

LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1884. (BELGIUM, DENMARK, FRANCE.) 449 



Religions of Mexico and Peru," Lilly's " An- 

 cient Religion and Modern Thought," Fair- 

 bairn's "City of God," and Principal Tulloch's 

 " Modern Theories in Philosophy and Religion." 



Voyages and Travels. In these subjects we 

 have Ballantine's "The Old World and the 

 New," Emily Faithfull's "Three Visits to 

 America," Henry Irving' s "Impressions of 

 America," Hughes's " Gone to Texas," Al- 

 dridge's "Life on a Ranch," Barneby's "Life 

 and Labor in the Far Far West," Sanford 

 Fleming's " A Summer Tour in Canada," Hol- 

 yoake's " Travels," Pigeon's " New World An- 

 swers to Old World Questions," Leighton's 

 " Life at Puget Sound," being all travels in 

 America. 



In other lands we have Hunnewell's "The 

 Historic Monuments of France," Falkner's 

 "Rapid Ramblings," Walford's " Greater Lon- 

 don," Mrs. Mulock-Craik's " An Unsentimental 

 Journey into Cornwall," Bonney's " The Ca- 

 thedral Churches of England and Wales," Mr. 

 Blanchard Jerrold's "At Home in Paris." 

 Brown's "Life on the Lagoons," Hare's 

 " Venice and Florence," Lady Brassey's " The 

 Trades, the Tropics, and the Roaring Forties," 

 Miss Gordon Cummings's " In the Himalayas 

 and on the Indian Plains," Mr. Kerry- Nicholls's 

 "The King Country," Green's "The High 

 Alps," Turner's " Samoa," Johnstone's " Camp- 

 ing among Cannibals," Johnston's " The River 

 Congo," Little's " South Africa," " The Trans- 

 vaal" by E. V. 0., Dr. Williams's "The Sou- 

 dan," Dr. Alfred Wight's "Adventures in 

 Servia," Mitford's " A Land March from Eng- 

 land to Ceylon Forty Years ago," Colville's 

 "First Steps on the Water- Way of Edorn," 

 Palmer and Besant's " Survey of Western Pal- 

 estine," Marx's "Upper Siam and Lao," Carl 

 Bock's " The Land of Temples and Elephants," 

 and Marvin's " The Petroleum Region of the 

 Caspian." 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1884. Liter- 

 ature on the Continent, during the present 

 year, has pursued the even tenor of its way, 

 and furnishes evidence of life and fair activity. 

 No particularly striking or novel production 

 has appeared; but in all departments has been 

 manifested a love of letters, accompanied by 

 the publication of various works of merit and 

 solid value. We follow our usual plan of giv- 

 ing a sketch of Continental literature in the 

 alphabetical order of countries. 



Belgium. Politics and history occupy largely 

 the attention of Belgians, and the daily press 

 is very active in discussing matters of national 

 interest and concern. Rival parties are ar- 

 rayed against one another on the education 

 question, and a very large number of treatises 

 has been published on the subject. Among 

 these may be named Trasenster's study on 

 u The Higher Education of Women," and the 

 parliamentary committee's report upon the 

 condition of public and private educational 

 establishments. M. Philippson draws a power- 

 ful picture of " The Counter-Revolution in Re- 

 VOL. xxiv. 29 A 



ligion during the Sixteenth Century," whence 

 originated Roman Catholicism as now organ- 

 ized in Belgium. National history is zealously 

 studied. M. Namiche has brought out two 

 more volumes of his " Cours d'Histoire Na- 

 tionale," which are occupied chiefly with the 

 reign of Charles V in the Low Countries. 

 Numerous monographs of local history have 

 appeared, and bibliography has proved fertile 

 and useful during the year. The group of 

 writers known as "Young Belgium "has been 

 very productive in fiction, light literature, poe- 

 try, etc. Besides the large number of publi- 

 cations in French, the prevailing language, 

 there are evidences of life and vigor in Flem- 

 ish literature in Belgium. This is shown in 

 the production of works of merit on Flemish 

 art, criticism, the drama, and the like. Poetry, 

 too, has been very prolific, and is pronounced 

 by competent judges to be really brilliant. 

 The great literary event of the year in Belgium 

 was the publication of a collection of poems 

 by Jan van Beers, " Rijzende Blaren " (" Rising 

 Leaves "), in which the old Antwerp poet took 

 the public quite by surprise, his poems being as 

 touching and as fresh in sentiment as those of 

 his youth. The work was excellently illus- 

 trated by his son, a painter of some note. 



Denmark. During 1884 there was celebrated 

 at Copenhagen the second centenary of " the 

 father of Danish literature,'HLudyig Holberg. 

 In connection with this, new editions of his 

 comedies and other works were published, as 

 well as several volumes illustrative of the life 

 and times of Holberg. Critical works on Dan- 

 ish literature have appeared, the most im- 

 portant of which is that of George Brandes. 

 In the field of novels, tales, dramas, etc., Schan- 

 dorph, Drachmann, and Gjellerup are worthy 

 of note, as also Ewald, Hausen, Etlar, Gerhard, 

 Boudesen, and others. In fact, the number of 

 tales, sketches, and studies is so great as to 

 render it impossible to give even a partial list 

 in the present article. In history the contribu- 

 tions have been fairly up to the average of pre- 

 vious years. P. Hausen's " History of Danish 

 Literature" and "Modern Danish Painting" 

 are spoken of in high terms. Besides these 

 there are several volumes illustrating Danish 

 history and biography, such as Liitken's " Bat- 

 tle of Heligoland " (1864), Lund's " Denmark 

 and Norway in the Sixteenth Century," auto- 

 biography of Bishop Brammer, etc. Periodi- 

 cal literature meets with good support, and 

 translations and critical essays evidence the 

 existence of life and spirit in popular liter- 

 ature. 



France. Judging from appearances and the 

 hundreds of volumes issued during the year, 

 in the republic, it would seem that Zola and 

 the realistic school, so called, had gained the 

 day entirely over the old-fashioned idealism of 

 the romantic school of other times. Natural- 

 ism, it is to be noted, does not deem itself 

 bound any longer to observe the compromises 

 that the incessant watchfulness of its adver- 



