The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-14 00:00:00

L ITER A T (JRE.
READABLE BOOKS. Illustrated.

Henry

Vizetelly.
Shilling volumes have by th:s time become familiar
uxuries with the population. The most eminent
publishers of L)nion have emulated each other in
producing works of standard value at a price such es
places them within the reach of the most moderate
income without any extraordinary deterioration,
either in paper, in size, or in typography. Among
these delightful results of competition between the
purveyors of literature must now be ranked—and
ranked in a position very far indeed from subordinate
—the series of volumes, now popularly known as the
Readable Books, profusely and some of them very
cleverly illustrated—published in Gough-square by
Henry Vizetelly. Already there have appeared in
this way several works of a really remarkable cha-
racter. Five volumes have now been issued—and
three out of the five merit from their peculiar in-
terest and importance to be especially particularized.
Foremost amongst these three in order and in singu-
larity was the book containing a selection from the
prose and poetical effusions of Edgar Allan Poe, one
of the most gifted as be was also one of the most ill-
starred of the literary children of America. Under
the title of " Tales of Mystery, Imagination, and
Humour—and Poems," from the hand of Poe, many
an English reader was thus made acquainted with the
wonderful stories, in the construction and composi-
tion of .which that unfortunate and accomplished
man—

"Three-fifths true genius, and two-fifths mero fudge"—
showed such marvellous and almost bewildering
astuteness. They found themselves thus enthralled
by following the strange and astounding discovery of
buried gold and jewels recounted in the " Golden
Bug," or, a 9 the English edition calls it, the "Gold
Beetle." They paused in rapt attention over the
unravelling of the tangled plot relating to what the
author not extravagantly designated the "Mystery of
Marie Roget." They marvelled over the subtlety
and yet simplicity of the detection of the "purloined
letter" regained from the public reception-room of the
statesman who held that missing document threaten-
ingly over the head of Marie Antoinette. They
hearkened in horror and amazement to the grizzly
narrative of the " Murders in the Rue Morgue," per-
petrated by—an Ourang-Outang! They read all
this and more perhaps for the first time—and if
for the first time certainly with mingled
wonder and admiration—and fur the rare
gratification placed thus readily within their
reach they had to thank the enterprise of the
Readable Books published by Mr. Vizetelly. Within
that introductory instalment of the serial, moreover,
the subscribers became possessed of the musical
stanzas of " The Bells " and with the whole of that
strange poem of " The Raven," which will. perpetuate
the name of Poe, if nothing else does, and which has
no comparison in the range of modern literature for
tll poetic blending of genius and originality—wills we
make the one exception of " The Ancient Mariner "
of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Second among the
three volumes we are here anxious to particularise,
and stamping the series called Readable Books with
the merit of superiority—was a selection from the
collected writings of the Reverend Sydney Sinith—
one of the wittiest of mortals—comr rising several of
his essays, several of his speeches, and the whole of
his celebrated " Letters of Peter Plymley." Both
these volumes, like the rest of the instalments of the
Series upon which it is gratifying to observe that Mr.
Vizetelly has adventured, and in the development of
Which we hope to remark that he perse-
veres, were sprinkled very plentifully with
,a, variety of neat wood - block illustra-
ons. Tne embellishments to Edgar Poe were, of
course, with the exception of a little sketch of the
writer, purely imaginative. Those to Sydney Smith
were altogether different, as might have been expected,
in their character—consisting for the most part of
portraits of himself and his contemporaries—among
the latter George Canning, Spencer Perceval, and
Maria Edgeworth. The subject of the volume re-
cently issued from the press in continuation of this
Very interesting undertaking, is one contrasting
strangely and agreeably with the already dignified
subjects
ahieots of its predecessors. It gives in a popular
ior
a succinct and anecdotal history of "The Old
Guard" of the Great Napoleon. Sixteen engravings
on
levwoodi illustrated the animated text of J. T. Head-
., —Pourtraying among other things and personages
the artillery of the Old Guard under Drouot, and
likenessesl, of Ney, "the Bravest of the Brave," and of
4aessieres—Commander of the Old Guard—Captain
of„ the tenth legion of the modern Caesar--leader of
the favourite phalanx of the French Alexander. A
group of the Old Guard shows us, together, the foot
nadier, the Chasseur, the Polish lancer, the Cuiras-
sier,astiiredandithe Mameluke—a group as historical as it is
y picturesque. As was inevitable from the
very nature of the history described, the story reads
more like the romance of some accomplished fabulist
than the narrative of sober reality. At the present
ooment—when it is not wholly extravagant to dream
.. the possibility of the Old Guards' re- organization—
te book becomes, naturally enough, more than ever
b attractive. When the southern provinces of France
are again resounding to the cries of jive l'Empereur
it Seems less than even idle to turn to the account of
Napoleon's
warlike achievements. For the chapters
Written upon the exploits of the " 0:d Guard" the
reader will esteem himself under peculiar obligations
to Mr. Headlam, as the subscribers to Readable Books
name not fail to do under all circumstances to the
taste and enterprbe of Mr. Vizetelly.

