A Valuable Standard Work.
HISTORY
OF
SPANISH LITERATURE.
WITH CRITICISMS ON PARTICULAR WORKS, AND BIOGRAPHICAL
NOTICES OF PROMINENT WRITERS.
BY GEORGE TICKNOR, ESQ.
3 VOLS. 8VO, MUSLIN, $6 00; SHEEP, $6 75; HALF CALF, $7 50.
It is a contribution to the literature of the world of the highest value. It
comprehends all the information that exists in the numerous treatises that
have heretofore been published, lucidly arranged, and its various parts presented
with a detail proportioned to their comparative importance. The
style is dignified and flowing, enriched with varied learning, and fashioned
with faultless taste. The work will be classed with Prescott's great histories,
and is a production of which Americans may justly be proud. It is
brought out in the best style, and in general appearance is equal to the costliest
productions of the English press.—Journal of Commerce.
* * * In summing up upon its merits, we have only to say that it is a
book richly deserving the confidence of the literary public. It is stamped
with the impress of careful and conscientious preparation. There are no
indications of hurried getting up. Mr. Ticknor has had the rare virtue of
literary patience, the want of which sends so many half-fledged books fluttering
into print, that either fall to the ground by mere force of gravity, or
are shot on the wing by the critical sportsman. He has gone on, year after
year, adding to his stores of learning, and laying more deeply the foundation
of his literary structure, and thus his work has the mellow flavor of fruit that
has ripened on the bough. He had learned the extent and capacities of his
subject before he began to write, and was not obliged to vary his scale of
proportion as the work went on.—Christian Examiner.
He has brought to the accomplishment of his task a wide acquaintance
with general literature, a singular degree of industry, a refined and correct
taste, a spirit of cautious, temperate, though by no means ungenial criticism,
a quick sensibility to the beautiful in sentiment or form, a thorough acquaintance
with his subject in its most minute and delicate details, and the power
of flowing, graceful, and transparent composition. His historical style is,
indeed, admirable—lively, energetic, cordial, free from monotony and commonplace,
moving with the ease of a limpid stream, and, without being at
any time overloaded, embellished with the rich and tasteful ornaments appropriate
to literary disquisition. Nor is he wanting in poetical talents of
more than ordinary excellence.—New York Tribune.
