The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 27, 1854.

LITERA TUR E.

The Autobiography of William, Jerdan. Vols. 111.
and IV. Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co.
A close has at length been put by the veteran
hand of Mr. Jerdan to his amusing autobiography.
An autobiography in which are compressed toge-
ther, in four entertaining volumes, a full half cen-
tury of literary and political reminiscences. At
the outset of his somewhat bewildering enter-
prise, Mr. Jerdan intimated his intention to
follow no inexorable method in the group-
ing of his manifold and miscellaneous recol-
lections. The only thread perceptible in this
rosary of remembrance upon which the beads of
anecdote aro strung together is that of
_chronologi-
cal sequence, bringing the reader down, decade by
decade, from the commencement of the present
century to a time immediately contemporary.
The latter moiety of the work, moreover, it may
at once be avowed, possesses for us decidedly the
larger share of fascination. For it must be borne
in mind that the two volumes last issued from the
press, the third and fourth volumes, in bringing •
the narrative to its conclusion, abound more fre-
quently with particulars relating personally to
many of the most remarkable writers of the pre-
sent generation. As the frontispiece to Vol. 111.
we have Pickersgill's graceful likeness of L.E.L.,
and as a vignette the residence of that charming
poetess in Hansrplace—the book being gratefully
inscribed to the memory of the lamented authoress
of the " Improvisatore." As the frontispiece to
Vol. IV. we have Lane's inimitable portrait of Sir
Edward Bulwer Lytton ; and as a vignette an ex-
quisite sketch of his beautiful and henceforth classic
domain of Knebworth—the book being dedicated,
with a few unaffected words of regard and admira-
tion, to him of whom Lord Robertson recently ob-
served at Edinburgh, that he is as great an honour
to England as Sir Walter Scott to Scotland.
Among the many graceful references made by Mr.
Jerdan to the lady-writers conspicuous amidst the
literary celebrities of his age, are the following in
allusion to the gifted Eliza Cook—chief amongst
these popular and poetic favourites :
" For the sake of female union, I skip over a lapse of
time (some ten years) in order to say a few words about
another of my great poetical favourites, and her entrance
upon the wild district of print (where types and troubles
grow) which she has since so laudably cultivated and
embellished ; for I also had the satisfaction to welcome
into the field the now justly popular Eliza Cook. Struck
by some of her productions, which she paid me the com-
pliment to submit to me in manuscript, I availed myself
of the ice being broken to pay a visit to the unknown
writer at her neat, quiet, humble cottage residence in
the Old Kent-road ; and found, what I expected from
the specimens, a frank, feeling, and right-minded corres-
pondent, not so juvenile as Mary Ann Browne, but yet
so young and inexperienced as to increase my admira-
tion of the talent she possessed, and its touching direc-
tion to the great end of ameliorating the condition of her
fellow creatures. As the needle points to the pole, so
did her inherent philanthropy seem ever to point to the
improvement of the lowly, and her sympathies to be
awakened by the sufferings, only to be devoted to the
promotion of the happiness of the oppressed. Her mind
and heart were even then in the mission she has so
zealously and beneficially pursued."
Commendations, or rather tributes of eulogium,
nobly merited by a heart and an intellect true to
every generous sympathy with the joys and griefs of
the ever-suffering and onward-struggling popula-
tion.

It cannot but be regretted that Mr. Jerd.an's auto-
biography has not received at its close the advantage
of a copious alphabetical index by which its hete-
rogeneous contents might, so to speak, have been
readily and pleasantly systematised. In its present
shape the work absolutely defies reference ; it
leaves the reader's mind, on shutting up each
volume, in a state of inextricable confusion as to the
relative situation of the many-coloured memoirs
therein compacted together. So that the effect is
not that of an elaborately-embroidered tapestry
as roth to say every autobiographic com-
position ought to be. It bears rather a resem-
blance to the varying and fluctuating aspect of a
repeatedly-shaken kaleidoscope. Besides, with the
page-headings even now scattered plentifully
throughout the four volumes—apart from the
meagre and altogether inadequate table of contents,
the only guide to the materials therein accumulated
by the memory of the autobiographer—we are by
no means directed aright to the real nature of the
text subjoined. For example, we may well ask—
why, on earth, Mr. Disraeli's name figures at the
head of page 207 in the fourth volume, when there
is not one whisper audible in that page, or, for that
matter, in the whole chapter, in reference either to
the author of the " Curiosities of Literature" or to
his more brilliant son, the Right Hon. the ex-Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer ? Our objection, however,
it will be remarked, has reference rather to the
publishers than to the writer—relating, as it does,
exclusively to the superficial appearance of the
work, or, in other terms, to the lack in it of any-
thing like symmetrical arrangement. Satisfactorily
completed as the work has at length been as a
gossipping record of the author's literary, political,
and social reminiscences during the fifty years last
past, we may add, now that the fourth and con-
cluding volume of it is closed, that the name of
William Jerdan is less likely to survive as associated
with his " Perth Papers" or his " Paris Specta-
tor" than in connection with the garrulous and
vivacious details of his anecdotal Autobiography.

