On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (7)
-
62 ®tt %t&*tV. [Saturday,
-
tiUtahm.
-
Critics are not the legislators, but the...
-
The number of the Edinburgh Review just ...
-
It is a significant fact that French Lit...
-
The literary event of the week in France...
-
"""'- 7 "— "¦* ¦ " ¦" TIME, THE AVENGER....
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
62 ®Tt %T&*Tv. [Saturday,
62 ® tt % t &* tV . [ Saturday ,
Tiutahm.
tiUtahm .
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges ana police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them — Edinburgh lieview .
The Number Of The Edinburgh Review Just ...
The number of the Edinburgh Review just issued contains an article which will greatly interest our readers , being- nothing more nor less than a grand Whig demonstration of what English Socialism is in all its weakness . It is gratifying to find the Edinburgh thus boldly entering the arena , and condescending to notice speculations which at the present day occupy some of our most active intellects ; gratifying , because the cause must be improved by all serious discussion
of its principles . We know the readers of the Edinburgh are far more Socialist than its writers ; but the lofty platform from which the Review speaks gives both authority to its own teaching and relative importance to the doctrines it opposes . That it condescends to combat the Leader is a compliment of which we are sensible ; and that Mr . Thornton Hunt will reply at length to the arguments by which his positions are assailed we may
venture to promise our readers . Meanwhile we call attention to the article , and particularly to the frank manly spirit in which it is written ; there is abundance of controversy but no obloquy ; in striking hard blows our adversary uses no foul language—far from it . He considers us misinformed and erring thinkers , but he never stoops to snatch up a lump of dirt to throw instead of an argument . It is pleasant and hopeful to find Socialism arriving at the dignity of serious discussion .
It Is A Significant Fact That French Lit...
It is a significant fact that French Literature has of late years undertaken to rehabilitate Courtezans , giving them a prominence which they have not had since the days of Horace and Catullus ; True it is that France has been celebrated for its Aspasias from the time of Ninon de l'Enclos downwards ; but now , besides the halo thrown by Victor Hugo in Marion de Lorme and Angelo , by Alfred did Musset in Carmen , by Grorge Sand in ko many places , 'bv Balzac , and recently
on the stage in he Moineau de Lesbie , and Emilk Auoieu ' s last piece , Tjc Joueur de Flute—in all of which may be traced more or less of the impulsion of the imperishable Manon Lescaut—there is a tacit understanding that the Lorette ( a name given to the class because the Church of Notre Dame de la Lorette raises its spire amidst their favourite quarter ) is to figure as an actor , if not a principal , in all novels of the day . lu England , "Oh , no , we never mention them ! "
Such being the case , you may understand the sort of public interest , or rather fashionable curiosity excited by Marie Duim / kssis—the lovely and unfortunate girl who , from 1845 to 1817 , was the Asi'AHiA of the hour—the object , at which all opera-glasses were pointed in every public fete—a girl dying of consumption-prodigal , reckless , fond of dress , of dissipation , of anything that would kill the liourw which were killing her ! We can imagine something of the " rage " created—we who , last season , beheld a far more ignoble Ahi'A . sia sending furtive glances over her bouquet to her
admirerswe who have beheld her openly courting admiration , Heated in a box next to the DuchesH anil her lovely daughters— - we who havo heard her repartees ( 'ircuIiUed in salons , their cynicism pausing for wit , their effrontery for impudence !— hut the I ' ariniari idol had in nil points the advantage . It was well « he died so young . She was saved at least from the ; fate ' with which lionacio heartlessly rnprouchctp liYDiA , whom ho once loved that of growing old , and mieingall her admirers desert her , while she wept over departed grandeur :
" Iiiviccin itia'i lioy anui inni ^ iuiti n Klcbin iu hoIo levin aii ( j ; ij )() rtu , " X'C She died ; her goods and rlmUuly wero put up to unction . All 1 ' ariH uUoiuloi ) . Women of high station wero to bo seen visiting the boudoir of the
