The Sun.
London, England, 1836-06-08 00:00:00

L2-TERATURE.

TALES OF THEE WOODS AND FIELDS.
Three Vols.
Saunders an d Otley : London, 1836.

We remember rea, ling some time ago, with great
delight, a collection or fictions, entitled, " The Two
Old Men's Tales," wliich exhibited lively powers of
iescription, and no little 'dramatic incident. The work
before us is a second Seiies, or continuation of those

tales, and is marked by the same striking peculiarities.
It consists of two stories, one entitled the " Country
Vicarage," and the other " Love and Duty." Of
these, the last is the 1 )est, as a work of art ; though

there are pathetic touches in the former—such as
where a young mother h angs lamenting over her dying
child—to which the lat ter makes no approach. The
plot of "Love and Duty" may be summed up in a few
words. A young girl, educated in the strictest retire-
ment of the country, at an old chateau belonging to
her father, the Marquis of Montalembert, accidentally
meets, and as accidentallly falls in love with a youth_.
of course handsome, chi' Talrous, and all that—the heir
of the noble family of D e Vermont. Both are desirous
to plunge into instantanttous matrimony, but upon the
Marquis being appealed: to for his consent, he indig-
nantly refuses it ; for his; daughter, it seems, had been
betrothed from her birth, to a French Radical, by name
Guibert, who had, in hi s earlier days, been a fellow
roue with the Marquis, a nd having detected him play_
ing falsely at the gaming table, had taxed him with
it, and threatened exposttre, unless he promised to give
him his only child, when she should have reached a
marriagable age. These circumstances the Marquis

himself makes known to Therese, in the course
of an interview between them, which is detailed
with fearful energy ; and she . seeing that
there is no other way left to preserve her father's
honor than by sacrificing herself to Guibert, does so
unhesitatingly. Accordingly, the Radical—who is by
this time on the shady side of forty—makes his ap-
pearance at the chateau, and is at once recognised as
the affianced husband of Therese, though not without
a profusion of tears, on her part, sufficient to fill a
bucket. This " untoward " courtship goes on for
some weeks, when Guibert, finding that he has won
only a hand—not a heart ; and pitying the condition of
his helpless victim, who, he cannot but see, is fast
hastening to her grave ; struck also with remorse for
the frightful alternative to which he has reduced the
Marquis, who, next to himself, loves his child dearer
than any thing on earth, determines on adopting a
generous line of conduct, and restoring Therese to
the arms of De Vermont. On this the whole chateau
rings with rejoicing ; the Marquis capers about like
mad ; his daughter's pretty face plumps out again ; the
villagers are all on the qui vine ; the bells ring ; the
fiddles are set to work ; an ox is roasted whole ; and
the amiable couple are married on a delicious summer
morning ; and of course, as novels invariably tell us,
" live very happy afterwards," though real life is
apt at times to tell us a different story. There are
many fine scenes in this tale, and some few, not
unsuccessful, attempts at pourtraying the sterner pas-
sions of our nature. The stern, melancholy, reserved
old Marquis, stands frowningly out on the:canvas,
like one of Rembrandt's most impressive heads ; and
his daughter, with her slim, buoyant figure, and Dryad-
like tread, resembles nothing so much as Leslie's young
" May Queen." As for De Vermont, he shows too
much lackadaisical, honey-suckle sensibility, to please
us. He is all tears, like a weeping willow. And then
he is so fond of sun-sets and moon-lights—things
which, in novels, are our special-abomination I How-
ever, despite this draw-back, the tale is an able one,
and its language flowing and graceful throughout.

SCOTT'S PROSE WORKS. Vol. XXVI.
Cadell : Edinburgh, 1836.

This Volume which completes the " Tales of a
Grandfather," completes also Sir Walter Scott's Prose
Works. It is embellished with two engravings, both
of which are from designs by Turner, and in his most
characteristic manner. One of them, a view Of Fort
Augustus, is quite outre in its perspective, the remote
distance being more strongly defined than even the
nearest foreground. The view of Inverness, however,
has a very picturesque air about it.

THE MAGICIAN. 3 Vols.
Macrons : London, 1836.

" The Magician" is a romance of the fifteenth cen-
tury ; and the author is Mr. Leitch Ritchie, the editor
of one of our most successful Albums. We cannot,
however, speak very highly of his efforts on the present
occasion ; for though his volumes are by no means de-
ficient in incident, and contain lots of wonders, together
with a very fair sprinkling of melodramatic horrors, yet
the matter is wire-drawn, and the characters, for the
most part, such as never had a prototype in nature. In
spinning descriptions Mr. Ritchie is a perfect silk-
worm ; his details, for instance, of the French King's
triumphant entry into Paris, occupy nearly forty pages,
when ten should have been the utmost limit allotted
to them. As a whole, we are more struck with the
tact, than the genius displayed in " The Magician."
It is the work of a practised, but certainly not of an
original or imaginative, writer. Hence its perusal does
not " physick pain," by being a " labour we delight
in." With respect to the language, it is, like the in-
cidents, that of one versed in the craft of authorship—
now sparkling in epigram, and now flowing away in
periphrasis.

LORD ROLDAN ; A ROMANCE.
Br ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.
In 3 vols. London : Macrone, 1836.

There is no lack of stirring incident in these vo-
lumes. The story never flags, and the dramatis per-
sonce act as well as talk. Still we cannot say that we
greatly admire it. The incidents, taken altogether, are
more improbable than even those of the same author's
well-known romance of " Paul Jones." The hero and
the heroine think and act too much after the fashion of
such out-of-the-way folks. We have had the proto-
types of Lord Roldan and Mary Morrison an hundred
times served up to us in fictitious narratives, now only
to be met with in old circulating libraries. The scenes
in France during the first Revolution are sketched
with considerable power. We have not space for an
analysis of the Tale ; but we have no doubt that it
will become a great favourite with the more youthful
portion of our readers.

THE CABINET CY CLORIEDIA.
A History of Russia. Vol. I.
London: Longman and Co.

England is deeply indebted to Dr. Lardner for the
great ability with which he has hitherto conducted this
truly national work. The historical portion of his
" Cyclopxdia" is of inestimable value. The Seventy-
ninth Volume, just published, contains a history of
Russia, from the earliest period at which it assumed
the form of a separate State, down to the accession
of Peter the Great, in 1689. The record is a dark,
but a faithful one. The style is vigorous ; and the
author's mode of relating facts, clear, succinct, and
sometimes even eloquent. But there is surely in the
portion of the work yet to be written, materials for
more than one volume—the space within which the
author purposes to compress the history of Russia, from
the accession of Peter the Great till the present time !
The work may be reasonably extended to three or even
four volumes.

Robert Owen, Esq., is lecturing in the Social In
stitution at Salford.