Books of the Month

History and Biography. History of France, by Charlotte M. Yonge, is the latest in the History Primers, edited by J. R. Green. (Appletons.) It is spirited and personal, but apparently takes too little account of that life in the nation which does not find its exponents in kings arid priests. —A Historical Discourse, delivered on the one hundredth anniversary of the Piscataqua Association of Ministers, at Portsmouth, by Rev. George B. Spalding (Morning Star Office, Dover, N. H.), has more piquancy than such discourses are apt to have, and carries with it some illustration of local life: but it suffers from the customary weakness of local celebrations, when the people engaged

“Take the rustic murmur of their bourg For the great wave that circles round the world.”

— Mr. Blaine’s Eulogy on James Abram Garfield, delivered before Congress, has been published in a neat form by J. R. Osgood & Co. — Garfield’s Place in History is an essay by Henry C. Pedder. (Putnams.) I The warmth with which Mr. Pedder writes will doubtless seem to some to indicate an obscurity of the critical function, yet after all there are advantages of insight sometimes obtained by affection which are denied to a purely intellectual apprehension.— Dr. Charles K. Adams, Professor of History in the University of Michigan, has prepared an encyclopædic Manual of Historical Literature, comprising brief descriptions of the most important histories in English, French, and German, together with practical suggestions as to methods and courses of historical study, for the use of students, general readers, and collectors of books (Harpers); a comprehensive class, which seems to leave out nobody who has anything to do with histories, unless it be the bookseller. It is an expanded bibliography, and conceived in a fair spirit, yet we think it would have been more effective if it had been more compact; if in short it had followed more closely the plan of Mr. Winsor’s admirable Handbook of the Revolution. The general reader will find the work more useful than the special student, — General George H. Gordon has added to bis previous contributions to our military history A War Diary of Events in the War of the Great Rebellion, 1863-1865 (Osgood), which is a continuation in diary form of the more studied narrative of The Army of Virginia. Such chronicles are of great value, and it is certainly desirable that they should have publication now when they can be subjected to the criticism of contemporary witnesses. — Professor Alexander Bain has done an admirable service in giving the two volumes, James Mill, a Biography, and John Stuart Mill, a Criticism, with personal recollections. (Holt.) The father and son make in some ways a connected study, and the son especially cannot well be known without some acquaintance with the father. Both books will form the staple of reading and conversation for many people for some time to come. —The Webster centennial has very naturally brought out fresh discussion of Mr. Webster; every generation must reread the lives of great men, and for a long time Webster will be in order for debate. Mr. Hudson, the Shakespearean scholar, also known for his admiration of the statesman, has published through Ginn, Heath & Co. a discourse which he delivered on January 18th. The oration contains interesting passages also with regard to Mr. Hudson.—Mrs. Martha Babcock Amory, a granddaughter of the painter Copley, has done an excellent service in giving the public The Domestic and Artistic Life of John Singleton Copley, R. A., with notices of his works, and reminiscences of his son, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) Copley’s life has never before been adequately written. Mr. A. T. Perkins published several years ago a volume which gave a careful account of Copley’s pictures, but with only the briefest biographical sketch. In this book there is no catalogue of the pictures, but the narrative of Copley’s life is made as full as possible through the use of family letters; the painter died when his son was beginning to be famous, and no break occurs in the narrative, which is carried on to Lord Lyndhurst’s death. Besides the information given of these two eminent men, there is much entertaining material for the illustration of London life in the early half of this century. A charming portrait of Copley is prefixed to the volume, which is a dignified and handsome book, — Mr. Francis H. Underwood has written an agreeable biographical sketch of James Russell Lowell (Osgood), which is illustrated by heliotypes showing Lowell’s face, his house, and his haunts. — English Journalism and the Men Who Have Made It, by Charles Pebody (Cassell), is a brief sketch which does full justice to the personal element in journalism ; it is composed chiefly of gossipy comments upon editors and publishers. — Charles Lamb, by Alfred Ainger, appears in the series of English Men of Letters (Harpers), and will receive a reluctant but finally cheerful indorsement from Lamb’s readers. No modern Englishman in literature has such jealous readers as Lamb. They will absolve Mr. Ainger of the worst of crimes, that of patronage.—Under the title of The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, Mr. George Rawlinson treats with fullness the geography, history, and antiquities of Parthia, justifying the position which he had previously assumed, that there never was a time when Rome could strictly be called the,mistress of the world, but that her empire was, in the later years of the republic and the earlier of the empire, always stoutly contested by Persia. This work published in England ten years ago, is republished here now, when the subject is of growing interest. This volume, with its map and many illustrations, is a welcome guide to the student. (Dodd, Mead & Co.)

