NAOMI TORRENTE: The History of a Woman. By GERTRUDE F. DE VINGUT.
'Every dream of love argues a reality in the world of supreme
beauty. Believe all that thy heart prompts, for everything that it
seeks, exists.'--_Plato_. New York: John Bradburn (late M.
Doolady), publisher, 49 Walker street.
Who could look on the fair high face, facing our title page, and have
the heart to criticize the revelations of its soul? Naomi is a book of
feeling, passion, and considerable, if not yet mature, power. It is
dedicated to Sr. Dn. Juan Clemente Zenea, editor of _La Charanga_,
Havana. Our authoress says in her dedication: 'It is to you, therefore;
and those who like you have deeply felt, that the history of a woman's
soul-life will prove more interesting than the mere narrative of the
chances and occurrences that make up the every-day natural existence.'
Naomi is a woman of artistic genius and passionate character, becalmed
in the stagnation of conventional life, who, throwing off the fetters of
an uncongenial and inconsiderate marriage, attempts to find happiness
and independence in the cultivation of her own powers. She is eminently
successful as prima donna, is brilliant and self-sustained--but fails to
attain the imagined happiness, the Love-Eden so fervently sought.
MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS. By the Author of 'The Queen of the
Country,' 'The Challenge,' etc. 'Queen Rose of the Rosebud garden
of girls.'--_Tennyson_. Loring, publisher, 314 Washington street,
Boston. 1864.
A novel of domestic life, in which the plot, apparently simple, is yet
artistic and skilfully managed. The thread of life of the bridesmaids is
held with that of the bride, the development of character, distinctly
marked in each, progresses through a series of natural events, until the
young people reach the point of life when impulse settles into
principle, amiability into virtue, generosity into self-abnegation, and
we feel that each may now be safely left to life as it is, that
circumstance can no longer mould character, and are willing to leave
them, certain they will henceforth remain true to themselves, and to
those whose happiness may depend upon them, whatever else may betide.
The bride is a pure, sweet, generous woman, but the character of the
book is decidedly Lotty. Childish, petite, and indulged, she is yet
magnanimous, brave, and self-sacrificing; fiery, fearless, and frank,
she is still patient, forbearing, and reticent; we love her as child,
while we soon learn to venerate her as woman. She and her docile
bloodhound, Bear, form pictures full of magic contrast, groups of which
we never tire. The cordiality and heartiness of her admiring relatives,
the Beauvilliers, are contagious; we live for the time in their life,
and grow stronger as we read. The book is charming. Its moral is
unexceptionable, its characters well drawn, its plot and incidents
simple and natural, and its interest sustained from beginning to end.
ENOCH ARDEN, etc. By ALFRED TENNYSON, D.C.L., Poet Laureate.
Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1864.
Tennyson has so many devoted admirers, that this volume cannot fail to
receive due attention. The principal poem therein, Enoch Arden, is one
of touching pathos and simplicity. Three children, Enoch Arden, Philip
Ray, and Annie Lee, grew up together on the British coast a hundred
years ago. Both youths loved Annie: she loved and married Enoch. They
live happily together until three children are born to the house: then
poverty threatens, and Arden leaves home to provide for the loved ones.
He is cast away on an island, is not heard, from for ten years, and
Annie reluctantly consents to marry Philip, who has been a father to her
children during their long orphanage. Arden returns at last to his
native village, so old, gray, and broken, that no one recognizes him.
He hears how true his wife had been to him until all hope had died away,
and how Philip cared for her peace, and cherished his children. The
wretched man resolves to bear his grief in silence, and never to bring
agony and shame to a peaceful home by disclosing his return. He does
this in a spirit of Christian self-abnegation, lives near the
unconscious darlings of his heart, earns his frugal living, watching
round, but never entering the lost Paradise of his youth. He dies, and
only at the hour of death, reveals to Annie how he had lived and loved.
The _theme_ of this tale has often been taken before. It has been
elaborated with passion and power in the 'Homeward Bound' of Adelaide
Procter, a poetess too little known among us.
There is great purity of delineation and conception in Enoch Arden. The
characters stand out real and palpable in their statuesque simplicity.
There is agony enough, but neither impatience nor sin. The epithets are
well chosen; but the usual wildering sensuousness of Tennyson's glowing
imagery is subdued and tender throughout the progress of this melancholy
tale.
'Aylmer's Field,' about the same length, is a poem of more stormy mould.
It hurls fierce rebukes at family pride, and just censures at tyrannical
parents.
The volume contains many shorter poems, some of which are already
familiar to our readers.
AZARIAN: An Episode. By HARRIET ELIZABETH PRESCOTT, Author of 'The
Amber Gods,' etc. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
We like 'Azarian' better than any work we have yet seen from Miss
Prescott. Ruth Yetton, the heroine, is so truly feminine, she might
serve as a type of half our innocent maidens from sixteen to twenty.
