Page:Villette (1st edition).djvu/339

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SMITH, ELDER AND CO.
7

Miss Kavanagh's Female Biographies.


I.

WOMEN OF CHRISTIANITY, EXEMPLARY FOR PIETY AND CHARITY. By Miss Julia Kavanagh. Post 8vo, with Portraits. Price 12s. in embossed cloth, gilt edges.

"The authoress has supplied a great desideratum both in female biography and morals. Her examples of female excellence are taken from the earliest ages of the church, and come down to recent times: she has a niche in her timple for every one who deserves a position there. The style is clear, the matter solid, and the conclusions just."—Globe.

"A more noble and dignified tribute to the virtues of her sex we can scarcely imagine than this work, which Miss Kavanagh has reared, like a monumental tablet, to the memory of the 'Women of Christianity.' To this grateful task the gifted authoress has brought talents of no ordinary range, and, more than all, a spirit of eminent piety, and admiration for the good and beautiful, and a heart entirely absorbed in the work she has so ably accomplished."—Church of England Quarterly Review.

"The women portrayed have been selected from every period of the Christian era; the same range of female biography is taken by no other volume ; and an equal skill in the delineation of characters is rarely to be found. The author has accomplished her task with intelligence and feeling, and with general fairness and truth : she displays subtle penetration and broad sympathy, joining therewith purity and pious sentiment, intellectual refinement and large-heartedness, and writes with unusual elegance and felicity."—Nonconformist.

"Miss Kavanagh has wisely chosen that noble succession of saintly women who, in all ages of Christianity, are united by their devotion to the sick, the wretched, and the destitute."—Guardian.

II.

WOMAN IN FRANCE DURING THE 18th CENTURY. By Julia Kavanagh. 2 vols, post 8vo, with Eight Portraits. 12.s. in embossed cloth.

"Miss Kavanagh has undertaken a delicate task, and she has performed it on the whole with discretion and judgment. Her volumes may lie on any drawing-room table without scandal, and may be read by all but her youngest countrywomen without risk."—Quarterly Review.

"Elegantly illustrated with a series of line engravings, this work has claims upon the boudoir-table, in right of its guise and garniture. But its letterpress is superior to the general staple of books of this class. Miss Kavanagh proves herself adroit in sketching, and solid in judging character. Which among us will be ever tired of reading about the women of France? especially when they are marshalled so agreeably and discreetly as in the pages before us."—Athenæum.

"There is a great deal of cleverness and good taste in this book. The subject is handled with much delicacy and tact, and takes a wide range of examples. Miss Kavanagh's volumes are to be commended as a compact view of a period of always reviving interest (now more than usually attractive) pleasingly executed. The book shows often an original tone of remark, and always a graceful and becoming one." Examiner.