Fiction. Monsieur le Ministre, a romance in real life, by Jules Clarette (Petersons), is one of those French novels of the empire which take their revenge on public men by hanging their portraits in full view, disguised but not concealed by false moustaches and beards, which turn literature into a bal masque, and depend for their value not upon their truth to art, but upon the skill with which they dissemble.—The second volume of Bret Harte’s collected works contains The Luck of Roaring Camp and other stories in the vein which properly bears his name, together with sketches and papers which naturally fall into this division of his works. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) — Thump’s Client, by Charles D. Knight (Author’s Publishing Company, New York), is a novel of intricate sentiment and humor, modeled upon Dickens.— In the Distance, by George P. Lathrop (Osgood), will be especially interesting to those readers who have been employed upon his Echo of Passion. Mr. Lathrop’s carefulness in writing invites respect from his readers. —Zola’s The Mysteries of the Court of Louis Napoleon (Petersons) is a contribution toward the history of human ignobleness.— The latest issue in the Round Robin Series (Osgood) is A Tallahassee Girl. The name must not be taken too quickly as condemning the novel, since it is based, as the reader might not happen to know, upon a popular song bearing that name. — Sevenoaks is the latest novel in the reissue of Dr. Holland’s writings. It already has an old-fashioned air, as if one had come upon the American Dickens. — Dare, by Mary W. Glascock (The California Publishing Company, San Francisco), is a little novel, the scene of which is laid in California, while the treatment seems to imply a strong familiarity with Miss Alcott’s writings. The book has feminine dash about it. — John Inglesant, by J. H. Shorthouse (Macmil lans), is a romance which will not be given up to the professed novel-reader, but will be read by many who are indifferent to novels, for its acute discussion of religious and philosophical truth under the guise of historical fiction. —Her Picture is the title of a new number of the No Name Series (Roberts), a domestic novel, of English origin, apparently. The author’s name seems scarcely worth guessing ; a good many people might have written it.—Mrs. Mayburn’s Twins, with her trials in the morning, noon, afternoon, and evening of just one day, is a nursery tale by John Habberton (Petersons), after the example which he had already set in Helen’s Babies. The lingo of the book justifies one in calling for the deadliest kind of soothing syrup. — In Maremma, by Ouida (Lippincott), is of the customary disenchanting character of this writer’s novels. Beauty and love under her hands come out vulgarized past recognition. — The Frères, by Mrs. Alexander, and Spinoza, by Auerbach, are the latest volumes in Holt’s Leisure Hour Series. The latter is a novel in form, but it appears to be also a presentation of the philosopher who gives the title. —Till Death do us Part, by Mrs. John Kent Spender, is the latest issue in Harper’s Franklin Square Series. It is not, apparently, one of a series illustrative of the marriage service.

Education and Text Books. Love’s Labour’s Lost is the latest of Rolfe’s edition of Shakespeare. (Harpers.) We can only wish that the pictorial illustration of this series had been better judged.—In Harper’s Greek andLatin Texts has been published Dr. Madvig’s edition of Cicero’s De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum. We wish the custom were more prevalent of studying philosophy through the medium of Greek and Latin texts. — No. 10 of The Reading Club and Handy Speaker, edited by George M. Baker (Lee and Shepard), contains serious, humorous, pathetic, patriotic, and dramatic selections in prose and poetry for readings and recitations; the selections show slight respect for literature proper. — Selected Odes of Pindar, with notes and an introduction by Thomas D. Seymour, Professor of the Greek Language and Literature in Yale College (Ginn, Heath & Co.), has the air of being a well-edited book; perhaps it was beside his purpose, but. we wish he could have given students a taste of Myers’s translation.

