University of Virginia Library

“Suffice it to say, that Calavar, throughout, is a romance of very great interest.
It will interest the imaginative from its spirited and stirring scenes of
battle and blood: it will please the poetic from the splendour and beauty of its
descriptions, and it will charm every lover of fiction by the masterly and graphic
scenes which it will continually present to him.”

“The work may fairly rank among the highest efforts of genius, and we do
not scruple to pronounce it superior to any thing of the kind which has yet
emanated from the American press.”

“In our opinion, it is decidedly the best American novel that has been written,
except those enchanting pictures of Cooper, in which the interest is made
to depend on the vicissitudes of the sea, and the adventures of the daring
mariner.”

“The style elegant, sufficiently ornate, yet pure and classical.”

“The period which has been judiciously selected by this writer, is one of the
highest interest—a period so crowded with important events, that it is impossible
to contemplate its vivld scenes without intense curiosity and wonder.”

“The unities are perfectly preserved throughout, poetical probability is never
transgressed: curiosity is satisfied, and the quaint language of three centuries
ago is sustained with unwavering consistency, and with a force and elegance
of composition rarely, if ever, surpassed. It is, without question, the best
American novel that has yet appeared.”

“This collection, made by the young relative himself, is entirely authentic.
The letters were selected from among several hundred, as most fit for publication.
Every one of them is strongly characteristic. They are made up of
excellent instructions to his relative, respecting personal conduct and the culture
of his mind; philosophical remarks; accounts of his own situation and feelings;
notices of his acquaintance, &c.”

“The letters now published exhibit many amiable traits of private character,
and show how keenly he suffered from his own overwrought sensibilities.
They abound in evidences of good feeling, and good sense. As specimens of
epistolary style, they may he safely consulted; while, as furnishing a closer
insight into the views and habits of a man who was misunderstood by many,
and whose history is part of the history of his country, they should be read by
all.”

“The admirers of Charles the First, owe no gratitude to Miss Aikin. She
has told too plain a tale. She has given, it is true, no summary of the character
of that monarch, but she has devoted an extensive work to a faithful
relation of his public works and actions, and has left it to tell its story.”

“Following up her interesting career of an historical writer, Lucy Aikin
has here produced one of those episodes belonging to our national annals,
which add to the importance of facts elaborated from many a source, all the
charms which are usually found in the inventions of fiction.

“Suffice it to say, that from family and other papers long hidden from the
public view, new lights are ever and anon shed upon the actors and proceedings
of that time; and that without delving too deeply into them, our
intelligent author has wrought the whole into one of those agreeable narratives
for which her pen is so justly popular.”

“Look here upon this picture, and on this.”

“Miss Leslie hits, skilfully and hard, the follies, foibles, and exceptionable
manners of our meridian. She is perhaps too severe; she draws too broadly,
but she is always more or less entertaining, and conveys salutary lessons even
in her strongest caricatures. Her subjects, incidents, and persons, are happily
chosen for her purposes.”

“Victor Hugo is a most powerful writer—a man of splendid genius, and
gigantic grasp of mind.”

“This is one of the most spirited and romantic of `the season's' production.
Full of life and fire, it excites the reader and carries him onward—
much as the true heroine of the tale, the mare Black Bess, does the true
hero of it, the ROBBER Turpin—with mingled sensations of terror and
delight. It is a wild story, told with exceeding skill, and wrought up to
the highest pitch of which so singular a subject is capable.—The book is
an excellent one, and the author may take a high station among the
romance writers of our time.”

“A very remarkable performance. It continues in possession of all the
celebrity it once commanded.”

“There are fine things in the `The Canterbury Tales.' Nothing of Scott's
is finer than `The German Tale.' I admired it when a boy, and have continued
to like what I did then. This, I remember, particularly affected me.”

“To read the Canterbury Tales of the Misses Lee once more, is a species of
temporary regeneration. There is scarcely any educated person of this century
who has not, at some time or other, of youth, drawn a sincere pleasure
from these pages. The different tales have been to many like turning down
a leaf in life; we can find our place again in juvenile existence by the associations
connected with them. The Officer's Tale, perhaps, was read on some
sunny bank in a pleasant land—a stolen pleasure. The Young Lady's Tale unfolded
all its intricacy on some fair sofa of a well-remembered apartment. On
the German Tale, perhaps, two hearts beat in unison. trembled in harmony,
and, when sharing a mutual agitation, two heads bent over the mystic page,
they turned round to see each other's fright reflected in well-known and well-loved
features. Even now we feel a shiver running over the frame, as we call
to mind the fearful whisper of the name of Kruitzner, amidst the silent throng
of a kneeling congregation in the cathedral. Such a memoria technica has its
charm; and we may be pardoned for approaching this number of `The Standard
Novels' with feelings of far more interest than we take up any new novel of
the day.”

“Two delightful volumes, various, graceful, with the pathos exquisitely
relieved by gaiety; and the romantic legend well contrasted by the lively
sketch from actual existence.”

“The author of these volumes merits much higher praise than most of the
pretenders to the palm of genius.”

“The romance of a child of genius.'

“One of those original conceptions that take hold of the public mind at
once and for ever.”

“Certainly one of the most original works that ever proceeded from a
female pen.”

“This work will be universally acceptable.”

“Perhaps there is no modern invention which has taken more thorough
hold of the popular imagination than Frankenstein.”

“De Kock is quite unrivalled in his sketches of Parisian society. There is
much character and spirit thrown into the translation, and the dialogues are
excellent.”

“A good translation of a clever work. Paul de Kock paints to the life the
bourgeois of Paris.”

“We cannot withhold our applause of the subtle spirit of fun, the fine
dramatic tact, and the natural portraiture of character.”

“This work belongs to the historic school; but it has that talent which
bestows its own attraction on whatever subject its peculiar taste may select.”

“An admirable historical romance, full of interest, and with many new
views of character. The plot is extremely well conceived, very artful and
progressing, the story never flags, and you open at once upon the main interest.”

“At last, after having been on the look-out for this long promised novel, with much such impatience as
the schoolboy watches for the cuckoo, who remaining unseen, still keeps him in quest of her, by uttering
some tantalizing note close in his neighbourhood. At last, we have fairly laid hold of this Will o' the
Wisp of a book, the first of its kind, but we hope not the last.”

“The whole work is very amusing.”

“Those who want a few hours of pleasant reading are not likely to meet
with a book more to their taste.”

“The labor and power, as well as knowledge, displayed—the `New Gil Blas'
deserves to stand forth to the public view with every advantage. We have
read these volumes with great delight.”

“A clever and intelligent author. There is a quaint humor and observance
of character in his novels, that interest me very much; and when he chooses
to be pathetic, he fools one to his bent; for, I assure you, the `Entail' beguiled
me of some portion of watery humors, yelept tears, albeit unused to the melting
mood. He has a sly caustic humor that is very amusing.”

“One of the remarkable characteristics of Galt, is to be found in the rare
power he possesses of giving such an appearance of actual truth to his narrative,
as induces the reader to doubt whether that which he is perusing, under
the name of a novel, be not rather a statement of amusing facts, than an
invented story.”

“The perusal of a few pages of the work must impress every reader with
the opinion that the writer is no ordinary person.”

“His pages abound with passages of vigor and beauty, with much fund
for abstract thought; and with groups of incidents which not only fix the
attention of the reader, but awake his admiration.”

“It is one of the most pleasing, chaste, and spirited productions that we
have met with for a long time. We may claim it with pride as an American
production.”

“This is a new `Pelham.' It is altogether a novel of manners, and paints
with truth, and a lively, sketchy spirit, the panorama of fashionable life.”