The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-26 00:00:00

New Editions of Famous Books•

Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature—recently ap-
pearing anew, in a periodical re-issae of it 137 the
Messrs. George Routledge and Sons, in sixpenny
parts or numbers—has now at length been published
complete as a goodly three-and-sixpenny volume,
one of the very cheapest volumes, surely, that ever
yet has been printed. Affecting to be, according
to its most happy title, no more than a mere com-
pilation of some among the unnumbered Curiosities
of Literature—it is in itself a very hive of know-
ledge, richly stored with honeycombs of wit and
wisdom, and all of it the work not as of a swarm of
bees, but of one solitary labourer—of one whose la-
bour was a labour of love—of one whose whole
blameless career was, as it were, a beautiful realisa-
tion or fulfilment of the innocent industry inculcated
by the most famous and familiar of all old Isaac
Watts's lyrical apologues. Among the leaves of his
library, this other Isaac was " gathering honey all
the day"—and half the night—through the chief
part of a long lifetime : and the most luscious accu-
mulation of all that honey he has here stored up in.
the very noblest of all his honeycombs—the
" Curiosities of Literature." That one work is in
itself a library. It is better even than that—con-
taining within it, as it does, the culled and excerpted
excellences of many libraries, of the libraries of all
ages, of all languages, and of all literatures. It
is a book to treasure up on our bookshelves. It
is a book ever welcome at our elbow, and one
that may be taken up at any hour and dipped into
anywhere as an entertaining and most instructive
table book. It never palls upon us. We can read
it over and over again—and this, because it is racy,
thoughtful, elevating, and delightful throughout.
Lockhart's Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, illustrated
by George Cruikshank, has just now been re-issued
from the press by Mr. Tegg, in a new one-volumed
edition of 643 pages, elegantly bound in blue cloth
and richly emblazoned with goldon bees, the im-
perial diadem, and a fac-simile of the autograph of the
Great Napoleon. The work—which, by the way, was
originally written by J. G. Lockhart for " Murray's
Family Library"—has never appeared (to our know-
ledge at any rate) in a handsomer form; and, see-
ing that extraordinary cheapness is the rather
singular accompaniment of this same external beauty
of the present edition, to say nothing of the work's
own intrinsic excellence asan epitome of the astound-
ing career of the modern Sesostris, it is likelier now
than ever, as a compact record of the valour, the
genius, and the mighty achievements of Napoleon
the Great, to win for itself a wider and wider popu-
larity.

Oriyinal Penny Readings by George M. Fenn—is
a little shilling volume (first issued by Messrs.
Routledge), consisting of a most amusing contribu-
tion of that writer to the pages of Chambers's
Journal, Once a Week, and All the Year Round.
A Set of Shilling and Sixpenny Song-books, Edited
by J. E. Carpenter—have also just been given to the
public by the same publisher under all sort of names
—Comic, National, Humorous, Fireside, Fashion-
able, Convivial, and we know not what else ; some
good, hardly one bad, but a great many, it must be
confessed, very indifferent.