Azarian is real and drawn to the life, a hero who has his counterpart in
every civilized city; a man of _savoir-vivre_, glittering and
attractive, but selfish, inconsequent, frivolous, and deadly to the
peace of those who love him. Miss Prescott's style is elaborate and
florid, frequently of rare beauty, always giving evidence of culture and
scholarship. Do we find fault with the hundred-leaved rose? Her fancy is
luxuriant, of more power than her imagination. Her descriptions of
flowers in the volume before us are accurate and tenderly beautiful. She
knows them all, and evidently loves them well. Nor are the fragile
blossoms of the trees less dear to her. She reads their secrets, and
treasures them in her heart. She paints them with her glowing words, and
placing our old darlings before us again, exultingly points out their
hidden charms.
THE FOREST ARCADIA OF NORTHERN NEW YORK: Embracing a View of its
Mineral, Agricultural, and Timber Resources. Boston: Published by
T.O.H.P. Burnham. New York: Oliver S. Felt. 1864.
The author of this pleasant, unpretending little book visited the 'great
wilderness of Northern New York, which lies in St. Lawrence county, on
the western slope of the Adirondack Mountains. It forms part of an
extensive plateau, embracing an area of many thousand square miles, and
is elevated from fifteen to eighteen hundred feet above the sea. The
mineral resources of the plateau are of great value, immense ranges of
magnetic iron traverse the country, and there are indications of more
valuable minerals in a few localities. Of its agricultural importance
too much cannot be said. The soil is rich and strong, peculiarly adapted
to the grazing of cattle. The climate is that of the hill country of New
England.'
The reader will see from this extract of what the book treats. The
volume is pleasantly and simply written, imparts considerable
information with respect to the region which it describes, is redolent
of spicy forest breath, and brings before us Indian, deer, and beaver.
RHODE ISLAND IN THE REBELLION. By EDWIN W. STONE, of the First
Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery. Providence: George H.
Whitney. 1864.
'These Letters were written amid camp scenes and on the march,' says our
author, 'under circumstances unfavorable to literary composition, and
were intended for private perusal alone. Portions of them appeared in
the _Providence Journal_, and were received with a favor alike
unexpected and gratifying. Numerous requests having been made that they
should be gathered up as a Rhode Island contribution to the history of
the War of the Rebellion, the author, with unaffected distrust of
himself, has yielded to the judgment of others. While the aim has been
to show the honorable position of the State in an unhappy war, it has
also been the design to present a comprehensive view of the consecutive
campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, with the fortunes of which several
of the Rhode Island regiments and most of the batteries have, for longer
or shorter periods, been identified.'
It is a noble record for Rhode Island, and a valuable contribution to
the history of the war. It deals with facts, not polities or prejudices.
We think every loyal State should prepare such a volume. A simple and
reliable statement of what she has herself done, a sketch of her heroes
of all ranks and parties, of her batteries, regiments, and companies, of
her commandants and the battles in which her troops bore part, should be
therein contained. This would lead to noble emulation among the States
struggling for a common cause, and would be of great value both to State
and general history. We look upon this book as a beginning in the right
way. Such national records of nobly borne suffering and deeds of glory
would be truly Books of Honor.
ROBINSON'S MATHEMATICAL SERIES: Arithmetical Examples; or, Test
Exercises for the Use of Advanced Classes. New York: Ivison,
Phinney, Blakeman & Co., 48 & 50 Walker street. Chicago: S.C.
Griggs & Co., 39 & 41 Lake street. 1864.
This book was issued to meet the demand in advanced schools for a larger
number of carefully prepared and practical examples for review and drill
exercises than are furnished from ordinary text books, and may be used
in connection with any other books on this subject. 'The examples are
designed to test the pupil's judgment; to bring into use his knowledge
of the theory and applications of numbers; to cultivate habits of
patient investigation and self-reliance; to test the truth and accuracy
of his own processes by proof--the only test he will have to depend on
in the real business transactions of afterlife; in a word, to make him
independent of all text books, of written rules and analyses.'
A LATIN GRAMMAR FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. By ALBERT HARKNESS, Ph.
D., Professor in Brown University, Author of 'A First Latin Book,'
'A Second Latin Book,' 'A First Greek Book,' etc. New York: D.
Appleton & Co., 443 & 445 Broadway.
Prof. Harkness's Grammar will be welcomed both by teacher and student.
Our author is a man of great experience in the subjects of which he
treats, and we doubt not he has supplied a general want in the work
before us, and furnished a true grammar of the Latin tongue, worthy of
adoption in all our educational institutions.
RITA: An Autobiography. By HAMILTON AIDE, Author of 'Confidences,'
'Carr of Carrlyon,' 'Mr. and Mrs. Faulconbridge,' etc. Boston:
Published by T.O.P. Burnham. New York: Oliver S. Felt.
This novel is the autobiography of a young English girl, thrown by her
father, a man of high birth, but worthless character, into the vicious
influences of corrupt English and French society. The story is one of a
constant struggle between these base examples on the one hand, and a
strong sense of right and justice on the other. The plot is original and
quite elaborate, and the interest well sustained. The character of the
unprincipled, heartless, gambling father is well drawn, as well as that
of the weak but self-sacrificing mother. Some of the scenes evince
considerable power.