The Pilgrim Fathers ; or, the Founders of New
England in the Reign of James the First. By
W. H. Bartlett, author of " Forty Days in the
Desert." Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co.
This work is a narrative of the adventures of the
Pilgrim Fathers, with descriptions and illustra-
tions of the towns they visited. The first part
relates their adventures in England ; the second
part their stay in Holland ; and the third their
Embarkation in the Mayflower, and their Settle-
ment in America. Plates are given of the towns
in which they resided in England and Holland. The
author disclaims all party feeling, but thinks
that • readers of all opinions will find this a
subject of interest from the romance and pecu-
liarity of their exile, and the vast and energetic
nation which has succeeded them. A complete his-
tory of the travellers, apart from all other histories,
and only devoted to the object of chronicling their
deeds and adventures, forms a volume as novel as
it is interesting and instructive. To the trans-
atlantic readers this work must be very attractive,
as a record of their intrepid ancestors, whose up-
rightness and daring one of their poets asserts to
be still extant among them.
" The Pilgrim spirit has not fled,
It walks in noon's broad light,
And it watches the bed of the glorious dead,
With their holy stars by night.
It watches the bed of the brave who have bled,
And shall guard this ice-bound shore,
Till the waves of the bay, where the Mayflower lay,
Shall foam and freeze no more."

Lucretia ; or, the Children of Night. By Sir E.
Bulwer Lytton, Bart., M.P. Chapman ST Hall.

The author of this terrible and lurid romance has
acted wisely in appending to it, in this standard
edition of his collected writings, that very masterly
argument, entitled " A Word to the Public," in
which he demolished a little cluster of assailants,
and triumphantly vindicated from their attacks the
dignity and the integrity of his reputation. If any-
thing else were needed in proof of the lofty moral
intended to be conveyed by Sir Bulwer Lytton
through this grim and ghastly narrative of ' Lu-
cretia," it would be discoverable in the startling
fact that it—Lucretia, or the Children of Night—
was commenced simultaneously with The Caxton,
a Family Picture. That grizzly tragedy and that
exquisite home-fiction ! The loveliest and the
most awful of all the emanations of his abounding
fancy ! The one containing all the bitterness and
the other all the sweetness of his philosophy !
From the mere circumstance of " Lucretia" and
the " Caxtons" having been begun simultaneously,
it must be manifest at a glance—even a glance the
most cursory and superficial—that, in penning the
former work, the author must have had some lofty
and austere purpose in view, otherwise he would
never have penned about the same time, he could
never have conceived about the same time that
tale of home, that family picture, in every line so
sweet, so pure, and so beautiful. We take it to be
self-evident to every one who has read the " Can-
tons" (and who has not ?) that its writer could
never, while calling it up into being by the magic
of his genius, be wantonly preparing an elaborate
history of crime with no other view than to vitiate
his reader's heart, to prostitute his own high
powers, and to infect with the most evil principles
both their imaginations. The supposition is pre-
posterous. What says the author here himself
(once more) in explanation ? He declares
two fictions were intended as pendants ; both
serving, amongst other collateral aims and objects,
to show the influence of home education." It is
sufficient. The seed is there—let it fructify in the
popular judgment. Before closing our reference
to this " Standard Edition" of the writings of
Bulwer Lytton, we are rejoiced to observe that
promise is given of both " The Cartons" and " My
Novel" being included in the series—a welcome
assurance for the subscribers formally conveyed to.
them through advertisement.

Charles Stanly.
_By tho Author of Ninfa. 3 vols.

Chapman and Hall.
It is to be questioned whether this story leaves
altogether a favourable impression on the mind of
the reader. After being mystified and puzzled
several times during its course as to what its pos-
sible conclusion may be, the events are so startling,
and the denouement so sad in some respects, that
a qualified satisfaction is all we can experience.