thing really knownand this knowledge is derived from internal and
unmistakable , evidence . None but a woman , and a woman of sensitive organization , of subtle brain and enthusiastic temperament could
have written these books . The characters , the thoughts , the feelings are all cast in an essentially feminine mould . Though in
man heroines y instances , they are well not known presented characters as we know are taken them for in the every heroes day life and ,
flesh and blood men and women , but as sublimated beings raised fied to a hi organizations gher plane than acting that and of ordinary re-acting existence upon each , nervousl other y aye inten , and
si-, , upon the reader also , by means of influences so subtle and penetrating that nothing but magnetism will explain them . We should
not be surprised to find that the author is a mesmeriser , a clairvoyantenor should we find it very difficult of belief that certain
portions , of these books were written while actually in the mesmeric condition .
In " Charles Auchester , " a musical novel , we have Mendelssohn "thus Rumour strangel 7 ' with y and an anachronism poetically , yet which powerfull would y , startle rendered us in . In any
other and , less fantastic writerwe have Beethoven and Louis Napoleon as the heroesboth , loving the same ladya mythic
, , princess of Naples and Sicily , -while the smaller fry of critics and artists , well known in London literary circles , figure from time to
time on the scene . " Rumour is the most extraordinary jumble of poetic imaginationwith more than poetic licenseof subtle
insight into character , and feeling , and the infinite causes , of finite effectsof sense and nonsensethan it is easily possible to conceive .
It is a , sort of intellectual kaleidescop , e , now all confusion , but still beautiful confusion , and anon distinct in form , rich in harmonious
coloring . "With all this there are not wanting powerful and graphic scenessuchfor instanceas where Rodomaunt . ( Beethoven ) plays
to its fullest , , the enormous , at Belvederethe enchanted abode of the power mythic princess , plays organ with passion and , frenzy till the
blast of sound stuns and fells him to the ground , and he is picked up senseless , bereft of his hearing for ever . Keen and caustic
description there is too , as of Tims Scrannel , " the only art critic in England . "
held current " Tims brig of hter Scrannel his , quicker blood was , surc drops no harging ordinary , that seemed person temp as . eramen though Slugg t ish w with ith and lymp _iJiat cold h they as , yet crawled could his vein not the s
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1858, page 204, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111858/page/60/
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