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TAn TIE IiEADEB. LSaturba y ,
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. Mountains and Molehi...
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THE BRITISH INSTITUTION. If we had the h...
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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.
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A New Bookselling Dodge. Buthhall: A Dom...
and of Messrs . Sampson , Low , and Son , appear at the foot of the title-page , Sjo nt ^ ublishers of the book with the American firm of - Mason Brothers » ( It seems to take a great many quack-doctors , m theliterary line , to sell a very bad article of the literary sort !) But we have not done with the names attached to Ruth Hall yet . There is the authoress , or " Arch-Quack ( as Mr . Carlyle would say ) , to be mentioned—a lady who passes under the assumed name of " Fanny Fern , " and who leads the prefatory shouting about Ruth Hall , by informing us that the work is " at variance with all set rules for novel-writing " -which it most certainly is After this prehmmary nourish , the covered carts of Doctors " Houlston , " " Stoneman , " W . Orr , and " Low , " are drawn up ; and these gentlemen , having a book to sell , beein to try and make their little profit by telling the public what a very wonderful book it is . » It simply remains , " ^ tbese eminent quacks in their preface , " for the British publishers" ( or Cheap-Johns ) " oflanny Fern ' s works to venture a few remarks upon the general character and tendency of her writings . " We are then told that these infallible ^ cornplasters—we beg pardon , the right phrase is , " this lady ' s works —are ot i
thrown off extemporaneously ; that the secret ner literary success , s n « - fidelity to nature ; that she has none of the airs of professional authorship ; that she makes her descriptions like her own free talk ; that her style is free from all bookishness , and from all hard traces of weary study ; , moreover , that it flows on as easily and blithely as the song of early birds . 1 he soncr of early birds 1 "—who would have thought Houlston , Stoneman , Orr , and Low had so much poetry in them ? We shall love to think of all four henceforth as the Early Birds of British publishing ! But let us proceed . ! Let its hear with admiration , on the indisputable authority of critics who are commercially interested in promoting the sale of the books they review , that " with the perennial mirth of our author there is frequently blended a genuine sense of the pathetic , and the brilliant flashes of humour are often relieved with sudden bursts of sympathy . " It is leasant to be to ld thiseven in the most awkward style ; pleasant to
p , hear further that Fanny Fern ' s " heart is thoroughly with the people , ' and that her " love of truth and beauty leads her to detect all the elements of goodness in common every-day life . " After a little more purely disinterested praise of this sort , the Early Birds quit the lofty regions of poetry , and criticism , and address the hard-hearted public with " facts and figures . They inform us that on both sides of the Atlantic Fanny Fern " numbers her readers by hundreds of thousands ; " and that former copies of her works have reached a sale , "in America only , of 150 , 000 , within five months of their publication . " We have hitherto been in the habit of believing that hundreds of thousandsit
when . a writer numbered readers ^ by , was quite unnecessary to mention the fact , because that fact was sure to speak for itself . But Fanny- Fern ' s -is an exceptional case ^ Although , on the _ showing of the Early Birds , her works have a circulation , " on both sides of the Atlantic , " equal to that of Sir Walter Scott or Mr . Charles Dickens , we lament to confess that we ourselves had never as much as heard them mentioned , until we read , the " British Publishers '" Preface to Ruth Hall . This , as we tmve said before , makes Fanny Fern ' s an exceptional case . There are some famous people in this world of whose existence it is just as well to remind the general public now and then .
