BOOK NOTICES.
"The Lay of the Last Minstrel" is the swan-song of the age of chivalry and romance, and breathes from every stanza the thrilling sentiments of those halcyon days when honor and valor and beauty ruled the world. The critics of three generations have lavished upon it their pasans of praise, from the careful essays of Jeffrey and Wilson down to the scholarly and erudite reviews of the foremost essayists of the present day. The poem was published in 1805, and met with an immediate and astonishing success; and has ever since been a high favorite among all lovers of noble sentiment and melodious verse.
The scene is laid mainly at the old Border stronghold of Branksome Hall:—
"The Scots they rade, the Scots they ran,
Sae starkly and sae steadilie!
And aye the o'er-word o' the thrang
Was—'Rise for Branksome readilie.'"
So, appropriately, the cover of the new Boston edition is emblazoned with the arms of the Duke of Buccleuch, the Lord of Branksome, and with the towers and battlements of a feudal fortalice. The large size of the volume, which exceeds very considerably its predecessors, "Lucille," "Marmion," etc., favors the rich display of these emblems, which go to make up a beautiful parlor-table book.
The paper on which the text is printed is of a fine dead-finish, like old English hand-made paper, remarkably firm and thick, and free from the unpleasant reflections so noticeable in calendered paper of high polish. This paper was made expressly for the book, and takes the impressions of the most delicate cuts with efficiency and good results.
Among the more conspicuous of the illustrations we may note the beautiful full-page frontispiece, "She gazed upon the Inner Court," after W. St. John Harper's drawing; and the many vigorous figure-pieces, in which appear fair Margaret, the Knight of Deloraine, the Goblin Page, Dark Musgrave, and all the other characters of this mighty song of Border wars and noble loves. Even more noticeable are the landscape pictures and reproductions of famous localities of the poem. Newark's stately tower, Naworth Castle, Branksome Turrets, fair Melrose, Liddesdale, the Eildon Hills, Yarrow's Stream, dark Ruberslaw, Kelso Abbey, Carlisle's Wall, Roslin Castle, and other beautiful and legend-haunted localities of the Scottish Border Marches.
A series of very delightful essays and papers, with reminiscences and other memorable papers, prepared by one of the most skilful and interesting of American authors, and calculated to attract and keep the attention of all readers. It includes a great variety of valuable miscellany, and several papers that have already become classic among people of cultivation and acumen.
The first essay is a piquant description of how the author came to write "Garth," "Bressant," and "Idolatry," and the well-known "Fortune's Fool," with descriptions of how their plots grew into shape. The second essay is entitled "Novels and Agnosticism," and speaks of Thackeray, Turguénieff, Zola, Henry James, and Howells, and their methods and peculiarities. Next comes a paper on "Americanism in Fiction," beginning with Cooper, Irving, and Poe, passing onward by Hawthorne, Emerson, and Longfellow, and brightly touching the newer men of to-day. "Literature for Children" is a monograph of great value for parents and friends of children.
"The Moral Aim in Fiction" is a subtle speculation as to the true relations of art and morals to each other. "The Maker of Many Books" is a very delightful personal and biographical reminiscence of Anthony Trollope, with whom Mr. Hawthorne became acquainted in 1879. In Mr. Mallock's "Missing Science" there is a quaint little skit at democracy, socialism, and other modern isms. Theodore Winthrop's writings will deeply interest any one who has read "John Brent," or "Cecil Dreeme," or who feels interest in the mesozoic period of our literature. "Emerson as an American" is a grand and eloquent essay on the Puritans of Plymouth and of later Concord, with vivid characterizations and illustrations of Emerson's patriotic traits. The remaining papers in this singular and valuable book are full of the Hawthorne spirit, and must find many profoundly interested readers.