TEE PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION.
Thirtieth Edition. Oliver and Boyd.
No wonder we see inscribed upon the title-page of
the volume before U 3 those golden characters of
Thirtieth Edition, which mark at once the fact of its
indisputable merit and of its undoubted popu-
larity ! The volume appears to have grown into
rta standard an authority as the beat of Pinnock, s
Catechisms," as the latest reprint of Murray's
I' Grammar," as the " Speaker " of Enfield, and the
Scrap-Book of M‘Diarmid. It was a tribute to which
Thomas Ewing had well entitled himself, but which
'c• B. Calvert seems resolved to render still more
assured than ever by the care displayed by him in the
-`,4l)ours of revision and the pleasures of improvement.
-Within the volume as it now stands before the public,
extending to upwards of 400 well-printed pages, will
be found still comprised a variety of rules, ob.serva-
,t!fts, and exercises on pronunciation, pauses, mike-
&ions, accent, and emphasis—giving the whole of thF,
requisite and exquisite " Principles of Elocution."
Added to these are, as usual, copious extracts in prose
and poetry, as the work itself purports "4 calculated to
assist the teacher and to improve the pupil in reading
and recitation." Among these extracts, however, we
are gratified to observe not merely the old familiar
favourites of our school days, such as Campbell's
Daohenlinden," and Dryden's " Ode on St. Cecilia's
43? "—but Tennyson on "Freedom" and Shelley
the " Skylark," the " Monkey " of Mary
llowitt, and the "Excelsior;' of Longfellow.
13"iclea Blair, and Johnson, and Addison we
have Jeffrey, and Haalitt, and Carlyle. With passages
from Gibbon and Robertson we have excerpts from
tallam and Macaulay. Together with quotations
from Scott and Goldsmith we should have liked to
Observe others from Dickens and Bulvver Lytton—
Writers as abounding assuredly in as noble sentiments
and as superb eloquence as any of their predecessors
14 either ancient or modern literature. Indeed, in
some respects, we should wonderfully like to witness
some very radical alterations in a work of this de-
scription. We should like, for instance to taboo that
abominable " Camelion" of Merrick-I:nd must con-
fess that even Wolfe's "Burial of Sir John Moore"
has become a bore to us from the plague of repetition.
Instead of these old eternals," why not let our
hearts be rejoiced with such treasures of the
intellect and of the soul as the

" Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean:,
of Tennyson, or as the " Psalm of Life," by Long.
fellow, or as almost any passage from the gentle and
beautiful "In Memoriam ?" Allowances being made
for the preference to which we are here objecting, the
volume, it must be admitted, is in every other respect
highly meritorious.

Liverpool to Chagres
°Y the Cunard Company to run from The fleet is to
The new line of screw-steamers about to be started
°id New York, has just been advertised.
consist of six vessels, each of from 1,500 w power, and bur-
den, and between 300 and 400 horses po
them are already
2a,bodoOtbtoenbsames
are to be the Andes, the Alps, the Taurus, the Etna, the Jura,
arid the Caucasus. Two or three of launched, and the first is to sail on the Bth ofl Dmecoebmtbb
At the commencement they will
on the alternate
~.at. they will ultimately sail twice a
Collins'teamers to New
Wednesdays, when there is no,
perform only y
as pOS-
leyr ntreixpst,
York. The detention at New York is to be as short
from Li-
aible, and it is contemplated that the entire passage be per-
med to Chagres, calling also at Jamaica, will
formed in from 18 to 20 days.
DEA:rn OF VICE-ADMIRAL PRAED.—
,IT ice-Admiral
,
isulkeley Mackworth Freed died on the 6th instant,
at
Acton Castle, Cornwall, at the advanced age of 82
full-pay,
kit,heugh this gallant officer had served 23 years on fuUrp j.
7 nad never served at sea since the date of his post a
e was consequently, in 1837, placed on the retired list of
Ilag officers, was transferred to the active list in 1840, 1) a
Meted to the rank of Vice-Admiral in 1846, and placed o
the reserved half-pay list last year. Consequently there are
Bo oromotions on his decease.
__rFATAL OMNIBUS ACCIDENT.--Yesterday afternoon
M. • Langton, deputy coroner held an inquest at the West-
raubtnostdeiredilforsopmitailn,
jon the body, of Thomas Burns, aged 31,
lived in Gardenellerel..eisa,r:ec,eived in being run over by an
Tnnibus. It appeared that the deceased, a stonemason,
for liquor, over Westmin:ere
night last, about ten o'clock, While passing,t rather the worse
Minster-bridge, lie
and on Saturday
aetn!nt, and fell head foremast underltieheshtaingdgefreeedt oofff thethe
horses in a Clapham cannibu, belonging to Mr. Reeder. The
ive
r immediately pulled up, but the deceased was trampled
00, and the wheels of the vehicle passed over him. De"
ceased was picked up, and without loss of time removed to the
. syaital, wh, re he was found to be in a state of collapse, and
r, hadye sustained frightful injuries, under which, notwith.
had ing every medical attention was paid to him, he aapidly
,_ , and died about one o'clock in the Afterllooll
'Vs.:erdict, " Accidental death." of the next