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The Life Of Percy Jbysshe Shelley. By Th...
sobering in each successive year . There are dates and facts which ¦ will serve for a true biography whenever it is to be given to the
world ; but let us hope that no man will , henceforward , conceive the idea of treating one of England ' s greatest poets at the expense
of every principle he lived to work out , denying not only the realisation , but the aim of his friend ' s career ; and instead of showing' the
men of the present day what they owe to Percy Bysshe Shelley , who winged with fiery words so many of the cardinal doctrines of modem
civilisation , take a perverse pleasure in representing him as a fool ,
a dreamer , and an " _aristocrats "
Notices Of Books. 267
NOTICES OF BOOKS . 267
Jtand Life And ," " Frlove My B . Ro B T...
JTand Life and , " " _frlove My B . B ther y Amelia ' Wife , B " . & Edwards c . J _. C , _. Brown Author , A of ve Maria The Lane Ladder . of
Clever as the two first works of this young writer are , " Hand and Glove" just publishedplaces her on firmer and higher ground .
,, The characters are more forcibly sketched , the play of passion and feeling flows more freely , in fact , progress in art has led to the
inevitable result of a truer rendering of nature . The startling * and melodramatic effectsthe thrilling and stirring incidents of her first
, work , _"My Brother ' s Wife , " are here replaced by pictures of men and manners so graphic , that we seein to live among them ,
sympathise with their joys and sorrows , participate in their trials and troubles ; and , the book laid down , find our thoughts recurring to the
family circle at Montrocher , as though instead of a tale we had read , it was a visit we had paid , full of human interests and sympathies .
The story opens in England , but death and pecuniary reverses soon carry the story-teller to Montrocher , a small village in the Cote
d ' Or , where , as governess to a charming , wayward , young girl , she lunges herself and her readers with her into family histories and
p affairs , so naturally and spontaneously conducted , that it is more like a chapter out of real life than a fiction . The descriptions both
of * persons and things are admirable , the author is a keen observer , and reproduces these observations with striking' effect . There is
word painting in the description of the " Burgundian Vintage , " and in " The Murder Stone , " which reminds us of some of George
Sand's exquisite pastorals , and which is not unworthy even of that mistress of the pen . Miss Edwards writes excellent English . Her
sentences are sharp , clear , concise ; her words well chosen , and in just proportion to the ideas they convey . Few modern writers of
fiction can compete with her in clearness and perspicuity of style . M . Hamel is a masterly portraiture of a bold bad man , whose
attractions of mind and person , while serving in an artistic point of view as foils to the darker shades of the character , have nevertheless the
effect , as is often the case in real life , of qualifying and softening
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1858, page 267, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061858/page/51/