The Express.
London, England, 1858-05-27 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

NEW NOVELS.

Hsekiagtos. A 14;ve1.. By Mn. GORY.. 3 vols.
Horst and Blacker.
EIWOO and sts Inhabitants; o►, Sketches of Life is
a Omar, Town. By L. E. L. Booth.
11w and /taiga : or, ewers Margaret's Badge.
By FILMIC'S M. WILBILAIMIL 2 vols. John W.
Parkas and Son.

TiePas;sop;dre;Pitgrim : or, Eros and Angoras.
By HINIT T. THURSTAN. Chapman and Hall.
rho Odd Conifklanl. By Bar. T. F. Hope.
Le7um and DeoliAer. John W. Parker and Son.

C.Arietios Gellert, and Wier Sketches. 137813-
'MOLD AVERBACH. Translated from the German.
Sampson Low, Son, and Co.

Horace has done justice to the moral courage ex-
hibited by him who first trusted himself on a frail
bark on the treacherous sea, but no one has jet
' attempted to depict the extent of that pluck which
induces an author to launch his little venture in the
hope of an ultimate success. It is not certain that
out of ten men who go down into the deep
any will be drowned, but it is certain that of ten
men who publish a book nine will be loners to a con-
siderable extent. We are almost inclined to believe,
that had Caxton foreseen to what printing would
have grown, he would have paused ere he published
" The Dicta; and hayings of the Philosophers." The
Erse pees is like thegent of the eastern fable, which,
when ones emancipated from the bottle, started into
each gigantic proportions as to render its re-
impriseement an utter impossibility. Happily
mu hem not the doubtful gift of fore-knowledge
—bet, reasoning on the pnnciples of the induc-
tive philosophy, he may be pardoned if he doubts
imeasionally whether the press is an unmixed good.
Were the " Sorrows of Werter" eminently salutary
in their effects Did our own Byron turn no weak
heads ? Is the French modern novel exactly a model ?
Is " the blue ruin" of Holywell-street a manna
tor pang minds? Bat there is small wisdom
in complaining of fact which we cannot alter.
We take the good with the bad, and are
thankful. Considering the enormous quantity al
new novels Mining from our prom, is it not really
wonderful how little unhealthy sentiment they con-
tain ; and may we not well refer to it as ea ladies-
timer the soundest@ of the national heart? Of the ton
volumes now lying upon our table there is net one
which we cannot commend to the family circle.
Whatever may be their literary defects, their mink
is aae=seption►ble.

Let m Ant notice Mrs. Gore's Ileckitsgesta. We are
irtiliste meet this accomplished &mimeses
we welcome new favourites we would not
willingly less sight of the old. "In my youth,"
mys the elder Disraeli, "the world doted on Sterne.
Martin Sherlock ranks hint among the luminaries of
the century. Forty year._ ago young men in their
facetious humans never failed to find the arehetypesof
society in the Shandy family; every good-natured soul
wee Uncle Toby—every huntoarist waa old Shandy—
every child of nature was Corporal Trim." When
Ilia pmeage was written Minerva]) novels were in
Tope. Where was the gain ? Since Mrs. Gore
began writing the delineators of fashionable life
4n been numerous, but how tew have surpassed
her. In " Heckington" she displays math of her
firmer excellence. The name is that of ea old
Badly mansion in Hertfordshire, where the Raw.. I
done lived, bat at the opening of oar tale the estate
is in Chancery. Mrs.Bantore, old Rawdon 's daughter,
is a widow, living in a dull London house, while
the eldest sew, Arthur, to whom the estate is left on 11
condition that he SIIIRIMe• the family name,
is in Switzerland, and the younger son,
to whom the West Indian of his father,
Eamon, is left, in Germany. These brothers hate
each other, and with that hatred the unnatural
mother seems to have much to do. Arthur, the heir,
ie to Florence Horsford, the daughter of a
lhmily the mother detests; and whom she detests all
the sere because the mamage will provost ens cm
which she had set her mind, between Arthur and
his tans, Sophia Codes, daughter et Mr doter,
old Bowdon 's; eldest child. Mrs. Roman thinks by
this the will compensate ter the initialise
of the will, and that, atter all, Sophia Cachet
will become Mrs. Rawdon of Heckington. William
Ensore, the youngest son, knows this asesipment,
I and though he is in love with Sophia, rodeo of to