“The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay,” edited by her niece, Mrs.
Barrett, were originally published in seven volumes, during the years
1842-1846. The work comprised but a portion of the diary and voluminous
correspondence of its gifted writer, for the selection of which Madame
D'Arblay, herself in part, and in part Mrs. Barrett, were responsible.
From this selection the present one has been made, which, it is
believed, will be found to include all the most valuable and interesting
passages of the original. We can at least claim for this, the first
popular edition of the Diary, that we have scrupulously fulfilled Madame
D'Arblay's injunction to her former editor, “that whatever might be
effaced or omitted, nothing should in anywise be altered or added to her
records.”
Of the Diary itself it is hardly necessary here to say anything in
praise. It has long been acknowledged a classic; it is indubitably the
most entertaining, in some respects the most valuable, work of its kind
in the English language, Regarded as a series of pictures of the society
of the time, the Diary is unsurpassed for vivid Colouring and truthful
delineation. As such alone it would possess a strong claim upon our
attention, but how largely is our interest increased, when we find that
the figures which fill the most prominent positions in the foreground
of these pictures, are those of the most noble, most gifted, and Most
distinguished men of the day! To mention but a few.