The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Captain, Mayne Beid's Romances. J. and C. Brown

and Company.
Conspicuous among the popular reprints pouring
from the press of late in all directions, are these
four really beautiful volumes, comprising those four
remarkable works which, beyond all others from the
same hand, have made for Capt. Mayne Reid his
hieh, and deservedly high, reputation. "The
Rifle Rangers"—the earliest of his literary per-
formances. " The Scalp Hunters"—the best among
themall, at any rate in our estimation, and certainly
the most brilliantly imaginative and adventurous.
" The White Chief "—full from first to last of fasci-
nation. Finally, to crown all, the latest of these
singularly original narratives, to wit, " The Quad-
roon "—long the principal attraction of Chambers's
Edinburgh Journal, and now for the first time
issued from the press as a separate and complete
publication. Altogether the series can scarcely by
possibility prove otherwise than eminently succss-
fut. Each volume is in cost so comparatively
trifling, at the same time that it is in mere external
appearance peculiarly worthy of preservation. The
works are admirably printed, and beyond this—
thanks to Harvey's pencil plentifully embel-
lished with appropriate, and some of them wonder-
fully clever and striking illustrations. Witness
this the astounding vengeance of the "White
Chief " towards the close of the fiction so entitled
—where the two horsemen, with their chargers
blindfolded, have plunged sheer down into the abyss
from the brink of the appalling precipice.

Children's Story Books. J. and C. Brown and

Company.

These are several charming little tales for young
children, written by various hands, and published
by the Messrs. Brown simultaneously. They
are of the same class, for the most part, with.
Bogue's 'pretty child's story " Mia and Char-
lie." They are, one or two of them, in na-
tural grace worthy of Mary Hewitt, and
in moral elevation of tone not unworthy of Har-
riet Martineau. Foremost among them in interest
is one entitled "The Young Marquis," by Amelia
Edwards. It is " A story from a Reign," and re-
lates to the first French Revolution—the Revolu-
tion—always an enthralling epoch for the roman-
oist. Another—" a story for youth"—is by Mar-
garet Pinchard ; and is called "Prevarication."
Another, of larger dimensions, designated
"Blanche's Wanderings ; or, the Guiding-Hand, g
comes to us from the guiding-hand of Mary Hall.
The last mentioned narrative is inscribed by the
author to Sir E. B. Lytton, " with permission." It
comes before its young readers therefore under ra-
ther alluring auspices. A fourth volumette yet re-
mains to be particularised. .It is a miniature
fiction by a well known writer, by no other than
Leitch Ritchie, and is simply headed " The New
Shilling." It occupiei only, however, one third
of the little volume—the remaining two thirds being
dedicated to the maiden work of Miss Grace Nor-
man Ritchie, a sweet little child's story, entitled
The Little Heroine"—over which many a little
heroine will linger delighted.

The Highlanders of Glen Ora:

By James Grant.

Brown and Co.

Another " Romance of War," by the author of
the same—an author by this time both popular and
voluminous. It is in many respects a fiction wor-
thy of the writer of " The Aide-de-Camp," and
The Yellow Frigate," and those other tales of
Scottish Chivalry, among which "The Highlanders
of Glen Ora," will occupy no mean position. The
story is full of adventure ; and—remembering Mr.
Snobleigh, and Sir Horace, Minnie, and Mr.
Ephraim Snaggs—full also of clearly-defined and
nicely- disc rimi u ated character.

Autumn, Leaves :
Brucks.

Poems. By Dunsterville
Hogg and Sons. _ _ _

' Loaves newly fallenpreniaturely withered.
Blossoms that have dropped long before the fruit
season—pale for the most part, yet hectic here and
there with the canker in them. The significance of
she little brochure (of just 76 pages) is soon told.
It is explained by the simple inscription upon the
fly-leaf, immediately after the title-page : an in-
scription as follows—George Alexander Dunster-
ville Brucks, son of George Barnes Brucks, Captain
and Senior Officer in the Indian Navy, and of Mar-
garet, his wife, born April 12, 1834, died February
3, 1857. Upon the fly-leaf following—this brief sen-
tence, written, one might conjecture, from the
tally deathbed upon the eve of dissolution,
" I must leave my little book to the
friend'y considerations of those who take
au interest in such young authors, as lay
their feverish ambitions to rest under the cool sods
of premature graves. D. B." As such the tiny
book is offered—as such it is accepted. And it is
worthy of this consideration. Let "Hespera Gray"
attest this, it nothing else. A tender Edgar-Poe-
l►ke love-lay, beginning—

" I leaned on the village stile,
Watching the star of even,

When a maiden, a sweet maiden, a rare maiden,
Came toward me beauty-laden—
Came toward me with a smile,
Left a light on all the place—
Came toward me with a smile
That drew all my thoughts from heaven
To the heaven of her face."
So seen, and so loved—
" Gown'd in virgin white,
With her steps so airy,
Thridding the green evening
Like a twilight fairy."
One of the sweetest things in the book is a little
" Spring Song," beginning—
" When primroses in knots appear,
And violets open their buds of blue ;
When willows grow green round the lonely mere,
And bees wake to hunt for the honey-dew;
You may hear
The blithest voice of the dawning year—
Cuckoo ! Cuckoo !
And echo sustaining the music clear—

Cuckoo l"
A. pretty thought closes the volume—" The Broke*
Vase : Fragments of it"—and closes it most appro-
priately. Several of these fragments, mere frag-
ments though they are, have about them a strange
grandeur or a stranger beauty—as it might be with
a torso of Venus or of Hercules. Remember
Moore's verse—

" You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."
So is it here with the perfume of this pare soul—
now vanished from among us and " exhaled to
heaven 1"