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LITERATURE AND LITEEARY PROGRESS OF 1861. 



Anglian manners and customs in her " Old 

 Friends and New Acquaintances ; " and Mr. 

 Alex. Leighton furnished a second instalment 

 of his " Traditions of Scottish Life." 



In the way of poetry, the events of the year 

 were the publication of Alexander Smith's 

 " Edwin of Deira," and, near its close, Tenny- 

 son's " Idylls of the King." Among other 

 poems of some merit published during the year 

 were : " Tannhiiuser, or the Battle of the 

 Bards," by Neville Temple and Edward Tre- 

 vor; " Shakspeare's Curse, and other poems;" 

 and " Poems, by the author of the Patience of 

 Hope." Mr. Theodore Martin translated with 

 extraordinary skill and elegance the " Poems 

 of Catullus ; " Mr. Francis T. Palgrave made 

 an admirable collection of our best lyrics, un- 

 der the title of " The Golden Treasury of the 

 Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English 

 Language ; " and Mr. David Irving published 

 an elaborate and valuable " History of Scottish 

 Poetry, from the Middle Ages to the Close of 

 the Seventeenth Century." 



The magazine literature of Great Britain had 

 received a new and extraordinary impulse from 

 the success of the " Cornhill Magazine ; " 

 and prompted by its extraordinary success 

 "Temple Bar," edited by Mr. G. Augustus 

 Sala, and the " St. James Magazine," edited by 

 Mrs. S. C. Hall, were commenced with the 

 year, and both attained an extensive circula- 

 tion. The " Once a "Week," and " All Round 

 the Year," as well as " Good Words," and sev- 

 eral other magazines of the previous year, were 

 issued in monthly parts, and all attained to a 

 high reputation, while MacMillan, Frazer's, 

 "Chambers' Journal," and "Blackwood" abated 

 nothing of their popularity. The leading pub- 

 lishing houses find a magazine necessary to 

 the successful prosecution of their business, 

 and, under the rivalry of competition, pay al- 

 most incredible prices to secure contributions 

 from distinguished writers. " Framley Par- 

 sonage," certainly not a novel of extraordinary 

 merit, was first published in the " Cornhill 

 Magazine," and Mr. Trollope, without relin- 

 quishing his right to the profits of its publica- 

 tion in book-form, received a check of 1,000 

 for its appearance there. Tennyson's poetry is 

 undoubtedly valuable, but a hundred guineas 

 for a hundred lines, when the author still re- 

 tains his property in them, is certainly a liberal 

 compensation. The tendency of the time is 

 towards magazine writing, and very few suc- 

 cessful novels appear for the first time in bound 

 volumes. The temptation to the serial form 

 of publication is strong, but there is a proba- 

 bility that it will in the end impair the quality 

 of the novels themselves. Interest in a serial 

 novel can hardly be kept up except by the in- 

 troduction, in each monthly part, of some start- 

 ling or exciting incident ; but this, which adds 

 to its vivacity, as a serial, almost inevitably 

 ruins the effect of the work as a whole. It re- 

 quires talent as well as tact of the highest or- 

 der to avoid this danger, and the writers even 



of the highest rank who have been successful 

 in the attempt have been very few. 



We must content ourselves with a mere 

 glance at the literature of France and Ger- 

 many, which have been as prolific, in this re- 

 spect, as England. The political, religious, and 

 financial questions which agitated France dur- 

 ing the year led to the publication of number- 

 less pamphlets, some in the interests of the 

 Pope, and some opposing him ; some blaming, 

 and others defending the Italian king ; some 

 advocating war, and others seeking for peace ; 

 some discussing with favor, and others with 

 disfavor, the budget, the taxes, the Mires defal- 

 cation, and the deficiency of cotton. Numerous 

 too, have^been the brochures relative to the war 

 in America. Each side had its advocate, and 

 the battles of the war have been discussed with 

 great fulness and freedom, though not always 

 with accurate geographical knowledge. 



France has a corps of young philosophical 

 writers, whose works give evidence of profound 

 thought and research, and of vigorous intellect. 

 Among them may be named Ernest Renau, H. 

 Taine, Saint Rene Taillandier, Edmond Scherer, 

 Jules Simon, Foucher de Careil, Saisset, La 

 Boulaye, Caro, Rondelet, Nourrison, and Jour- 

 dain. They are contributors to the leading re- 

 views, the Revue de Deux Mondes, Revue Co- 

 temporaine, Revue Germanique, and Revue Eu- 

 ropeene, all of which are issued semi-monthly 

 and have a large circulation. Many of them 

 have also published several volumes on theo- 

 logical, political, or social topics, criticism, or 

 art-subjects, and their books, as well as their 

 contributions to the reviews, are exciting a 

 powerful influence upon the reading classes in 

 France. 



In science, the French maintained in 1861 

 their deservedly high reputation. Their geo^ 

 graphical and historical works, and their books 

 of travel, are models for the accuracy and ex- 

 tent of the scientific knowledge they exhibit, 

 and are valuable additions to the archives of 

 science. 



In fiction and poetry, their record is meagre 

 of works destined to have a permanent repu- 

 tation. In the department of philosophical 

 romance, MM. Alfred Assolant, Henri Riviere, 

 Erckmann Chatrian, and Jules Noriac en- 

 hanced their previously high reputation by 

 their works of the year. Of writers of novels 

 describing social life, MM. Feydeau, Champfleu- 

 ry, and Duranty, Mesdames Louis Figuier and 

 Charles Reybaud, and M'lle du Plesse, are the 

 most prominent. The vile and pernicious fic- 

 tions which some years since degraded the liter- 

 ature of France, are far less popular now than 

 then, and the taste of the reading public is be- 

 coming elevated and purified. The review in 

 France, like the magazine in England, is ab- 

 sorbing the time and labors of the literary class, 

 and there are very few works of the lighter 

 class which do not appear at first as feuilletons 

 of one or other of the reviews. 



To enumerate even the principal writers of 



