New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-12-31
uERCULEAN BOOK MAKING.

tS Cuuetuucht. III thC Aia''S Va NVhStccs
HERCULEAN BOOK MAKING.
Alexander Dumas is few months less than
fifty years old and for some twenty seven years
has been known as q writer. During this time
he has published more novels, plays, travels.
and historical sketches than any other man
that ever lived. Ii is well understood that be
is not the author of all the works that appear
under his name, but that young writer's gain
living by working out the plots and situations
that his fecund brain suggests when The novel
or the play is complete, Dumas gives it revi.
sion, touches up the dialogue, dashes in here
and there spirited scene Of his own, and then
receives from the publisher an enormous sum,
which he incontinently squanders. We pre-.
sumo that no Htterateur has ever earned 90
much money as Dumas, aud yet within two O,
three years he has been in great straits, and is
quite likely to be short of funds on this very
day. Undeniably man Of genius, endowed
with true fertility of imagination and
mastery power of expression, one looks
in vain through the whole range Of his
productions for noble work of art. Corrupt
in ideas and INSCRIPTIONS and reckless in
purpose, he has impressed upon his plays and
romances the melancholy stamp of dis.
sOlute civilization they glitter in the tinsel Of
theatrical sentiment, that sets of but does not
pretend to hide the most monstrous, and often
the most repulsive conceptions. Always writ
ing slap-dash for publication next morning, the
haste of composition does not allow him to Ella.
bOrate or to correct his work into artistic pro.
portion and consistency, and it launches upon
the world as crude and faulty as the hastily com.
bined products of half dozen pens, all driven
at railroad speed to earn the writer's stipend
and the employers profit, needs must be- But
at the same time such is the vivacity
of his descriptions, such the entraim Of
lis narrative, such the holiness Of his
invention, such the point of bis dialogue
and the rapidly of his incidents, 80
matchless often the felicity and skill Of par.
ticular passages, that he always inaames the
interest of the reader to the end You may be
angry with him, you may find him guilty of
every literary and every personal fault, but
you will confess that he is the opposite Of
tedious. Certainly no writer fills more
prominent place in the literature Of bis coun.
try; and none has exercised more potent il
not always pernicious influence upon its re.
cent development.
This literary factotum has just issued the
prospectus of new book, about which he
blows the trumpet in advance in amanner CON-
pared to which all bis pufs preliminary to for.
mer works were nothing but bashfulness and
modesty. This work is to be long enough to
narrate all the personal experiences and
observations Of the Wandering Jew, for it
begins with the Christian Era and traveses
eighteen centuries and half of history. The
name of the hero Of this enormous novel Is
Isaac Laquedem, and it is in the following
words, addressed to his publishers, that Dumas
cracks up the mighty affair:
Isaac Laguedem Is the work of my life, as you shall
judge twenty-five years ago, thinking myself ready
tier. Then it was to make eight volumes. Two years
later bought 1t back of him. finding that lacked the
force to struggle against such subject.
From that time forward amid al. that have done.
ind at the bottom of all have done and have written
seren hundred rOlumss, and Gy dramas, this obstinate
idea has lived and from eight volumes has grown to
eighteen.
Though during this time have ever been incapable
of executing this work it ought to be executed
have at least for the past twenty years. studied much
and learned much All that have studied and learned
of art, Of sciences Of and things shall put into
Isaac Laquedem. tits, repeat to you the cork Of my
life
Now, what l ask OF you is, that you should tho
roughly explain to your readers that give them book
which has its precedent in no literature book, which
like all books emb0dying great thought needs to be
read as whole before being judged, its value consist
ing especially in the immense aggregate formed by six
distinct romances, carried through Elk different civil
izatOns, upon the subject and pursuing the same
idea. To present beforehand analysis and summary
OF 1t, would think destroy something Of It's freshness
For the rect can assure you that during this CESSATION
oftwenty years in my BRAIN has reached such de-
gree of maturity that now have but TO pluck the
fIuit on the tree Of my imagination.
you will then, not have to wait shall not com
pose; l shall dictate. "ALExANDaE DUMAS
After this can any body hesitate to believe
that Isaac Laqaedem will be the greatest pro-
ductiOn of human literature, We certainly
do not
But who will not admire the brilliant stroke
Of originality in which Mr. Monte Cristo de-
clares that be has carried this eighteen volume
epic of six civilizations in his brain for twenty
odd years As if be had not cribbed the idea
of it from the author of the Mysttrss du PssP's'
Was there ever more magnificent chariatan'
WHAT'S TIE MATTERE
The Post feels badly about something we
ventured yesterday few innocent comments