We have now given the " British Publishers '" opinion of their own speculation , and have nothing further to say of it , but that it proves , as much as any example can , the profound truth of Charles Lamb ' s famous remark , that " publishers are the only tradesmen who deal in a commodity of which they do not possess the slightest knowledge . " More utterly worthless nonsense has not often been set up in type than the nonsense contained in every page of tins book , over whictrMessrs .-Houlston , Stoneman r -Orr ,- and JJ 0 . 5 vL . fall into such eloquent prefatory raptures . If our readers can imagine anything so absurd as a sentimental imitation of the eccentricities of Sterne , they may form an idea of the manner of the new and famous writer who is the delight
of 150 , 000 readers on the other side of the Atlantic : rhapsodies , in Yankee-English , on love , marriage , and babies ; paragraphs of fine sentiment that have been written a hundred times before , in language a hundred times better than Fanny Fern ' s , alternate with attempts at humour , which , when we consider that they are the productions of a woman , are absolutely revolting in their coarseness and vulgarity . Of the affectation in the style o the book , and of a certain virtuously-prurient tone which pervades parts of it , and which will doubtless make it welcome to ultra-delicate readers , nothing but an example can present a fair idea . " Ruth Hall" has just been married . Here is a specimen of the interestingly allusive manner in which the " British Publishers' " favourite author describes
a bride ' s first sensations . Poor Ruth , in happy ignorance of the state of her new mother-in-law ' s feelings , moved about her apartments in a sort of blissful dream How odd it seemed , this new freedom , this being one ' s own mistress . How odd td * Bee that shaving-brush and those razors lying on her toilet table ! then that saucy-looking smoking-cap , those slippers and that dressing-gown , those fancy neck-ties , too , and vests and coats , in unrebuked proximity to her muslins , laces , silks , and do laincs ! Ruth liked it . . After having been married , lluth is confined . Here is the account of the confinement , boginning with the most interesting moment , and ending with the most absolute nonsense . ( The reader will be kind enough to take notice that we give a tviiole chapter in the present quotation ) : —
CHAPTER VI I . THE FlIlST-nOBN . Hark ! to that tiny wail ( Ruth knows that most blessed of all hours . Ruth is a mother ! Joy to theo , Ruth 1 Another outlet for thy womanly heart ; a mirror , in which thy smiles and tears shall bo reflected back ; a fair page , on which thou , Godcomminsionod , mayst write what thou wilt ; a heart that will throb back to thine , love for love . . . . , But Ruth thinks not of all this now , as she lies pale and motionless upon the pillow , while Harry ' s grateful tears bedew Iuh first-born ' s face . Sho cannot even welcome the little stranger . Harry thought her dear to him before ; but now , as sho lies there , so like death ' s counterpart , a whole life of devotion would seem too little to prove his appreciation of all her sacrifices . . The advent of the little stranger was viewed through very different spectacles by
different members of the family . The doctor regarded it as a little automaton , for pleasant jEsculapian experiments in his idle hours ; the old lady viewed it as another barrier between herself and Harry , and another tie to cement bis already too strong attachment for Ruth ; and Betty groaned when she thought of the puny interloper in connexion with washing and ironing days ; and had already made up her mind that the first time its nurse used her new saucepan to make gruel , she would strike for higher wages . Poor , little , unconscious " Daisy , " with thy velvet cheek nestled' up to as velvet a bosom , sleep on ; thou art too near heaven to know a taint of earth . Is that the sort of writing which delights readers " on both sides of the Atlantic ? " Think of 150 , 000 of the countrymen and countrywomen of Washington Irving finding amusement in such a passage as this : —
RUTHS NURSE . Ruth ' s nurse , Mrs . Jiff , was fat , elephantine , and unctuous . Nursing agreed with her She had " tasted" too many bowls of wine-whey on the stairs , tipped up to o many bottles of porter in the closet , slid down too many slippery oysters beforehanding them to " her lady , " not to do credit to her pantry devotions . Mrs . Jiff wore an uncommonly stiff gingham gown , which sounded , every time she moved , like the rustle of a footfall among the withered leaves of autumn . Her shoes were new , thick , and creaky , and she had a wheezy , dilapidated-bellowsy way of breathing , consequent upon the consumption of the above-mentioned port and oysters , which was intensely crucifying to a sick ear . One more extract , and we will trouble the reader with no more . Ruth ' s daughter , " Daisy , " has caught a caterpillar , and is playing with it .
