The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-26 00:00:00

himself a position sufficiently conspicuous, he has
won for himself a reputation, apart from the crowd
of authors, it may be, but for that very reason,
all the more noticeable, as one of the raciest,
freshest, and most thoughtful among our younger
novelists. Some of his creations in the books he
has written since he wrote this wild, fantas-
tic narrative of " The Shaving of Shagpat" are
marked, to our thinking, incontestably, with the
sign-manual of genius. Instance—that sententious
philosopher in " The Ordeal of Richard Feverel !"
Instance, again—that, wonderful Countess in the
story of " Evan Harrington!" "Emilia in England,"
herself is in this way another and in some respects
still more radiant illustration of the fact we are in-
sisting upon. But it is altogether idle, it is almost,
we might add, ungrateful to say more upon this point
with the present thrice welcome reprint of George
Meredith's earliest work of note--" The Shaving
of Shagpat" here immediately at hand ! For,
in it, in this Arabian Entertainment, penned
now just upon ten years ago by a young author
then wholly unknown to fame in the world of
literature, we recognise still, as we claim to hate
been the first among all the critics, to recognise
then in 1856, at the period of its original publica-
tion (our review of " The Shaving of Shagpat," in
The Sun, being, as we very well remember,
headed by us emphatically THE NEW AUTHOR) we
recognise still deliberately, as we recognised then,
so to speak, upon the instant, the tokens of original
genius which were lavished around him at
every step by the young writer as he advanced
along the devious career of this most eccentric of
narratives. It begins, moreover, this manifestation
of an unquestionable genius, and of a genius, too, of
an essentially rare and exceptional character, with
" The Thwackings," to end only with the very last
of " The Flashes of the Blade." Taken as an alle-
gory, or taken simply as a wild exercise of an
English fancy among the regions hitherto sacred to
purely oriental imaginings, the History of the
" Shaving of Shagpat," the son of Shimpoor, the son
of Shoolpi, the son of Shullum, of the renowned
and mighty incident of his Shaving (after the
Burning of the Identical !) by Shibli Bagarag,
nephew of the chief barber to the Court of Persia,
the immortal Baba Mustapha—fairly captivates
us and carries us, on through all the mazes and
devious winding labyrinths of incident, making
up the intricacies of the plot. Who that has
once read the book—and those who have not, have
now the opportunity for sa doing (an opportunity
to the availing themselves of which we heartily
commend them 1) —those who have already made
themselves acquainted with " The Shaving of
Shagpat" as an Arabian Entertainment, will very
well remember, among other marvels therein re-
lated, the story of Bhanavar the Beautiful, the
Punishment of Shahpesh the Persian on Khipil the
Builder, the Case of Rumdrum, the story of Noorna
ben Noorka, the Genie Karaz, and the Princess of
Oolb ! Delightfully familiar to their remembrance
air() will be the mere mention here en passant of the
Well of Paravid, of the Talking Hawk, and of the
Horse Garraveenl Our only surprise is that a book
so brightly and radiantly beautiful in its abounding
originality, in its subtle humour and its rhythmical
eloquence, has not long since been reprinted in a
popular form for general circulation, as it is at any
rate so reprinted here at last.