Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
to be constantly plunged ; and we as acutely feel , as did dear Miss Matey herself , the failure of the county bank , and the sad loss and distress it brought upon all the industrious middle classes in her immediate neighbourhood . It is almost needless to say , that this charming little work first appeared in " Household Words , " for in that excellent magazine it had thousands and thousands of warm admirers and attentive readers .
Still , if any yet remain to whom " Cranford" is a novelty , we bid them take it up , nor stand upon the order of their reading , but to read it at once . As "Cranford "described life in a provincial town , so"Charles Delman" * is descriptive of life , and by that is meant , in this instance , political life , in the metropolis . It is eminently " a story of the day , " in which the actors , with a few exceptions , are living personages , of whom the world talksand who themselves talk occasionallto good in both
, y purpose , actual society and in Parliament . Whether they like to see their portraits sketched by a powerful hand , and thus exposed to public view and criticism , is a question with which we have nothing to do . We only wish , for his own sake , that the author was more hopeful , or had suffered less disappointment in political life than , we are inclined to think he has done . Throughout the work there is a tone of vexation , which is dispiritingand a hollow sneer at honourable ambitionwhich is not exactl
, , y agreeable ; nevertheless , the work is an able one , full of thought , originality , and knowledge of human nature , and abounds in quiet reflections on men and things , which are never wholly without interest or aim . By far the most interesting characters in the book are Charles Delman , intended to represent the late excellent Charles Buller , and Mr . Jacobi , or , in other words , Mr . DTsraeli . The last scene of all in the life of the former is exquisitely touching ; and the political atheism of the latter , if
not very praiseworthy , has a good deal of the truth of reality . There seems , indeed , to be a sort of mania at the present day to convert the incidents of actual life into a romance . To judge from the number , we should be half inclined to believe that we lived in an age similar to that of the Troubadours and Crusaders , when every man would make his life into a romance , and only Tecrnired a chronicler to convert it into a novel . Now men perform this latter office for themselves . And so in fact it is ,
although , in nine cases out of ten , the romance of a man ' s life in the nineteenth century is one in which sorrow and oppression play by far too great a part . " Lorenzo Benoni , "t is the true account of the sufferings of an Italian patriot under foreign oppression . It is a tale of sorrow , yet so graceful , and full of earnest truth in every part , that we know not , in spite of the absorbing interest which hangs on the greater portion of it , whether
to call it an autobiography or a novel . In one sense it is the former , for it requires but little astuteness to pierce the thin veil which shrouds the chief actors , or to mistake the despotism which nipped in their bud the youthful aspirations of Benoni after liberty , and delivered him body , but not soul , into the hands of the oppressors of Italy . As a sketch of the political and social wrongs under which the ablest men of Italy have now so long laboured , it will well repay perusal ; and as a romance full of startling interest , stands second to none in modern times .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
to be constantly plunged ; and we as acutely feel , as did dear Miss Matey herself , the failure of the county bank , and the sad loss and distress it brought upon all the industrious middle classes in her immediate neighbourhood . It is almost needless to say , that this charming little work first appeared in " Household Words , " for in that excellent magazine it had thousands and thousands of warm admirers and attentive readers .
Still , if any yet remain to whom " Cranford" is a novelty , we bid them take it up , nor stand upon the order of their reading , but to read it at once . As "Cranford "described life in a provincial town , so"Charles Delman" * is descriptive of life , and by that is meant , in this instance , political life , in the metropolis . It is eminently " a story of the day , " in which the actors , with a few exceptions , are living personages , of whom the world talksand who themselves talk occasionallto good in both
, y purpose , actual society and in Parliament . Whether they like to see their portraits sketched by a powerful hand , and thus exposed to public view and criticism , is a question with which we have nothing to do . We only wish , for his own sake , that the author was more hopeful , or had suffered less disappointment in political life than , we are inclined to think he has done . Throughout the work there is a tone of vexation , which is dispiritingand a hollow sneer at honourable ambitionwhich is not exactl
, , y agreeable ; nevertheless , the work is an able one , full of thought , originality , and knowledge of human nature , and abounds in quiet reflections on men and things , which are never wholly without interest or aim . By far the most interesting characters in the book are Charles Delman , intended to represent the late excellent Charles Buller , and Mr . Jacobi , or , in other words , Mr . DTsraeli . The last scene of all in the life of the former is exquisitely touching ; and the political atheism of the latter , if
not very praiseworthy , has a good deal of the truth of reality . There seems , indeed , to be a sort of mania at the present day to convert the incidents of actual life into a romance . To judge from the number , we should be half inclined to believe that we lived in an age similar to that of the Troubadours and Crusaders , when every man would make his life into a romance , and only Tecrnired a chronicler to convert it into a novel . Now men perform this latter office for themselves . And so in fact it is ,
although , in nine cases out of ten , the romance of a man ' s life in the nineteenth century is one in which sorrow and oppression play by far too great a part . " Lorenzo Benoni , "t is the true account of the sufferings of an Italian patriot under foreign oppression . It is a tale of sorrow , yet so graceful , and full of earnest truth in every part , that we know not , in spite of the absorbing interest which hangs on the greater portion of it , whether
to call it an autobiography or a novel . In one sense it is the former , for it requires but little astuteness to pierce the thin veil which shrouds the chief actors , or to mistake the despotism which nipped in their bud the youthful aspirations of Benoni after liberty , and delivered him body , but not soul , into the hands of the oppressors of Italy . As a sketch of the political and social wrongs under which the ablest men of Italy have now so long laboured , it will well repay perusal ; and as a romance full of startling interest , stands second to none in modern times .