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and of Messrs . Sampson , Low , arid Son , appear at the foot-ofthe ^ fle-page , adjointpublishers of the book with the American firm of ; " Mason Brothers . " fit seems to take a great many quack-doctors , in the literary line , to sell a very bad article of the literary sort !) Butwe 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 w ^ o 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 preliminary flourish , the covered carts of Doctors " Houlston , " " Stoneman , " W . Orr , and " Low , " are drawn up ; and these gentlemen , having a book . to sell , begin to try and make their little profit by telling the pnblic what a very wonderful book it is . " It simply remains , " cry these eminent quacks in their preface , " for the British publishers" ( or Cheap-Johns ) of Fanny Fern's works to venture a few remarks upon the general character and tendency of her writings . " We are then told that these infallible corn-Blasters—we bee pardon , the right phrase is , " this lady s works —are her is
thrown off extemporaneously ; that the secret ot literary success ner 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 ; and , moreover , that it flows on as easily and blithely as the song of early * irds . I he son" of early birds !"—who would have" thought Houlston , Stoneman , Orr , and ° Low had so much poetry in them ? We shall love to think of all lour hericeforth as the Early Birds of British publishing ! But let us proceed . Let us 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 eenuine sense of the pathetic , and the brilliant flashes of humour are often
relieved with sudden bursts of sympathy . It is pleasant to be told this , even in the most awkward style ; pleasant to 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 when a writer numbered readers by hundreds of thousands , it was quite unnecessary to mention the fact , because , that fact was sure to speak for itself .
Ttiif "K ^ ntr "EWtv ' s is an ftvfient . ional case . Althousrh , on the showing of But Fanny Fern ' s is an exceptional case . Although , on the showing ot 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 have 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 . Wo 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 " this ^ book , overwhichr MessrsrHoulstonrStonemanyQrr , and-Low 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 . a woman , are absolutely revolting in their coarseness and vulgarity . Of the affectation in the style of 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 to see 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 proximit } ' to her muslins , laces , silks , and de laines ! Ruth liked it . - After having been married , Ruth is confined . Here is the account of the confinement , beginning with the most interesting moment , and ending with the most absolute nonsense . ( The reader will be kind enough to take notice that we giv . e a whole chapter in the present quotation ) : —
CHAPTER VII . THS FIRST-BORN . Hark f to that tiny wail ! Ruth knows that most blessed of all hours . Ruth is a mother 1 Joy to thoo , Ruth ! Another outlet for thy womanly heart ; a mirror , in which thy smiles and tears shall bo reflected back ; a fair page , on which thou , Godcommissioned , mayst writo 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 palo and motionless upon the pillow , while Harry ' s grateful tears bedew his first-born ' s face . Sho cannot oven welcome the little stranger . Harry thought her dear to him before ; but now , as she 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 JSsculapian experiments in his idle hours ; the old lady viewed it as another barrier between herself and Harry , and another tie to cement his alread y 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 , G 0 Q of the countrymen and countrywomen of Washington Irving finding amusement in such a passage as this : —r euth ' s nubse .
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 too 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 , m a hushed whisper , kissing the child ' s hrowwith 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 thus 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 world 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 .
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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 ., 4 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 of the Roman 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 . CuriositiesofLondon ! Exhibiting ' the most-Rare and Remarkable Object * of Interest m 1
the Metropolis : with nearly Fifty YearsPersonal Recollections . By John Timbs , 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 , Baldklava , and Inkerman . ¦ James Wyld . The Martins ofCrd' 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 . JMarsden , M . A . Part 3 . Richard Bentley .
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THE BRITISH INSTITUTION . If we lmd the honour of belonging to the body of noblemen and gentlemen associated at the British Institution for the purpose 6 f " promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom , " we should not feel encouraged by the piature-show of tho present year . Among the figure subjects especially , tho absence of merit , even of tho technical kind , is most disheartening . When wo have selected , for honourable recognition , Mr . Frost ' s pretty little "Bathing Nymph , " Mr . Glass ' s griml y powerful "Border Speurman , " and Mr . Gale ' 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 tho Campagna , " tho " Italian Boy with Rabbits , " " Dorothea washing her Feet" and so onare as numerous as over in tho present exhibition .
Care-, , lessly-drawn uiulconventionally-painted portraits , with "fancy" names attached to qualify them for admission , abound on the walls . Mr . Wilson Dyer piiints a whole length of a plump young lady looking up , and calls it " Mariana in the Moated ; Grange . " Mr . J . B . Collins paints another young lady with a bilious complexion , andnn expression of vacant repose , and calls his picture the " Flight of Jacqueline . " Mr . T . M . Joy trios to tlo something bettor than this , in ms "Interview 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 ; it ml though tho result is common-place and theatrical enough , still he dosorves credit for an intention which raises him above his brethren at tho British Institution—excepting , perhaps , Mr . Burchctt , who has
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' ¦ ¦ 140 THE LEADER , [ Saturda y , ' ' ¦ ¦ - ^^—^——^ " ™^^ —^ M^^^—i ^ i ^ M ^—^^^^^—^ —^^^—^ ^^^^^—""^^—*^^ - ¦ *^^^^ " »
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 10, 1855, page 140, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2077/page/20/
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