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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 209
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.
¦ < Almost A Heroine. B Etc Y . The Hurs...
public Have Mtlierto extended as proof of her own literary infallibility , Indulin the first volume of " Almost a Heroine" in a fling "
against ges the abuse of language in modern literature which is too rich to pass unnoticed .
that not " think I has suppose been that written great modesty sorrow against and humility makes pride one be are true humble twin , which terms ; it of either certainl course y it I should seems deny . , to if I me all do
boaste that this d of Ang in laces lo-British hih anti low qwe and -mediceval middling language is the greatest of ours ; detriment , which is to so a g
single-minded p author . There , , is scarcely one , word left us which is unpervertible hilolog , ists I was and going grammarian to say s inc w onvertible ho address . " Where short-winded are all the istles linguists to the ,
p " Times " without , ever receiving , any answers ?— -at least in its ep columns . I would mal scale not , yet wish he to mi seem ght have to imitate magnifie the _" mite Punch d my investi above , " even remark on the as cheese the most solar burrow infinitesi micro - -
w scope as "I shoul onl t modes y d meant repea t , so t in dissolving - the en grand first instance on " my own , that account thoug ga any h ting I mi co a g -equality ht be - humble between . , I
ria the tremest d terms s , I took ; instances for upon in my myself of solitude individual to , do solitude what wit and the of wisest dulness a unit amidst and have the done the least solitude with of fools equal of , my the ( or
ex , wri une te qual a book ) rewards It shames of man ' me s con somewhat tempt or when adulation I see — floated I took in upon myself a loose to upon
the bed universal of waste . paper deluge that such would Lave of made worthless great letterpress stand , against thrust the straig waters ht in of
, a mass sells the public and eye tisfie , as ( like t onl the y has its of " the billet last " man like who any had other the " ni bullet _ht-mare , " but )
for the moment sa . It is disheartening supper to write oneself an . author g in days when womenwho ten years ago would have been governesses , twenty years
who ago l in aundresses such , small , and spaces fifty years of the ago past good would plain have cooks similarl , —not y to been speak ushers of men of
commercial schoolsforemen of small neat firms in trade , or truly-to-beprint trusted ; whether servants read out , of or not livery it , matters —all write little themselves , for they are the paid same , or , and their are pub in
lishers are ,- —it is all one to us . " Now there is such a ing * as "That those who live in glass
say houses should not fling stones ; " and again , "He who breaks other ' s headsshall have his own broken in turn . " The author of "
Counter-, parts , " etc ., will do well to take these sayings to heart , and make quite sure of her own literary impeccability ere she ventures to break
a lance on the subject with her fellow-authors . _" Almost a Heroine " is to the full as faulty as any of the previous _novels by the same
hand ; and though containing here and there passages of subtle insiht into the feelings and affectionsit ison the whole , less striking
and g vivid , less rich in fancy , and , if we , may , so express it , less magneticallchargedthan its predecessors .
positions The y dramatis but one persona , is bound , one to and meet all this , occupy writer difficul on a p t lane and of exceptional her own ,
to follow , , as it were , the ignis Jhtuus of her genius , if we would follow at all ; and so long as the characters are true to themselves and the
surroundings in which they are arbitrarily placed , it is all either reader or critic can ask . Otherwise , what words could sufficiently
vor _,. iv . * _Q-
Notices Of Books. 209
NOTICES OF BOOKS . 209
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 209, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/65/
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