EARLY PIETY . Daisy places him ( the caterpillar ) carefully on the back of her little , blue-veined hand , and he commences his travels up the polished arm , to the little round shoulder When he reaches the lace sleeve , Daisy ' s laugh , rings out like a robin ' s carol ; then she puts him back , to retravel the same smooth road again . " Oh , Daisy ! Daisy ! " said Ruth , stepping up behind her , " what an ugly playfellow ; put him down , do , darling ; I cannot bear to see him on your arm . " " Why— God made him , " said little Daisy , with sweet , up-turned eyes of wonder . " True , darling , " said Ruth , in a hushed whisper , kissing the child ' s brow with a strange feeling of awe . " Keep him , Daisy , dear , if you like . "
If such coarse clap-trap as that succeeds as well with the English public as it is said to have succeeded with the American , we must be mistaken indeed in our estimate of the present condition of popular taste on this side of the Atlantic . We are strongly inclined to suspect that the " British Publishers , " in spite of their " puff" preliminary , " will not find Ruth Hall so promising a speculation as they had anticipated . But , whatever may be the fortunes of the book , no circumstances can change our opinion on the discreditable nature of the new puff-system which it represents . When publishers come before the ^ wprld as critical eulogists of the works they sell , it is time , indeed , that the " press should speak out , and that the public should be warned . ' . - ¦
Tan Tie Iieadeb. Lsaturba Y ,
TAn TIE IiEADEB . LSaturba y ,
Books On Our Table. Mountains And Molehi...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Mountains and Molehills ; or , Recollections of a Burnt Journal By Frank Marryatt . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years , 1653 and 1654 . Impartially Written by the Ambassador Buhtrode Whitelocke . First Published from the Original Manuscript . By Dr . Charles Morton , M . D ., $ c . A New Edition . Revised by Henry Reeve , F . S . A . 2 Vols . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . The History of the Decline and . Fall o the Eoman Empire . By Edward Gibbon , Esq . With Notes by Dean Milman and M . Guizot . Edited with Additional Notes . By William Smith , L . L . D . Vol VII . . John Murray . The London and Provincial Medical Directory for 1855 . John Churchill . Fabiola ; or , the Church of the Catacombs . Burns and Lambert . Curiosities oj"London-:. Exhibiting , the most Rare and Remarkable Objects of Interest in 1 ohn Timbs
the Metropolis : with nearly Fifty TearsPersonal Sec 6 llectidhs . '' By"J , F . S . A . David Bogue . Poetical Works of James Thompson ( Annotated Edition of the English Poets . ) Edited by Robert Bell . John W . Parker and Son . A Lecture on Respiration . By Thomas Hopley . John Churchill . The Statist , a Magazine of Statistical and Actuarial Information , both Popular and Scientific . Edited by R . Thompson Jopling , F . S . S . C . Mitchell . Description of Sevastopol , Balaklava , and Inkerman . James Wyla . The Martins of Cro 1 Martin . By Charles Lever . Chapman and Hall . The Newcomes . Edited by Arthur Pendennis . No . 17 . Bradbury and Evans . The English Cyclopaedia . Conducted by Charles Knight . Bradbury and Evans . History of Christian Churches and Sects from the Earliest Ages of Christianity . By the Rev . J . B . Marsden , M . A . Part 3 . Richard Bentley .
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The British Institution. If We Had The H...
THE BRITISH INSTITUTION . If we had the honour of belonging to the body of noblemen and gentlemen associated at the British Institution for the purpose of " promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom , " we shoulcj not feel encouraged by the picture-show of the present year . Among the figure subjects especially , the absence of merit , even of the technical kind , is most disheartening . When we have selected , for honourable recognition , Mr . Frpst ' a pretty little " Bathing Nymph , " Mr . Glass ' s grimly powerful "Border Spearman , " and Mr . Galo ' s tender and delicate " St . Agnes , ' wo have really selected the only figure-pictures which we remember to have looked at with pleasure . Such old-established pictorial nuisances as the " Shepherd of the Campagna , " the " Italian Boy with Rabbits , " " Dorothea washing
her Feet , " nnd so on , are as numerous as over in the present exhibition . Carelessly-drawn and conventionally-painted portraits , with "funcy" names attached to qualify them for admission , abound on the walls . Mr . Wilson Dyer paints a wholo length of a plump young lady looking up , and calls it " Mariana in the Moated : Grange . " Mr . J . 13 . Collins paints another young lady with a bilious complexion , and nn expression of vacant repose , and calls his picture the " Flight of Jacqueline . " Mr . T . M . Joy trios to do something better than this , in his "Intorviow between Queen Elizabeth and the Countess of Nottingham . ' - Ho has at least attempted to got at some dramatic conception of his subject before ho put it on canvas ; and though the result is common-place and theatrical enough , still ho deserves credit for an intention which ruisos him above nw brethren at the British Institution—excepting , perhaps , Mr . Burchott , who 1 ms
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 10, 1855, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10021855/page/20/
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