The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-20 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

ZIEATH'S PICTURESQUE ANNUAL.
Longman, London, 1838.
The " Pictures qu e Annual," which is always well edited
mr. Leitch Ritchie, is one of the most favourable spe.
‘.llllens of its class, whether as regards its pictorial embel-
lishments or its literary contents. The volume for the
..?sent year is wholly devoted to a description of the splen-
-4 Palace and gardens of Versailles, which it was the
Bbrand Monarque's hobby, to make the finest thing of the
2rt in Europe. The Editor's details of this showy spot
7, given in a lively, piquant manner, and interspersed
is variety of amusing anecdotes, for many of which he
to to the old French memoir writers. The brief
notice of Louis the Fourteenth ; of his early gallantries
nfith the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin and the celebrated
1,
Ducues% de La Valliere ; and of the extraordinary pomp
up
etiquette which that ostentatious monarch rigidly kept
8: in his magnificent court ;—all these, and many other
ch matters of gossip, Mr. Leitch Ritchie contrives to
c'erader very delightful by his pointed and sprightly mode
narration. But the most generally interesting portion
n the " Picturesque Annual" is the account of the recent
tut'erations and improvements made in the palace of Ver.
!lilies by the present King Louis Philippe, who has bad
111113 e rare art to impart to it an air of national, instead of
ourtly, interest, and even to convert it into a great
re
ere
onal monument. The engravings of the " Picturesque
nal," which are not less than twenty in number, are of
courseail., illustrative of the various splendors of the palace
ahe
grounds of Versailles. They are for the most part
t
..ecuted with singular ability—especially the sketches of
Orangery;
of the Court of Louis the Fifteenth at play ;
nd the portrait of the celebrated but unfortunate Marie
ntoinette. This last is the.; likeness of one in the full
t bloom and grace of womanhood, silch as the original was
which Year previous to that mgr.:wary national convulsion
aro brought her to the scaVid. The features are small
is `ci.delicately moulded ; tb:e expression of the countenance
at rifled, yet not devr:id of softness ; and the airy, buoy-
s;.gure, so
perfect in its symmetry, justifies even the en-
`isue eufogiu':o of Burke. The Court of Louis at play
chiefly realty:cable for the skilful manner in which a great
griety of
figures, many of them full lengths, are grouped.

OLIVER TWIST.
3 Vols. Bentley, London, 1838.
' e have here " Oliver Twist" completed in three
lemes, and more attractive volumes have not for some
the issued from the Press. By far the greater portion of
th:nn have already appeared in Bentley's Miscellany, but
dose kast half of the third volume is entirely new ; and
pa ribeS the murder of the poor girl Nancy by her ruffian
subrasemuur, Bill Sykes, the house-breaker ; the wretch's
queut death by suicide ; and the execution of that
l
v:44eulate Israelite, Fagin. This last is a truly powerful
e of description, and in places reminds us of Victor
fe,:rs " Last Days of a Condemned Criminal." We pre-
not 1-.; h°lvever, to that, because it is equally vigorous, and
en
1 alf exaggerated. And now that it is brought to a
hasty and abrupt one, by the bye, for we have
uut ?T y
we slightest notion why Fagin is hanged ; all we
kratuhis.that he deserves it—we cannot refrain from con-
ding Boz on his masterly conception of this charac-
It 1• and the equally adroit manner in which it is executed.
there superior even Jonathan Wilde ;" first, because
srd eseics more of the leaven of real humanity about it ;
oo 'ndlY, because throughout the delineation, we see
-ever
impelling motives to villainous action. Grasping,
_
84ted avarice, shown in all the various phases of his
ofatherY, is the one leading feature, and never lost sight of,
fro,„e Jew's character ; but Jonathan often commits crimes
b4t-' a mere love of scoundrelism, which is not nature,
iii something beyond it. Bill Sykes is a vulgar, bluster-
oft enounon-place, relieved, however, by incidental touches
houumour and feeling, which none but a man of superior
wen, of
ter , mind could have thrown into it. The charac-
b, e' Nancy is admirably sustained throughout ; indeed,
Vrrttthit of consistency, it is the best in the tale. The
-°ll, s personages—such as the Brownlows, Grimwigs,
for Gyan,fortemque Cloanthum"—ar mere
en.tities. As for Monks, he is a melo-dramatic mon-
sterof the Fitzball school, fit only to be played by 0.
ettyth, in a black wig, at the Coburg. Rose Maylieis a
„simpleton ; but the Bumbles—particularly the old
l'enemso—are capital. We recognize truth in their every
parnent. On the whole, we may say that " Oliver
hant" is hiconnparably the finest tale of the season. It
.iess
more Humour but far power and variety of oh:
aerVa.ion than ,
the' Pickwick Papers."