departed syren , admiring its elegance , perhaps hoping there to learn the secret of her spells . The sale was an event . Her comb and brush were bought at fabulous prices . The very gloves she once had worn were bought ; locks of her hair , billets doux , portraits—everything brought money —and her family was enriched by the inheritance of her from whom they turned aside with a shudder when she drove past them in the street . Literature came to crown these honours . The
son of Alexandre Dumas boldly chose her as the heroine of a novel , La Dame aux Camelias s the success was so great that it is now reprinted in a classic form , with a preface by Jules Jan in . If you have not read this story read it . Dumas the younger has shown excellent feeling in the work , no less than considerable talent . One may deplore , indeed , the fact that a youth should thus early in his career choose such a subject—one so unlike the freshness , the illusion , the poetry of youth!—but with . that reservation we have nothing
but praise to give . Far otherwise is it with the son of Paul de Kock , who also throws upon our table his romance of a lorette . Brin d'Amour is an ignoble book , and coming from a young man a shocking book . All that is vulgar and odious in the subject he dwells upon—all that might be philosophical or humanly interesting is left out of sight . Paul de Kock is indecent , but his son is depraved . The books of the one betoken a coarse mind—with
many glimpses of a better nature , and with much genuine drollery—but the other has an essentially dissolute tone , unredeemed either by humour or humanity .
The Literary Event Of The Week In France...
The literary event of the week in France has been George Sand's new drame , Claudie—performed with immense success , and , according to Jules Janin , the success was deserved . It is a drame idyll : the action passes wholly amidst rustic scenes , and a perfume as of new made hay impregnates the air ; but the story itself is one of suffering and crime . George Sand has boldly ventured from the beaten track of dramatic morality and startled her audience with the novelty of truth . i
"""'- 7 "— "¦* ¦ " ¦" Time, The Avenger....
"""' - 7 " — " ¦* ¦ " ¦" TIME , THE AVENGER . Time , the Avenger . By the Author of Emilia Wyndliam . : ! voln . Colburn . The authoress of Time , the Avenger , has had so many successes , and has delighted so large a public in her day , that she can afford to be told of the lamentable falling off exhibited by her late writings , and especially by this , her latest . There were scenes in The Admiral ' s Daughter which none but a woman of unusual talent could have written ; Mount Sarel also had delightful passages ; and l'lmilia Wyndham , contemptible as a literary production , had a power of moving to tears which all ladies acknowledged . Instead of growing more dexterous in the use of materials and invention of
scenes , she has grown more and more careless , and scrambles together a mass of indifferent fragments , without even troubling herself to shape them into the semblance of a whole . She bus written as if to rival the rapidity of James were the one thing needful in an author ; this hurry-scurry of composition , which a Scott or a Dumas manage with some success , is fatal to the slender resources and verv limited ability of our authoress ; and we look upon her present work as an insult to Literature deserving castigation .
Copiousness of twaddle has long been her besetting sin ; and thiN now anamnes airs of immense philosophy and religious teaching . " 1 fear 1 am very serious , " she . Hiys in her imposing way , opening a chapter ; " indeed I have been reproached with it . 1 never begin JLo meditate upon human life but it will present itself to mo as a deeply serious thing "—and we are then informed t hat
Hamlet has greater hold upon our afteatioiiN than The Merry } YwvH of Windsor -from which we may infer that this " serious " novelist ought to havo a very powerful efl ' ect upon us . iinpouihle to robe oneself in the profesnor ' H gown with greater solemnity I we--- * as reverent students — sit hushed to linten to tlw revelations of life thiu great teacher will vouch Niife to un . Wo have first n terrific picture of remorse .