Literary Criticism. The Rhymester, or the Rules of Rhyme, a Guide to English Versification, with a dictionary of rhymes, an examination of classical measures, and comments upon burlesque, comic verse, and song writing, by Tom Hood, edited, with additions, by Arthur Penn. (Appletons.) So runs the title-page of a little work which may amuse and instruct one by turns. The author, a son of the great Hood, was a diligent literary man, and his editor brings the book to date. — In the series of Foreign Classics for English Readers (Lippincott) two new volumes have appeared, La Fontaine and other French Fabulists, by Rev. W. Lucas Collins, and Schiller, by James Sime. The former has a somewhat fresher field, but both will be found convenient epitomes. —Conversation, its Faults and its Graces (Lee and Shepard), is a revised edition of a little work published fifteen years ago, compiled by Dr. A. P. Peabody, and comprising an address of his to young ladies, and three other cautionary papers. The doctrines of the book are sound, and we only regret while we confess the necessity of a new edition.

Biblical Criticism. The fourth volume of the New Testament section of The Speaker’s Commentary (Scribners), comprising the books from Hebrews through Revelation, completes the work. The commentary has been in preparation for eighteen years, and its publication was begun ten years ago. Its general character is well understood to be that of a fair and open criticism, avoiding the two extremes of a slavish adherence to positions which are orthodox only through age, and of a hasty acceptance of the latest views of even learned scholars. The results reached agree in the main with those which are incorporated in the revised version. Many will be impatient at the diffuseness of the comment, but we suspect that these critics will be found rather in America than in England.

Fine Arts. A Popular Dictionary of Architecture and the Allied Arts, by W. J. and G. A. Audsley, has for its sub-title A Work of Reference for the Architect, Builder, Sculptor, Decorative Artist, and General Student, with numerous illustrations from all styles of architecture, from the Egyptian to the Renaissance. Two volumes have so far been published, closing with the title Baptisterium. The alphabetical order is used, and architectural works are treated by way of reference rather than directly. At least we fail to find, for example, any article on the Alhambra, though the title Alhambresque appears. The work is published by Putnams here in connection with Low in London, and the present is stated to be the third edition.

Business. Hubbard’s Newspaper and Bank Directory of the World, with gazetteer and atlas, containing the names and descriptions of over thirtythree thousand newspapers and fifteen thousand banks throughout the world, the whole in two volumes octavo (H. P. Hubbard, New Haven), has, besides interesting advertisements on every other page, a preface in four languages, a dedication to President Arthur and Queen Victoria, and a lithographic portrait of H. P. Hubbard surrounded by the flags of all nations.

Travel and Adventure. Nordenskiöld’s narrative of the Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe has been translated by Alexander Leslie and published by the Macmillans. The work besides contains a historical review of previous journeys along the north coast of the Old World; it has portrait, maps, and many illustrations. The first impression created upon the mind is that here is a well-studied, scientific, and popular work.— European Breezes, by Marie J. Pitman, “ Margery Deane" (Lee and Shepard), is a neat volume of travel, which takes the reader over somewhat unfamiliar ground, as it deals with Hungary and some German interiors. It is sprightly and fresh, in spite of its title— Morocco, its People and Places, is the latest of De Amicis’s books (Putnams) which has appeared here. Like its predecessors, it is made up of a succession of sharply accented scenes; the author has a vivid style, and he is animated even when depicting Oriental leisure.

Science. The annual report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for 1881 has been printed by the order of the legislature (Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor, New Haven), and is of interest as giving freely to the public the analyses of fertilizers, seed tests, etc. — A Handbook of Field Botany, by Walter P. Manton (Lee and Shepard), contains instructions for gathering and preserving plants and the formation of the herbarium; it is intended for beginners, and has a distinctly practical purpose. — First Aid to the Injured, by Peter Shepherd, M. B. (Putnams), is a little English work adapted to use in America, intended for non-professional readers in emergencies; its object, that is, is to furnish a few plain rules which may enable any one to act in cases of injury or sudden illness, pending the arrival of professional help.