The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

41via's Lovers. By Mrs. Gaskell. Illustrated

edition. One vol. Smith add Elder.

The new volume of Messrs. Smith and Elder's
illustrated edition of popular novels contains Mrs.
Gaskell's very enthralling tale of " Sylvia's Lovers"
—a tale well adapted to demonstrate the peculiar
powers of that gifted writer. Sylvia herself is a
charming compound of rustic coquetry and pas-
sionate tenderness, bearing a faint resem-
blance in these characteristics to that most
attractive of all Mrs. Gaskell's heroines,
unrivalled Mary Barton. The scene of Sylvia's
story is the north-east coast of England, about a
century back, at a time when the most iniquitous
and un-English press-gang who in vogue. One of

the earliest chapters, " Home from Greenland,"
describes in the heart-stirring language of simple
truthfulness the exuberant delight of the wives
and mothers of the fishing town when the whal-
ing vessel containing those most dearly-
loved is within sight of shore returning from
a six months' expedition to the Northern Seas.
Very vividly and powerfully, and even passionately
is the scene portrayed when the brave sailors on
landing, before they can reach the outstretched
arms yearning to embrace them, are seized upon
by the lurking ambush of the press-gang and car-
ried off for years of foreign service under the very
eyes of their friends and families. In describing
scenes like these Mrs. Gaskell's earnest eloquence
of style, inspired. as it is by strong sympathetic
feelings, acquires a peculiar force. We will not
betray the secrets of the story to those who may
happen to be unacquainted with it. One of Sylvia's
lovers is a gallant tar, the other a landsman, and
not a very worthy specimen of his class. The
latter loves, not wisely, but too well, and
shrinks from no treachery in order to win the day.
Some of the minor characters, especially old Kester,
are drawn with great spirit. The volume is illus-
trated by some half-dozen engravings of a peculiarly
uninteresting style. They are tame and common-
place by the side of Mrs. Gaskell's vivid and life-
like pen-and-ink descriptions.

Anecdotal Memoirs of English Princes. By W. H•
Davenport Adams, author of "Memorable Battles
in English History," &c. Two Vols. Newby.
In these two very interesting volumes Mr.
Davenport Adams has given us some of the most
attractive chapters from the Romance of English
History. The pen of no fiction-writer, however
sensational his powers, can equal the marvels of truth.
The extraordinary vicissitudes crowded into a few
short years, in some of the lives here recorded, are
almost incredible. They are, of course, familiar to
all acquainted with English history, and yet they
are well worthy of re-pet usai, especially when set
forth in the simple and interesting manner in
which they are here arranged. This book,
says Mr. Davenport Adams, is designed " not
for the critic or the scholar, but for that much-
suffering individual, the general reader." The first
Prince whose history is here recorded is Edward of
Woodstock—the memorable Black Prince—the last
is Frederick Louis of Hanover, the father of George
111. The biographies' are not confined only
to the Princes of Wales, the Duke of Glou-
cester, the youngest son of Charles 1., the
Duke of Monmouth, " the darling of the
English People," James, Duke of York, and others
of Equal interest and importance are very judi-
ciously included in the list. In turning over the
records of the last Stuart King, it is curious to ob-
serve that James 11., by his two wives, Anne Hyde
and Mary of Modena, had no less than sixteen
children, and yet, in the next generation, the
Royal Stuart race became extinct—Sic transit gloria
mundi !

Lost and Saved. By the Hon. Mrs. Norton. One

Vol. Hurst and Blackett.

A cheap edition of Mrs. Norton's recent novel
will be welcome to many readers. As we criticised
the work at length on its first appearance, we have
only now to notice its attractive appearance in its
new form, embellished with a very charming fron-
tispiece by Millais. Very charming does Beatrice
Brooke appear in this picture, but the artist, pre-
Raphaelite though he is, has sadly idealised his
theme. The scene wl-ich he intended to pourtray
is that trying moment of temptation when poor Bea-
trice, returning home " weary, dusty, discouraged,"
found Frank peevish, sick, and suffering. With
the child asleep in her lap, the wretched mother con-
templates the, idea of suicide, and all who have read
the story will remember that simple touch of nature,
when the child slipping from her lap awakens all her
maternal love and anxiety the very moment after she
had been planning the death of the little innocent !
Can any one recognise in Mr. Millais' very elegant
and exquisitely attired mother and child a glimpse
of the weary, dusty, disheartened mother, and the
sick suffering baby ? It is a pretty picture, a
charming picture indeed, but it is not Mrs. Norton's
despairing Beatrice.

The Medical Circular; a Journal of Practica,
Nedicine, Surgery, and Therapeutics.

The Medical Circular begins a new and improved
series with the new year. Conspicuous among
its contents will henceforth appear timely extracts
from the case-books of practical men—" men who
cannot find time to sit down to prepare a course of
six or twelve lectures for this or that journal; but
who would not regard it as a tax upon their time to
transcribe from their daily records of cases, some
which will serve to elucidate a successful mode of
practice or confirm or refute a supposed medical
tact." Such examples, from trustworthy sources,
cannot fail to prove highly interesting and benefi-
cial to the various members of the profession. The
Medical Circular has long been in the habit of
offering, through its summaries and translations, a
reflex of all the medical knowledge of the day
throughout the whets country. This excellent
and useful practice will be continued in the
new series, with a synopsis of the spirit of the
Periodicals, reviews of Medical "Works, and a
general sumtnati of all interesting intelligence.
The editorial remarks which introduce this new
number of a new series, are Written in a spirit of
fairness and genuine esprit de-corps, which augur
well for the merit and SUCCLE36 of the new enter-
prise.