The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-30 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE DUCHESS. A Novel. 3 Vols. Bentley.
The " Duchess ; or, Worean'e Love and Woman's
Hate," is an histor;cal romance of the days of Francis
the First of France. The theme is the passionate,
unrequited, and selfish love of the Duchess of Angou-
lene', the King's mother, for the heroic, unfortunate,
and traitorous Constable of Bourbon. The character
and the passion of the impetuous Italian are effectively
described and carefully developed. All her efforts to
move the imperturbable Bourbon are ineffectual;
now rendered desperate by her anxiety, she conde-
scends to entreaties, and then stung to madness by
disappointment, she devotes herself to vengeance,
vainly imagining that by effecting the ruin of the
haughty Constable she may compel him to seek for
the restoration of his fortune by consenting to a
union with the King's mother. At the last, when
she finds that her revenge has defeated her
dearest objects—when the King's neglect and his
threatened ruin, instead of bringing the Constable to
her feet, have driven him into the toils of the Em-
peror—when the object of her idolatrous love, struck
down while in arms against his Sovereign, has lost,
through her instrumentality, not only his fortune but his
honour and his life—then, indeed, the wretched Duchess
experiences all the bitter agony and remorse of those
who havieg sowed the wind must reap the whirl-
wind. Oteer subjects of interest and other attrac-
tions there are in these volumes, but all are, as they
should be, subordinate in interest to the principal sub-
ject of the work—the development of the selfish pas-
sion of the impetuous Italian. Many fair readers
will perhaps complain of the comprehensive
nature of the second title of the work, and
refuse to recognise the fierce passion of the Duchess,
so calamitous to its object, as a sample of " woman's
love." Nevertheless, as an evidence of the fearful
results of an unrestrained selfishness usurping the
name of love, the story of the Duchess is an interest-
ing and not unprofitable contemplation. The Con-
stable of Bourbon and some of the principal charac-
ters are well portrayed, and the sketches of Paris
and Parisian life, in the time of Francis, are full of
spirit, although perhaps a little overdrawn.

THE QUEENS OF SPAIN. By Anita George.
Edited by Miss Pardoe. Vols. I. and 11. Bentley.
The popularity obtained by Miss Strialanu's
" Queens of England" has very naturally, and for
the public very fortunately, suggested the composi-
tion of works of a similar character. At the present
moment, when in Spain, as in England, the Sove-
reign happens to be a queen, that country has been
happily selected as the subject of another chapter in
the history of female sovereigns. The history of
Spain is, moreover, fraught with so much chivalrous
and romantic interest, that the biographies of its
sovereigns must necessarily be invested with
a great attraction, and afford occasion for
the introduction of many marvellous incidents and in••
teresting episodes. Spain, also, has possessed one of
the greatest women uho ever swayed the sceptre of
Queen regnant—not only great as a sovereign, but
eminently virtuous and right womanly in her cha-
racter and conduct. Isabella of Castile has long
been known and admired beyond the limits of her
own country. Her history is the subject of the
second volume cf Miss George's "Queens of Spain."
The authoress, alluding iu terms of deserved admiration
to the great work of the American historian, observes
that her opinion of the character of Isabella differs
somewhat from that of Prescott. While setting
forth the virtues of her admirable heroine, Miis
George cannot overlook her faults. Her aim is to be
not the eulogist of the individual, but the impartial
biographer of the Queens of Spain. As such she
merits commendation.

FLOWERS; THEIR MORAL LANGUAGE
AND POETRY. By IL C. Adams. Slater.
This little volume will be right welcome to all who
appreciate poetry and to all who love flowers—and
who does not? Divided into several chapters, en-
titled " The Moral of Flowers ;" " The Language of
Flowers ;" " Children and Flowers ;" "Fairies and
Flowers ;" "Floral Similitudes;" " Floral Ceremo-
nies;" "Funeral Flowers ;" and " Wild Flowers,"
we find a choice collection from the works of poets,
ancient and modern, English and American. Among
these are Mary Howitt's beautiful illustration of the
"Use of Flowers ;" Mrs. Hemans' "Flower of the
Desert ;" Horace Smith's " Hymn to the Flowers ;"
Barry Cornwall's " Lines ton Flower ;" "Leigh Hunt's
" Albanian Love-letter;" L. E. L.'s exquisite floral
acrostic on " Victoria ;""The Posie" of Robert Burns ;
Shelley's "Floral Similitudes ;" Longfellow's "Reaper
and the Flowers," and many others. But even more
attractive than these entire poems are the chapters on
the above subjects, scattered over, as they are, with a
profusion of quotations from almost all the poets (for
what poets have failed to celebrate flowers ?) The
manner in which these flowers of poetry have been
selected and classified r€ fleets credit on Mr. Adams,
and will prove delightful to all who turn over the
pages of his very attractive little volume. This work
forms part of Slater's " Select Series."

DEANE'S ILLUSTRATED ALMANAC for

1851.

In addition to the usual contents of an almanac,
this little work gives us a series of illustrations of the
genius of progress, comparing the state of affairs 100
years ago with that existing at the present time;
thus we have woodcuts, of the waggon and the rail,
of the canal boat and of the ocean steamer, of the
hand-loom and the power-loom, of the printing-press
and the newspaper printing-machine, of the estafette
and the electric telegraph, of the old method of ex-
cavating and the galvanic battery, of the horn lent-
horn and gas, of the process of the steel pen manufac-
ture, and of a variety of other subjects. The work is
very nicely got up.

THE LONDON MEDICAL AND PROVIN-
CIAL DIRECTORY, 1851.
This is the sixth annual impression of this most
useful work, and it is much more complete than any
of its predecessors ; we have tested its accuracy by
referring to various names both of provincial and
metropolitan professors of the art of healing, and we
have in every instance found the information which
the directory gave both accurate and complete. It
likewise gives every possible information concerning
hospitals, dispensaries, &c., both metropolitan and
provincial, and, in fact, on every other subject con-
nected ivith the medical profession.