476 



LITERATURE, ENGLISH. 



cal Society ; " the second and third volumes 

 of the " Russian Historical Library ; " the 

 eighth and ninth volumes of the "Archives of 

 Prince Vorontzof;" the "History of Tver," 

 by Borzakofsky ; the "Embassy to England in 

 1600 of Gregory Mikulin ; " the "Historical 

 Value of Russian Brigand Songs," by N. Ari- 

 stof; the fifth volume of F. Bienemann's " Briefe 

 und Urkunden zur Geschichte Livlands,"from 

 1558 to 1562; and Johann Renner's "Livlan- 

 dische Historien." 



From history to politics the transition is easy. 

 The chief works in this division are, the third 

 volume of Prof. Marten's " Collection of Rus- 

 sian Treaties and Conventions," which includes 

 the treaties with Austria from 1808 to 1815; 

 the second volume of Prof. Gradovsky's " Ger- 

 man Constitution;" "Sketch of the History 

 and Dogmas of International Law," by A. N. 

 Stoyanof ; and J. Keussler's " Communal Prop- 

 erty and Emancipation." 



In geographical and scientific literature there 

 is not much to speak of. 



The profound work of J. R. Aspelin, on 

 " Finnio-Ugric Archasology," deserves special 

 mention, although published in Finnish. As it 

 is profusely illustrated, it may be useful even 

 to those ignorant of that language. 



LITERATURE, ENGLISH. The extent to 

 which the best literature of England and 

 America is interchanged has been referred to 

 in the article LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROG- 

 RESS, with a notice of some of the principal 

 English works republished in the United States. 

 In the present article, consequently, mention 

 is chiefly made of books not yet reproduced 

 in American editions. And among these, the 

 mass of compiled and ephemeral publications 

 call for no particular notice. It is true that there 

 is some risk in this rather wholesale and sum- 

 mary judgment, and it may prove to have been 

 presumptuous in respect of some authors thus 

 passed by, but the purpose of these reviews is 

 not so much criticism as the record of con- 

 temporary estimates of literature, to note 

 what books did in fact make an impression on 

 the public, rather than to express our judgment 

 as to what books ought to have been honored 

 with the public approval. 



POETRY. In the higher order of creative 

 literary art, England had not much to show 

 during the last year. The laureate put forth 

 another tragedy. " Harold," regarded as a 

 poem, will not discredit Mr. Tennyson, though 

 it can add nothing to his fame ; as a drama, 

 while free from some of the faults of his 

 " Queen Mary," it is equally deficient in dra- 

 matic vitality. Mr. Browning gave us a vol- 

 ume with the enigmatic title " Pacchiarotto, 

 and how he worked in Distemper, and Other 

 Poems." The leading piece is meant as " a 

 fable for critics," but the critics for whom it is 

 meant are less likely to wince under his satire 

 than to point to the poem as a confirmatory 

 instance of what they have alleged against the 

 poet. Mr. Browning must be content to sing 



for the initiated, and, if his "fit audience" 

 proves to be also very "few," to put up with 

 it as " the best his circumstance allows." The 

 chief poetical sensation of the year was the dis- 

 covery by Mr. Swinburne and the republica- 

 tion of " Joseph and his Brethren," a drama 

 by Charles Wells, published forty years ago, 

 neglected and forgotten, but pronounced by 

 Mr. Swinburne to be worthy of comparison 

 with the plays of Shakespeare. What adds to 

 the surprising features of the case is the fact 

 that the author whose work thus failed to gain 

 public attention is still living to enjoy his late- 

 blossoming reputation, a reputation which will 

 not come up to the height of Mr. Swinburne's 

 praise, but will make some amends for his pre- 

 vious total failure. The usual quota of minor 

 poetry has appeared, but nothing that will ex- 

 cite more than a limited and temporary inter- 

 est. Perhaps next to the case of Mr. Wells 

 and his drama in interest is the identification 

 of what had been supposed to be genuine old 

 ballads as the work of an eccentric clergyman 

 lately deceased, the Rev. Robert Stephen Haw- 

 ker. One of his ballads deceived so keen- 

 sighted a judge as Lord Macaulay. The name of 

 Mr. Hawker has been brought before the public 

 in an unpleasant way by a biography in which 

 his memory is by no means honored, but 

 which the public have reason to consider as 

 more discreditable to the author than to the 

 subject. 



NOVELS. In the department of prose fiction, 

 the best is disappointing. Nobody but George 

 Eliot could have written "Daniel Deronda," 

 but it has not raised nor even sustained her 

 great reputation. Mr. William Black's "Mad- 

 cap Violet" is scarcely inferior to Ms best. 

 As in his previous novels, the plot is open to 

 exception, and some of his characters seem to 

 approach the extreme of human possibility, if 

 they do not overstep the modesty of Nature. 

 But with whatever drawbacks, the power of 

 his genius is incontestable. Mr. R. D. Black- 

 more's " Cripps the Carrier " is not a produc- 

 tion that can add anything to the credit of the 

 author of " Lorna Doone " and of " Alice Lor- 

 raine," however superior to the average novel. 

 "The Hand of Ethelberta," by Mr. Thomas 

 Hardy, comes nearer to doing justice to his 

 recognized position among literary artists. Mr. 

 Justin McCarthy's tale, " Dear Lady Disdain," 

 is well conceived and worked out with his 

 usual firmness of hand. " The Dilemma," by 

 Colonel Chesney, author of "The Battle of 

 Dorking," besides its high merits as a fiction, 

 presents striking pictures of the Sepoy mutiny 

 in India. " The Atonement of Learn Dundas," 

 by Mrs. Linn Linton, takes a very high place 

 among sensational novels, in fact, almost rises 

 into a higher realm of fiction. Mrs. Oliphant's 

 last two novels, " The Curate in Charge," and 

 " Phoebe Junior, a Last Chronicle of Carling- 

 ford," are in her best style, which is a very 

 good style indeed. " Thomas Wingfold, Cu- 

 rate," by Dr. George Macdonald, in a very 



