and more acceptable readings of many passages, in original translation and in paraphrase.
The original notes by Dr. Smollett, author of "Humphrey Clinker," and other racy novels of eighteenth-century life, are retained where helpful or in his characteristic vein. So are Ireland's lively and edifying commentaries on La Pucelle, rich in historical and antiquarian interest.
Lovers of Goldsmith—who never had an enemy but himself—will welcome the charming pages here rescued from his least-read miscellanies, in which he draws the mental and personal portrait of Voltaire, whose genius he cordially admired, and whose character he champions. The critical study of Voltaire by the Right Honorable John Morley, some time a member of Gladstone's cabinet and his biographer, needs no other commendation than its author's name.
Victor Hugo's lofty oration on the hundredth anniversary of Voltaire's death, links the names and fame of the two great modern writers of France. The translations and textual emendations by W. F. Fleming are a feature of this edition.
The volumes are illuminated by as artistic and costly pictures as can be procured. The antique flavor of the contemporary illustrations is preserved in a number of original steel engravings, etchings, and woodcuts, besides choice photogravure and later process plates. The volumes, as a whole, will be recognized as an ideal example of typography and chaste binding.
