556 LITERATURE, BRITISH. 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL. 



most comprehensible to English readers, has 

 remained comparatively unknown and unstud- 

 ied ; an interest in this poet and leader of 

 thought is now first awakened in England. A 

 translation of his " Dramatic Works " has also 

 been published by George Bell & Sons of Lon- 

 don, five of the comedies and two tragedies, 

 one of which is " Miss Sarah Sampson," ap- 

 pearing for the first time in English versions. 

 " Studies in the Literature of Northern Eu- 

 rope," by Edmund W. Gosse, the English poet 

 (0. Keegan Paul & Co.), is a scholarly work in 

 literary history, in which Milton's indebted- 

 ness to the contemporary Dutch poet Vondel 

 for a part of the plan of his epic is pointed out 

 for the first time, and in which the character- 

 istics of Scandinavian literature are unfolded 

 with unusual critical acumen and appreciation. 

 G. B. Selkirk, the author of " Ethics and ^Es- 

 thetics of Modern Poetry " (London, Smith, 

 Elder & Co.), is a thoughtful critic with ori- 

 ginal ideas who has lately come before the 

 public. 



The present is an era in which the poetical 

 form is little cultivated. Among the few works 

 of Poetry published during the year, there is 

 none which seems a genuine product of the 

 age except the poems of Robert Browning. 

 " The Lover's Tale " is a poem which was 

 written by Alfred Tennyson at the age of nine- 

 teen : published first without his consent, he, 

 conscious of its inferiority to his later works, 

 concluded to give it to the world in a better 

 and revised form (Houghton, Osgood & Co.). 

 Robert Browning's new volume of poems, 

 "Dramatic Idyls" (Smith, Elder & Co.), is not 

 freer than his former works from his faults 

 and mannerisms, capricious involutions of lan- 

 guage, vague fancies, and obscure phraseology; 

 neither is it lacking in his noble traits of ge- 

 nius, dramatic force, intense human sympathy, 

 and deep insight into the human soul. Edwin 

 Arnold, editor of the London "Telegraph," 

 has written an epic poem on the life of Buddha, 

 entitled " The Light of Asia " (Roberts Brothr 

 ers), in which a profound knowledge of the 

 spirit of Buddhism and of Oriental life, thought, 

 manners, and history is worked up into a poem 

 of unusual power and grandeur. " The Son- 

 nets of Michael Angelo Buonarotti and Tom- 

 maso Campanella " have been produced by J. 

 A. Symonds with excellent notes and explana- 

 tions (Smith, Elder & Co.). Roberts Ffrench 

 Duff's translation of the " Lusiad " is reprinted 

 by J. B. Lippincott & Co. 



The English novel also seems to have en- 

 tered upon a period, not of degeneration, but 

 of abeyance. There are more good novels 

 produced now than ever before ; but since the 

 death of the two great masters of English fic- 

 tion, and since George Eliot has retired from 

 the field, no great work can be found in their 

 number. George Eliot's " The Impressions of 

 Theophrastus Such " is a group of character- 

 sketches, which are marked by the fine powers 

 of psychological analysis and deep philosophy 



of life which characterize the author's novels. 

 William Black in " Macleod of Dare " attempt- 

 ed a high but too difficult task to character- 

 ize the savage passions which at times possess 

 members of society the same fierce passions 

 which are the burden of many romances, ideal- 

 ized, and made to appertain to civilized socie- 

 ty, but here correctly distinguished as a lurk- 

 ing taint inherited from a wild, undisciplined 

 ancestry. "The Return of the Native," by 

 Thomas Hardy, is a powerful novel of a high 

 dramatic character, the actors in which are 

 English country-people, from whose humble 

 life the author has woven a web of deep tra- 

 gic interest. 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1879. 

 FRANCE. In France there is considerable at- 

 tention paid to philosophical speculations by 

 the opposite schools of theological and posi- 

 tive thinkers. In the essays on "Philosophes 

 Modernes Etrangers et Francais," A. Franck 

 assumes an original position. Funck-Brentano 

 has written a severe criticism of Stuart Mill, 

 Herbert Spencer, and the Utilitarian group of 

 thinkers ("Les Sophistes Grecs et les Sophis- 

 tes Contemporains "). From the positive point 

 of view, the most important book of the sea- 

 son is Schutzenberger's " Trait6 de Chinrie 

 Generale." M. Buisson's " Dictionnaire de 

 Pedagogie et d'Instruction Primaire" is ex- 

 haustive and accurate. Compayre, in a his- 

 torical review of education in France, treating 

 of the theories of the Jansenists, the Jesuits, 

 and the eighteenth-century philosophers on 

 this subject, and Flix Pecaut in "Etudes au 

 Jour le Jour sur 1'Education Nationale," both 

 advocate reforms in educational methods pro- 

 posed by Michel Breal and Jules Simon. 



Several learned historical works have ap- 

 peared. Lenormant's " La Monnaie dans 

 1'Antiquite" has reached the third volume. 

 Boidit has published an exhaustive study of 

 Demosthenes and his epoch. Renan's large 

 work on the origins of Christianity is ap- 

 proaching its conclusion ("L'Eglise Chr6- 

 tienne "). M. Guiraud endeavors to show, in 

 opposition to Professor Mommsen's view, that 

 right was on the side of the Senate in the con- 

 test it carried on with Julius Csesar. An in- 

 teresting work is Demay's study of costume in 

 the middle ages as illustrated by seals, in which 

 the illustrations add. much to the value of the 

 book ; as they do also in Duruy's volumes on 

 Roman history. 



The illustrated books are increasing in num- 

 ber and in excellence. Among these may be 

 noticed the history of Tobit, illustrated by 

 Bida and published by Hachette ; M. Duples- 

 sis's " Histoire de la Gravure " ; and another 

 of the pictorial books by Paul Lacroix, pub- 

 lished by Didot, "Le XVIP Siecle, Institu- 

 tions, Usages, Costumes." The fifth volume 

 of the " Geographic Universelle " is devoted 

 by Elis6e Reclus to a description of Russia and 

 Scandinavian Europe. Vivien de Saint-Mar- 

 tin's geographical dictionary has reached the 



