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LITEEATUEE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1874. 



des Nacheinander." In Gutzkow's "Eoman 

 Enchanter," for instance, numerous careers run 

 parallel, yet separated, neben einander. In 

 " "Waldfried " the lives of the many sons, 

 daughters, and daughters-in-law of the hero 

 (if one may so call the narrator of the family 

 chronicle) are so interwoven with one another, 

 that, as a distinguished critic has remarked, 

 one ought always to have a genealogical table 

 in one's hand. The book is a sort of allegori- 

 cal account of the history of the German peo- 

 ple from 1848 to 1870. The honest father who 

 writes the biographies of his children and 

 grandchildren symbolizes the nation which in 

 different members follows different directions, 

 that at last, some directly, others by by-ways, 

 even traversing the ocean, have been all led to 

 German unity. The unpleasant form of a diary 

 kept by a third person deprives the narrative 

 of the charm of directness. From a certain 

 corresponding naivete of style, Auerbach was 

 even when in his best novel, " On the Heights," 

 he was at his best as a literary artist not free ; 

 and in his latest work it threatens to become 

 an injurious mannerism. 



Auerbach's heroes and heroines, though they 

 wander to all parts of the compass, have a com- 

 mon father and father-in-law ; but the succeed- 

 ing generations of Freytag's " Ahnen " are still 

 more loosely united, through a half-forgotten 

 ancestor, in the grayest antiquity. Immo, the 

 hero of the new novel, is a descendant of In- 

 graban, as Ingraban was of Ingo. Beyond this 

 the three have no connection, except a family 

 likeness in their names. The visible subject of 

 the tale is the struggle between the imperial 

 power, in the person of Henry the Holy, against 

 the most widely-scattered little potentates, .the 

 "Hedge-sparrows," whose "nest" Henry de- 

 stroys. The invisible proper hero is, as with 

 Auerbach, the German nation, whose progress 

 iu civilization is depicted step by step. Both 

 these remarkable works are pervaded by the 

 political tendency of the times. Masterly de- 

 scription of details in Nature and life have long 

 been the acknowledged strength of both writers. 

 Freytag's book has the advantage that, as each 

 portion forms a complete whole, it has a great- 

 er artistic unity in its plan. The style, too, 

 that in Ingo resembled a loose sort of heroic 

 Saga, is in the present installment much sim- 

 pler. 



"While the historical novel turns history into 

 fiction, historical inquiry turns poetry into his- 

 tory. The monograph on the life of the re- 

 puted Messalina of the Eenaissance, Lucretia 

 Borgia, written by F. Gregorovius, the cele- 

 brated author of the "History of the City of 

 Eome in the Middle Ages," will disappoint all 

 who expect an operatic romance d la Victor 

 Hugo and Donizetti/ That beautiful woman 

 had the misfortune to be no better than her 

 age;- and, as she stood on the highest pinnacle 

 of Christendom, it is no wonder that posterity 

 lias thought her worse. Gregorovius makes 

 it probable that she was rather- the tool of 



great sinners, such as Alexander VI. and Ce- 

 sare Borgia, than a sinner herself; and when, 

 by her marriage with the Duke of Ferrara, 

 she was withdrawn from their influence and 

 left to herself, her better nature came out. 

 Still, at best, she makes a poor figure by the 

 side of the great women of the Italian Eenais- 

 sance Isabella Gonzaga, Vittoria Colonna, 

 etc. If a calumniated woman is, in Gregoro- 

 vius's impartial narrative, made to appear bet- 

 ter than she has generally been supposed to 

 be, the opposite has happened to another lady, 

 who has been the object both of praise and 

 blame. .The " Correspond ance Secrete de Ma- 

 rie Therse et Marie Antoinette," published 

 from the papers of the Austrian embassador, 

 Count Mercy -Argenteau, does not, strictly 

 speaking, belong to German literature, as it 

 is in French, and one of the two editors, Geof- 

 froy, is a Frenchman. But, as the other is 

 the head of the Vienna public records, Herr 

 von Arneth, the biographer of the great Em- 

 press, and both the illustrious correspondents 

 were German, I may mention here this valu- 

 able contribution to the history of the times 

 immediately preceding the Eevolution. In 

 this authentic collection of documents, the ill- 

 starred Queen appears what her enemies and 

 her own sister, Caroline of Naples, affirmed her 

 to be volatile, pleasure-loving, extravagant, 

 indifferent to the world's opinion, and not free 

 from dissimulation. Of the heroism which 

 misfortune developed in her, and which has 

 surrounded her unhappy end with the halo of 

 martyrdom, there is no trace in these letters, 

 which go down to the death of her mother. 



Among historical works of the first impor- 

 tance, the " History of the German Emperors," 

 by the learned W. Giesebrecht, and the " His- 

 tory of the French Eevolution down to 1800," 

 by Sybel, have advanced a stage. To a more 

 moderate estimate of the Eevolution, a move- 

 ment that has hitherto been described either 

 in a strain of panegyric or the very reverse, 

 few historians have so effectually contributed 

 as Sybel. "The great European crime," the 

 partition of Poland, is put in a new light by 

 the document published by Adolf Beer, from 

 the Vienna, and by Max Duncker, from the 

 Berlin Archives. The humane opposition 

 which Maria Theresa is said to have offered 

 to the annexation is called in question, while 

 the statement made by Frederick the Great, 

 in his " Memoirs," that the partition was the 

 only way of avoiding a great European war 

 a statement that has hitherto been regarded 

 as a barefaced evasion has been confirmed in 

 a most unexpected manner. 



An extensive correspondence with the 

 brothers Humboldt, especially with "Wilhelm, 

 that will not be inferior in value, it is said, to 

 the celebrated correspondence of Schiller with 

 the latter, is promised by the family for the 

 coming year. Hermann Uhde has edited the 

 recollections of a mediocre "Weimar artist, 

 Louise Seidler, in whom Goethe took a warm 



