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

LITERATURE.
READABLE BOOKS. Illustrated.

Henry

Vizetelly.
Shilling volumes have by this time become familiar
uxuries with the population. The most eminent
publishers of London have emulated each other in
Producing works of standard value at a price such ea
ylwees them within the reach of the most moderate
113coine without any extraordinary deterioration,
er,tber 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
'Vizetelly. Already there have appeared in
this Way
several works of a really remarkable cha-
r/I*-T. Five volumes have now been issued—and
three out of the five merit from their peculiar in-
krest 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
oT the most gifted as he 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
'roan—

" Tbree-fifths true genius, and two-fifths mere fudge"—
shfewed such marvellous and almost bewildering
eretuteness. They found themselves' thus enthralled
•by following the strange and astounding discovery of
buried gold and jewels recounted in the " Golden
Bug," or, as 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 for 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
to comparison in the range of modern literature for
toe poetic blending of genius and originality—wino w•
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 Smith—
one of the wittiest of mortals—comprising several of
Lis essays, several of his speeches, and the whole of
118 celebrated " Letters of Peter Plymley." Both
these volumes, like the rest of the instalments of the
aeries 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
! variety of neat wood - block illustra-
tions. The 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
theg latter George Canning, Spencer Perceval, and
'aria Edgeworth. The subject of the volume re-
'oently
issued
from the press in continuation of this '
''very interesting undertaking, is one strangelycontrasting
tibiesucacinndetagreeably with the already dignified
nts of
its predecessors. It gives in a popular
Grur:rda
and anecdotal history of "The Old
of the Great Napoleon. Sixteen engravings
1)4 wood, illustrated the animated text of J. T. Head-
eLY—Pnurtraying among other things and personages
t
artillery of the Old Guard under Drouot, and
-11genesses of Ney, "the Bravest of the Brave," and of
of the Commanderof the Old Guard—Captain
the tenth legion of the modern Caesar—leader of
the favourite phalanx of the French Alexander. A
grow, of
the Old Guard shows us, together, the foot
terern, naadier, the Chasseur, the Polish lancer, the Cuiras-
d the Mameluke—a group as historical as it is
_assuredly picturesque. As was inevitable from the
livery nature of the history described, the story reads
rhore like the romance of some accomplished fabulist
„an the narrative of sober reality. At the present
„an
it is not wholly extravagant to dream
the he •• •
b possibility of the Old Guards' re- organization—
ook becomes, naturally enough, more than ever
attractive. When the southern provinces of France
elite again resounding to the cries of Vine CEmpereur
It seems lege than c.v.. it to turn to eh° ac....vuuL
Of
Napoleon's warlike achievements. For the. chapters
Written upon the exploits of the " Old Guard" the
reader will esteem himself under peculiar obligations
to Mr. Headlam, as the subscribers to Readable Books
rust not fail to do under all circumstances to the
'taste and enterprise of Mr. Vizetelly.

THE PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION.
Thirtieth Edition. Oliver and Boyd.
No wonder we see inscribed upon the title-page of
the volume before us 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
as standard an authority as the beat of Pinnock's
41
Catechisms," as the latest reprint of Murray's
"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
t‘
• 13. Calvert seems resolved to render still more
ltssured than ever by the care displayed by him in the
',abours of revision and the pleasures of improvement.
Within the volume as it now stands before the public,
Z.tending to upwards of 400 well-printed pages, will
rfound still comprised a variety of rules, observa-
°7los, and exercises on pronunciation, pauses, inflec-
_a, accent, and emphasis—giving the whole of the
'equisite and exquisite " Principles of Elocution."
Added to these are, as usual, copious extracts in prose
473 d poetry, as the work itself' purports "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 es Campbell's
" aohenlinden " and Dryden's " Ode on St. Cecilia's
IL3aY "—but Tennyson on "Freedom" and Shelley
°II the " Skylark," the " Monkey " of Mary
~,liovvitt, and the " Excelsior " of Longfellow.
15esides Blair, and Johnson, and Addison we
havefr Jeffrey, and Haslitt, and Carlyle. With passages
~oro Gibbon and Robertson we have excerpts from
-Itallara and Macaulay. Together with quotations
from Scott and Goldsmith we should have liked to
observe others from Dickens and Bulwer Lytton—
writers as abounding assuredly in as noble sentiments
and as superb eloquence as any of their predecessors
in 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 " Can3elion" of Merrick—and 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
of Tennyson, or as the ‘‘ Psalm
from Life,the "
gentle and by Long.
fellow or as almost anypassage of
beautiful "In Memoriam ?" Allowances being made
for the preference to which we are here objecting, the
volunse, it must be admitted, is in every other respect
highly meritorious.

The new line of screw-steamers ab outto btoecsthaargtreesd
by the Cunard Company to run fromLiverpoolTh
bur-
den, viti New York, has just been advertised.
consist of six vessels. each of from ,500 to 2,oeoOtentsis
and between 300 and 400 horses power, and then ames
are to be the Andes, the Alps, the Taurus, the Etna, the Jura,
and the Caucasus. Two or three of them are already
next.lre
ady
4abnnehed, and the first is to sail on the Bth of December the commencement they will perform only monthly trip!,
t they will ultimately sail twice a month on the alternate
Work esdays when there is no, Collins' steamers to New
s The'detention at York is to be as short a _
..
eible, and it is editcontempla hat the entire passage from L!
lerPeol to Chagres; calling also at Jamaica, will be per-
meder in from 18 to 20 days.
Ari 'ral
Ac
PEA.TII OF VICE-ADMIRAL PRAED.—•Vice---1111
A-4„tkeleY Mackworth Praed died on the 6th instant, at
t-,",°il Castle, Cornwall, at the advanced age of 82 years,
111`tneugh this gallant officer had served 23 years on full-pay,
11(1 never served at sea since the date of his post rank.
flage consequently, in 1837, placed on the retired list of
I„,cers, was transferred to the active list in 1840, pro-
to the to the rank of Vice-Admiral in 1846, and placed on
no
1t
half-pay list last year. Consequently there are
1t %notions on his decease. _
ttr. P&L OMNIBUS ACClDENT.—Yesterday afternoon
rilingangton, deputy coroner, held an inquest at the West-
vi,her Hospital, on the body of Thomas Burns, aged 32,
0.2.di0i from injuries received in being run over by an
ulbu S. It appeared that the deceased, a stonemason,
lived'u .
• in It
Westminster, and on Saturday
night
liquor'last about ten o'clock, while passing, rather the worse
for
~,__, over Westminster-bridge he staggered off the
rvensent, and fell head foremast under the hind feet of the
Ele,es in a Clapham omnibus, belonging to Mr. Render. The
on 'er immediately pulled up, but the deceased was trampled
c_ , and the wheels of the vehicle passed over him. De-
'O'tahospital, was picked up,'and without loss of time removed to the
l, where he was found to be in a state of collapse, and
Stat,ye sustained frightful injuries, under which, nom ith-
-B,Tug every medical attention was paid to him, he Rapidly
filta and died about one o'clock in
',We aftermon of the next
"I'llVerdicto" AcciclentAl deAt4.l...