Why doesn't some publisher bring out _The Utterbosh Series_, for, upon
my word, says the Baron, the greater part of the books sent in for
"notice" are simply beneath it. Here's one on which I made notes as
I went on, as far as I could get through it. It is called _Nemesis:
a Moral Story_, by SETON CREWE. Its sole merit would have been its
being in one volume, were it not that this form, being a bait to the
unwary, aggravates the offence. The heroine is _Lucinda_, a milliner's
apprentice. Being compromised by a young gentleman under age, who
suddenly quits the country, she goes to confess her sin to the
simple-minded Curate, who sees no way out of the difficulty except
by marrying his penitent, which he does, and after the christening
of her first-born, a joyous event that occurs at no great interval
after the happy wedding-day, the Curate, the _Reverend Mr. Smith_,
is transferred by his Bishop from this parish to somewhere else a
considerable distance off, whence, after a variety of troubles, he
goes abroad as a travelling watering-place clergyman. After this,
his wife becomes a Roman Catholic for six months, and then developes
into a thoroughpaced infidel of generally loose character. She takes
up with a Lion Comique of the Music-Halls, who is summarily kicked
down-stairs by the _Reverend Mr. Smith_ on his return home one
evening. And at this point I closed the book, not caring one dump what
became of any of the characters, or of the book, or of the writer,
and unable to wait for the moral of this highly "moral story," which,
I dare say, might have done me a great deal of good. So I turned to
_Vanity Fair_, and re-read for the hundredth time, and with increased
pleasure, the great scene where _Rawdon Crawley_, returning home
suddenly, surprises _Becky_ in her celebrated _tête-à-tête_ with my
_Lord Steyne_.
[Illustration]
With pleasure the Baron welcomes Vol. No. IV. of ROUTLEDGE's
_Carisbrooke Library_, which contains certain _Early Prose Romances_,
the first and foremost among them being the delightful fable of
_Reynart the Fox_. Have patience with the old English, refer to the
explanatory notes, and its perusal will well repay every reader. How
came it about that modern _Uncle Remus_ had caught so thoroughly the
true spirit of this Mediæval romance? I forget, at this moment, who
wrote _Uncle Remus_--and I beg his pardon for so doing--but whoever
it was, he professed only to dress up and record what he had actually
heard from a veritable _Uncle Remus_. _Brer Rabbit_, _Brer Fox_, and
_Old Man Bar_, are not the creatures of _Æsop's Fables_; they are the
characters in _Reynart the Fox_. The tricks, the cunning, the villany
of _Reynart_, unredeemed by aught except his affection for his wife
and family, are thoroughly amusing, and his ultimate success, and
increased prosperity; present a truer picture of actual life than
novels in which vice is visibly punished, and virtue patiently
rewarded. And once more I call to mind the latter days of _Becky's_
career.
Speaking of THACKERAY, Messrs. CASSELL & Co. have just brought out
a one-and-threepenny edition ("the threepence be demmed!") of the
_Yellowplush Papers_, with a dainty canary-coloured _Jeames_ on the
cover. At the same time the same firm produce, in the same form, _The
Last Days of Pompeii_, _The Last Days of Palmyra_, and _The Last of
the Mohicans_. Odd, that the first issue of this new series should
be nearly all "Lasts." _The Yellowplush Papers_ might have been kept
back, and _The Last of the Barons_ been substituted, just to make the
set of lasts perfect. The expression is suggestive of Messrs. CASSELL
going in for the shoemaking trade. _The Last Days of Palmyra_ I have
never read. "I will try it," says the bold Baron.
But what means this new style of printing on thin double sheets? One
advantage is that no cutting is required. If this form become the
fashion, better thus to bring out the _Utterbosh Series_, which shall
then escape the critics' hands,--no cutting being required. There are,
as those who use the paper-knife to these volumes will discover, in
this new issue of Messrs. CASSELL's, two blank pages for every two
printed ones, so that a new novel might be written in MS. inside the
printed one. The paper is good and clean to the touch; but I prefer
the stiff cover to the limp, "there's more backbone about it," says
the