Kensington Gardens are not vast enough , to contain the swelling agony of that " 6 elf-concentrated man who is shaken to his being ' s centre " by a passion all the magniloquence of the dictionary ' s hardest words cannot describe . He plunges amidst the shadows of the trees , and we follow him , curious to know what is the , danger' * the intense sense of hi 3 deliverance from which shook his inmost soul—overwhelming , as with a mighty tide , every foregone system of thought—submerging , aa by one vast wave , every former habit of ttund—invading that inner citadel of his heart—breaking into
strongholds , and rendering his oncoeteadfast soul one chaos of confused and tempestuous thought and feeling . " There is more of the same chaste style ; but that fragment will enable you to understand how a gentleman about whom one can write such superb sentences , as he wanders in Kensington Gardens , must be an object of thrilling interest . All this " piling up the agony , " as the Americans call it , is not without a purpose . We have here the exhibition of a great moral crisis—a moral regeneration so deep and so vast that the authoress cannot even begin her picture without this solemn
preparation : — " The enterprise I am about to undertake is the most difficult of any one I have as yet attempted , and possibly , to the mere novel reader , may prove the least interesting and attractive . " But as Milton , in the deep seriousness of an earnost mind , invoked for aid before he commenced his diviue song—not the muses who preside over tae fine arts ; not those powers of grace and beauty which , fascinate the imagination of mankind , bu ^ . that heavenly influence whose still small voice persuades the reason and strikes the inner heart . That spirit
• Which on the secret top Of Oreb or of Sinai did inspire That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed , In the beginning-, how the Heavens and Earth Itose out of Chaos . ' So I , in my humble , but , I trust , as honest purpose , invoke the same high Power for assistance in the delineation of a yet more mighty work than that of reducing the rude voices of chaos into harmony . The work by which
the chaos of the inner soul—its dark contention of warring tempers and undisciplined desires is reduced to order ; and the new man , in his beautiful perfection of moral symmetry , issues forth from amid the confuted strife of thought and passion . Springing into fresh beina ; under the influences of the great Spiritual Power ; that ' Son of Righteousness ' who hath risen upon the earth ' with healing on his wings . ' " A mighty task , indeed . "
A task of this kind might ha / ve made some serious spirits pause to prepare themselves by long and patient meditation ; but our authoress is not the woman to have misgivings ; she has read the book of Life from the preface to the imprint , and can tell you all about it at a moment ' s notice . Listen and learn ! That gentleman " whose foregone systems of thought" have been swamped as we saw , is a cold , stern , hardheaded man of sixty-five , who lias battled enough with the world without flinching " , but now at last is struck . By what ? By calamity ? Yes , but of a peculiar kind . It is not loss of fortune that would " submerge his foregone systems of thought ; " it is not the death of those he loves that makes his soul " start as from a death-trance ;
gazes astonished and appalled at this summons to account , ike . " It is not crime ; he is no criminal . Yet Inn remorse is so terrific that even our authoress ' s affluence of diction fails to represent it adequately . Having devoted thirteen pages to telling us what it was not , she condescends to let us into the secret . Mr . Craiglethorpe has been accusing a fellow-creature unjustly—he believed him to be guilty , and now that he knows the accused is innocent and is acquitted , thin agony <> t remorse seizes him because conscience tells him that he had not been guiltless of malignity in the prosecution , that he had not used the arm of the law for the purpose of protecting society , but also for the purpose of gratifying Iuh own dislike .
This it is which submerges , as by a might / wave , & o . ! But you cannot from our account of it- form a true notion of the inouNtioua—the hyperbolical absurdity of thin " 1 c « kou of life . " ^ ' only does the horror at Jus criim . % and the ei ' . stacy of joy at bis deliverance from it , submerge all fore gone systems of thought , and drive him like a mania c about Kensington Gardens , it actually f ) ring » on the great Moral Cnn ' m of Spiritual Regeneration which is the subject of the book ! It therw and then makes him jMHJtical , und for the llr « t tiin « in five-juuJ-sixty yearn reveals to him the beauty of the moon the majesty of nature I
For you must know our sensitive friend with uw grey hairn has up to thin time been a most bard uir spiritual man . Ho liu « never thought once about
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 18, 1851, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18011851/page/14/
-