Genoa, who effected his escape from his native country after the
attempt at revolution in 1833. His book is, in substance, an authentic
account of real persons and incidents, though the writer has chosen
to adopt fictitious and fantastic designations for himself and his
associates. Since 1833, Ruffini has resided chiefly (if not wholly) in
England and France, where his qualities, we understand, have secured
him respect and regard. In 1848, he was selected by Charles Albert to
fill the responsible situation of embassador to Paris, in which city
he had long been domesticated as a refugee. He ere long, however,
relinquished that office, and again withdrew into private life. He
appears to have employed the time of his exile in this country to such
advantage as to have acquired a most uncommon mastery over the English
language. The present volume (we are informed on good authority) is
exclusively his own--and, if so, on the score of style alone it is
a remarkable curiosity. But its matter also is curious.”--_London
Quarterly Review for July._
“A tale of sorrow that has lain long in a rich mind, like a ruin in a
fertile country, and is not the less gravely impressive for the grace
and beauty of its coverings ... at the same time the most determined
novel-reader could desire no work more fascinating over which to
forget the flight of time.... No sketch of foreign oppression has
ever, we believe, been submitted to the English public by a foreigner,
equal or nearly equal to this volume in literary merit. It is not
unworthy to be ranked among contemporary works whose season is the
century in which their authors live.”--_London Examiner._
“The book should be as extensively read as ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’
inasmuch as it develops the existence of a state of slavery and
degradation, worse even than that which Mrs. Beecher Stowe has
elucidated with so much pathos and feeling.”--_Bell’s Weekly
Messenger._
“Few works of the season will be read with greater pleasure than this;
there is a great charm in the quiet, natural way in which the story is
told.”--_London Atlas._
“The author’s great forte is character-painting. This portraiture
is accomplished with remarkable skill, the traits both
individual and national being marked with great nicety without
obtrusiveness.”--_London Spectator._
“Under the modest guise of the biography of an imaginary ‘Lorenzo
Benoni,’ we have here, in fact, the memoir of a man whose name could
not be pronounced in certain parts of northern Italy without calling
up tragic yet noble historical recollections ... its merits, simply as
a work of literary art, are of a very high order. The style is really
beautiful--easy, sprightly, graceful, and full of the happiest and
most ingenious turns of phrase and fancy.”--_North British Review._
“This has been not unjustly compared to ‘_Gil Blas_,’ to which it is
scarcely inferior in spirited delineations of human character, and
in the variety of events which it relates. But as a description of
actual occurrences illustrating the domestic and political condition
of Italy, at a period fraught with interest to all classes of readers,
it far transcends in importance any work of mere fiction.”--_Dublin
Evening Mail._
Memoirs of a Distinguished Financier.
FIFTY YEARS IN BOTH HEMISPHERES;
OR, REMINISCENCES OF A MERCHANT’S LIFE.
By VINCENT NOLTE. 12mo. Price $1.25. [Eighth Edition]
The following, being a few of the more prominent names introduced in
the work, will show the nature and extent of personal and anecdotal
interest exhibited in its pages:--
Aaron Burr; General Jackson; John Jacob Astor; Stephen Girard; La
Fayette; Audubon; the Barings; Robert Fulton; David Parish; Samuel
Swartwout; Lord Aberdeen; Peter K. Wagner; Napoleon; Paul Delaroche;
Sir Francis Chantry; Queen Victoria; Horace Vernet; Major General
Scott; Mr. Saul; Lafitte; John Quincy Adams; Edward Livingston; John
R. Grymes; Auguste Davezac; General Moreau; Gouverneur Morris; J.
J. Ouvrard; Messrs. Hope & Co.; General Claiborne; Marshal Soult;
Chateaubriand; Le Roy de Chaumont; Duke of Wellington; William M.
Price; P. C. Labouchere; Ingres; Charles VI., of Spain; Marshal
Blucher; Nicholas Biddle; Manuel Godoy; Villele; Lord Eldon; Emperor
Alexander, etc. etc.
“He seldom looks at the bright side of a character, and dearly
loves--he confesses it--a bit of scandal. But he paints well,
describes well, seizes characteristics which make clear to the reader
the nature of the man whom they illustrate.”
The memoirs of a man of a singularly adventurous and speculative
turn, who entered upon the occupations of manhood early, and
retained its energies late; has been an eye-witness of not a few of
the important events that occurred in Europe and America between
the years 1796 and 1850, and himself a sharer in more than one of
them; who has been associated, or an agent in some of the largest
commercial and financial operations that British and Dutch capital and
enterprise ever ventured upon, and has been brought into contact and
acquaintance--not unfrequently into intimacy--with a number of the
remarkable men of his time. Seldom, either in print or in the flesh,
have we fallen in with so restless, versatile and excursive a genius
as Vincent Nolte, Esq., of Europe and America--no more limited address
will sufficiently express his cosmopolitan domicile.--_Blackwood’s
Magazine._
As a reflection of real life, a book stamped with a strong personal
character, and filled with unique details of a large experience of
private and public interest, we unhesitatingly call attention to it
as one of the most note-worthy productions of the day.--_New York
Churchman._
Our old merchants and politicians will find it very amusing, and
it will excite vivid reminiscences of men and things forty years
ago. We might criticise the hap-hazard and dare-devil spirit of the
author, but the raciness of his anecdotes is the result of these very
defects.--_Boston Transcript._
His autobiography presents a spicy variety of incident and adventure,
and a great deal of really useful and interesting information, all the
more acceptable for the profusion of anecdote and piquant scandal with
which it is interspersed.--_N. Y. Jour. of Commerce._
Not the least interesting portion of the work, to us here, is the
narration of Nolte’s intercourse with our great men, and his piquant
and occasionally ill-natured notice of their faults and foibles.--_N.
