442 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1875. 



Engravings taken from the Artist's Original Designs. 

 (Osgood.) 



A few juvenile books may be named. These 

 are exclusive of a large number reprinted for 

 Sunday-school libraries, of various degrees of 

 merit : 



Higo'ledy-Pio'gledy. By E. H. Knatchbull-Huges- 

 son, M. P. (D. Appleton & Co.) 



History of my Friends ; or, Home Life with Ani- 

 mals. From the French of Ernile Achard. (Put- 

 nams.) 



Harry Blount: Passages iu a Boy's Life. By P. 

 Gr. Hamerton. (Roberts.) 



Six to Sixteen. A Story for Girls. By Juliana 

 Horatia Ewing. (Ib.) 



Adventures of Captain Ilatteras. By Jules Verne. 

 (Osgood.) 



In fiction, besides the various editions of 

 standard writers, as Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, 

 not to set out the titles of books, our public 

 has absorbed tales by Mrs. Alexander, William 

 Black, R. D. Blackmore, Miss Braddon, M. 

 Oherbuliez, Mrs. Charles, Mary Cowden Clarke, 

 Wilkie Collins, M. Daudet, Frances Elliot, C. 

 C. Fraser-Tytler, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, 

 "Edward Garrett," Mary Cecil Hay, Mrs. 

 Cashel Hoey, Jean Ingelow, Mrs. C. Jenkin, 

 Julia Kavanagh, Annie Keary, Katharine King, 

 Henry Kingsley, Katharine S. Macquoid, George 

 Macdonald, C. "Welsh Mason, Mrs. Newman, 

 Mrs. Oliphant, James Payn, Charles Reade, 

 J. A. Skertchly, J. F. Smith, Mrs. J. K. Spender, 

 Eliza Taber, Miss Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, 

 Jules Verne, Charlotte Walsingham, Wachen- 

 husen, and Whyte-Melville. 



On the whole, the year 1875 in the United 

 States will not be judged to have been a period 

 of literary progress. Our periodicals have 

 reached a high standard of excellence, and the 

 tendency is upward. Whether development 

 in this direction diverts men from more sus- 

 tained effort in authorship, or the currents of 

 national energy have been more and more 

 turned into the channels of traffic and material 

 production channels that are now choked and 

 comparatively stagnant; or whether the de- 

 cline of literary activity is only apparent a 

 check upon the publication, and not upon the 

 undertaking, of books it is not easy to form 

 a probable conjecture. It may be* permitted 

 us to hope that what seem indications of di- 

 minishing force are rather tokens of a pause in 

 which to gather up the energies for a fresh and 

 vigorous advance, and that American literature 

 will fulfill in its maturity the fair promise of its 

 spring-time. 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1875. 

 The activity in Continental literature in 1875 

 will be seen by the following extracts from the 

 correspondence of the London Athenceum : 



BELGIUM. The year 1875 has witnessed the 

 appearance of the third volume of the " Patria 

 Belgica," a work that is an honor to Belgium. 

 It has been published under the editorship of 

 the Prof. Eug. van Bemmel, assisted by the 

 best writers of the country. This third vol- 

 ume, which has for its title "Belgique Morale 



et Intellectuelle," contains, like the two pre- 

 vious ones, a series of remarkably interesting 

 monographs, which will be read in other 

 countries, with much profit, by all who desire 

 to know and understand Belgium and her past 

 history. They will find contained in it the 

 history of her religions, of her philosophies, of 

 her sciences, of her public instruction, of her 

 printing, and of her press ; of her various dia- 

 lects, of her French, Flemish, and Walloon lit- 

 erature ; of her architecture, painting, sculpt- 

 ure, engraving, and numismatics; of her in- 

 dustrial arts, of the costumes, theatres, music, 

 popular and national airs in Belgium. In a 

 word, " Patria Belgica " constitutes a Belgian 

 encyclopaedia, the use and value of which will 

 be real and permanent. 



Romance- writers and novelists have pro- 

 duced a plentiful crop this year. X. de Reul 

 has published "Le Roman d'un Geologue;" 

 and he has also translated, with remarkable 

 delicacy and elegance, several of the Flemish 

 novels of Tony Bergmann. D. Keiffer has 

 published a novel dealing with life in Luxem- 

 burg, which is rather picturesque ( u Monsieur 

 Louis "), and in his " Hyeres " he has given a 

 subtile analysis of the impressions and sensa- 

 tions experienced by a patient given up by the 

 doctors, who goes to seek, on the shores of 

 the Mediterranean, a miraculous restoration to 

 health. " Derri&re le Rideau," by Camille 

 Lemonnier, exhibits a delicate and refined 

 touch, which reminds one of Gustave Droz, 

 Justin, in "La Vie Urbaine de M. Alfred 

 Nicolas," is full of geniality and good sense. 

 Hermann Pergameni shows that he has made 

 wonderful improvement in "Andre"e. Em. 

 Greyson has reached his third edition of " Juf- 

 fer Daatje et Juffer Doortje," and other novels 

 devoted to giving pictures of modern Dutch 

 life. 



The labors in the field of musical erudition 

 are this year most remarkable ; notably so is 

 the brilliant " Histoire et Theorie de la Mu- 

 sique de 1'Antiquite " (1 vol.), by the composer 

 F. A. Gevaert, who has, so to speak, resusci- 

 tated the music of the Greeks. This work 

 has made a sensation in the musical and 

 learned world of Europe ; it is, moreover, a 

 miracle of typography, printed at Ghent by 

 Annoot-B raeckm an . 



As regards history, the first place is un- 

 questionably due to the " Etudes Politiques 

 sur 1'Histoire Ancienne et Moderne, et sur 

 I'lnfluence de 1'fitat de Guerre et de l'ltat de 

 Paix," by Paul Devaux. Lofty views and an 

 admirable lucidity are the most striking merits 

 of this great work. A new and complete edi- 

 tion of the political and historical works of the 

 late Baron de Gerlache, the most remarkable 

 man whom the Catholic party possessed in Bel- 

 gium, and one of the very best writers of the 

 clerical school, has appeared. The indefatigable 

 Theodore Juste has published "Le Coup d'Etat 

 du 18 Juin, 1789," and some new "Notes His- 

 toriques et Biographiques sur quelques Fonda- 



