LITERATURE, BRITISH, IN 1880. 



471 



G. Blaikie's "Personal Life of David Living- 

 stone " is compiled mainly from his unpublished 

 journals (New York, Harpers). " The Lite of 

 Joseph Barker" (London, Hodder&Stoughton) 

 is the interesting autobiography of that re- 

 markable religious neologist and political vi- 

 sionary. " The Life and Work of Mary Car- 

 penter" is a h'nely written, ennobling relation 

 of a life passed in the service of humanity, by 

 J. Estlin Carpenter (London, Macmillan). In 

 the series of biographical sketches, which are 

 intended to offer a coherent review of modern 

 German literature, and which are given under 

 the title of "German Life and Literature," the 

 author, Alexander Hay Japp, seeks to depose 

 Goethe from the lofty pedestal upon which 

 his German and English admirers have placed 

 him. "Etienne Dolet, the Martyr of the Re- 

 naissance" (London, Macmillan), is an account 

 of one of the most interesting figures of the pe- 

 riod of the Reformation, and one of the most in- 

 tellectual and progressive men of that progres- 

 sive age, written by Richard Copley Christie. 

 Mrs. Oliphant has written a sympathetic sketch 

 of "Cervantes" for Black\vood's series of 

 "Foreign Classics." An excellent and exten- 

 sive biographical " Dictionary of Musicians," 

 edited by George Grove, has just been com- 

 pleted (London, Macmillan). "Covvper," in 

 Morley's series of "Men of Letters," is by 

 Goldwin Smith, and ranks with the best of 

 these biographical essays (New York, Harpers). 

 Edward Dowden's "Southey," in the same se- 

 ries, is a careful and judicious memoir of a poet 

 who has undeservedly lapsed further from pub- 

 lic thought and attention than most of the sub- 

 jects of these sketches. Adolphus William 

 Ward's volume on " Chaucer " is well calcu- 

 lated to awaken a popular interest in the father 

 of English poetry. The sketch of "Byron" 

 is by John Nichol. Froude's " John Bunyan " 

 in this series (New York, Harpers) is calculated 

 to attract the attention of the reader, who will 

 be pleased by the perusal of this thoughtful 

 biographical study. "Alexander Pope," by 

 Leslie Stephen, gives a severe estimate of the 

 man, which may be warranted, but hardly an 

 appreciative estimate of his genius. "Remi- 

 niscences by Thomas Carlyle" (New York, 

 Scribners) consists of some sketches of an au- 

 tobiographic character found among the papers 

 of the late auther by Mr. Froude; they are 

 full of the frank opinions and candid criticisms 

 of the great Scotchman upon books and peo- 

 ple. "Samuel Lover," by A. J. Symington, 

 is an agreeable account of the amiable and 

 light-hearted novelist (New York, Harpers). 

 " Thomas Moore, the Poet," is an equally inter- 

 esting memoir by the same author (New York, 

 Harpers). He has also prepared a readable, 

 panegyrical sketch of the life of William Cul- 

 len Bryant. The translation of Dr. Kraus's 

 " Erasmus Darwin " (New York, Appletons), 

 the learned essay of the German scholar in 

 which the poet-naturalist's position in the his- 

 tory of science is vindicated, is prefaced by a 



more interesting writing, namely, a delightful 

 biographical account of his grandfather by 

 Charles Darwin. Alfred Henry Huth's " Life 

 and Writings of Henry Thomas Buckle " (New 

 York, Appletons) is an interesting biography 

 of a remarkable thinker. 



"Essays on Art and Archeology " is a vol- 

 ume of learned review articles by C. T. New- 

 ton upon Greek art (London, Macmillan). Pro- 

 fessor Mahaffy's " History of Classical Greek 

 Literature" is an excellent conspectus which 

 will inspire a livelier interest in the study of 

 the Greek classics (New York, Harpers). John 

 Addington Syrnonds's " Sketches and Studies 

 in Southern Europe " (New York, Harpers) is 

 a book of Italian travel, containing esthetic 

 and literary studies by the well-known historian 

 of the Renaissance; "Studies of the Greek 

 Poets " is a revision of his two former books on 

 the subject, prepared for publication in Ameri- 

 ca, characterized by the elegant diction and aes- 

 thetic perceptibility of the author, though out 

 of his chosen field (New York, Harpers). An- 

 thony Trollope has published a " Life of Cicero " 

 (New York, Harpers), with the object of vin- 

 dicating the character of the Roman orator 

 from the charges of selfishness and unpatriotic 

 conduct. Among the host of small books which 

 are common nowadays few are as admirable 

 in plan and execution as the sketches of classic 

 authors edited by John Richard Green, in which 

 series have appeared "Euripides," by J. P. Ma- 

 haffy ; "Virgil," by H. Nettleship; and "Soph- 

 ocles," by Lewis Campbell (New York, Ap- 

 pletons). The interesting collection of "Pop- 

 ular Romances of the Middle Ages," made by 

 Sir George W. Cox and Eustace Hinton Jones, 

 has been reprinted by Henry Holt & Co. In 

 William J. Rolfe's edition of Shakespeare, each 

 volume contains a single play with notes and 

 various readings (New York, Harpers). Alex- 

 ander James Duffield has given to English read- 

 ers, for the first time, " The Ingenious Knight 

 Don Quixote de la Mancha," the masterpiece 

 of Cervantes, in an unadulterated, literal trans- 

 lation. The ribald interpolations of Philips 

 and Matteaux and the paraphrases and addi- 

 tions of Smollett so altered and corrupted the 

 work that all the English translations of "Don 

 Quixote " have been but loose adaptations, dif- 

 fering essentially in style and in sense from 

 the original. 



With the exception of Tennyson, Browning, 

 and Swinburne, the poets who have published 

 during the year claim attention rather from 

 the skill and melody of form than by the pow- 

 er and freshness of their poems. Tennyson's 

 recent poems of miscellaneous character are 

 collected in "Ballads and other Poems" (Bos- 

 ton, Osgood). "Songs of the Springtides" 

 is the title of a volume of noble poems by Al- 

 gernon Charles Swinburne, among the best 

 that he has produced. "The Heptalogia; or 

 the Seven against Sense : a Cap with Seven 

 Bells," is a volume of exceedingly keen satiri- 

 cal parodies [attributed to A. C. Swinburne] 