Y. Herald._
It is a vivid chronicle of varied and remarkable experiences, and
will serve to rectify the errors which too often pass among men as
veritable history.--_Evening Post._
The anecdotes, declamations, sentiments, descriptions, and whole
tone of the book, are vivacious and genuine, and, making allowance
for obvious prejudices, graphic and reliable. To the old it will be
wonderfully suggestive, to the young curiously informing, and to both
rich in entertainment.--_Boston Atlas._
As an amusing narrative, it would be difficult to find its superior;
but the book has peculiar interest from the freedom with which
the author shows up our American notorieties of the past forty
years.--_Courier._
THE UNITED STATES JAPAN EXPEDITION.
An Account of Three Visits to the Japanese Empire, with Sketches of
Madeira, St. Helena, Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Ceylon, Singapore,
China, and Loo-Choo. By Col. J. W. SPALDING, of the United States
Steam Frigate Mississippi, Flag-ship of the Expedition, with eight
Illustrations in Tint. 12mo., cloth, $1 25.
The book embraces a novel field in “Japan,” and a wide one in the
world, but the author has made a long voyage seem a short one, in the
interest which his graphic and instructive pen has thrown about every
league of his progress. The style is flowing and animated--Japan and
the Japanese are dashed off in life-like pictures. We advise all who
have the slightest curiosity to become acquainted with that secluded
and remarkable people, and to obtain a connected and spirited account
of the great American Expedition to Japan, to purchase the admirable
work of Col. Spalding.--_Rich. Dispatch._
Col. Spalding is a man whose character in the community in which
he has heretofore resided places him above suspicion, so that his
narrative may be implicitly trusted. He is withal a racy writer, and
a person gifted with very uncommon powers of observation.--_Baltimore
Patriot._
It describes all that the intelligent author saw, in a clear and
very agreeable manner, and mentions many things of a personal
character, which, of course, would form no part of an official
report.--_Baltimore American._
There is a freshness and vividness in his descriptions which makes the
book more than commonly attractive.--_Puritan Recorder._
Mr. Spalding writes with great ease and perspicuity. His powers of
description are fully adequate to any occasion which requires their
exertion, as is abundantly evidenced in the present work.--_Petersburg
Intelligencer._
A very readable journal of the Japan Expedition, by an officer which,
though aiming only at re-producing the impressions of the writer’s
mind, gives a good view of the strange scenes and characters which the
opening of that country disclosed.--_N. Y. Evan._
Mr. Spalding’s work gives the results of his observations precisely as
they occurred to him at the time, his mind being singularly unbiassed
by the enthusiasm of those by whom he was surrounded. He looks upon
things with a cool, discriminating eye, neither over-estimating nor
undervaluing the advantages of our new relations.--_N. Y. Herald._
It is the first account of Perry’s Expedition, and will always be more
popular than any government report.--_St. Louis Leader._
“Every Inch a King.”--_Harper’s Magazine._
The Private Life of an Eastern King, from the MS. of a member of the
household of his late Majesty, Nussir-u-Deen, King of Oude. By WM.
KNIGHTON, author of “Forest Life in Ceylon,” &c. 12mo., cloth, 75
cents.
The whole story reads like a lost chapter from the Arabian
Nights.--_Lon. Athenæum._
Gives a better insight into purely eastern manners than any work we
know of.--_London News of the World._
This amusing volume lets the reader very much behind the scenes, as
regards haut ton in Asia. Since the appearance of the Arabian Nights,
there has been no such exposition of the sayings and doings of eastern
royalty.--_N. Y. Daily Times._
Lucknow, the capital, is noted for its extraordinary menagerie of
wild animals, and one of the chief amusements of the court appears
to have been to witness them fight. Some very exciting contests are
narrated, and the book contains much of interest to the sportsman. It
also conveys a vivid picture of eastern manners, as seen in all their
familiarity; and some of the adventures recorded are scarcely less
wonderful than those of Hajji Baba.--_Boston Traveller._
The career of the cabin-boy barber, who exercised such great influence
over the crown, and so much to his own advantage, having amassed the
sum of £240,000 before he returned, is a very curious one, and well
told. On the whole, this is one of the most amusing books of the
season.--_Boston Telegraph._
He lifts the curtain and unfolds the minutiæ of the daily life of
an absolute sovereign. We learn more of eastern manners and Hindoo
peculiarities than from stately historians or elaborate geographies.
We can commend it as an entertaining volume.--_Religious Herald
Richmond. Va._
Transcriber's Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Bold type is shown thus: =shout=.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.