The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-11-18
LITERARY NOTICES.

/
Southworths style of writing, that it would be
superhuous to characterize it. The book before
us is story of much Interest," tale of pride
passion, and crime, out of the depths of which
she brings her principal characters, little
more easily than quite accOrds with our ideas
of poetic or any other sort of justice. We fear,
too, that unrefectng readers may make unsafe
differences from the denouement of the plot
The heroine contracts a secret marriage with
an English lord, goes with him to Europe, and
| is discarded by him in France, not very long
after their marriage Stung to the quick, by
his neglect, she returns to America, goes upon
| the stage, and makes brilliant debut. The
husband also returns to America, and makes
love to the foster sister of his wife, and their
marriage is decided upon. Meanwhile the
actress wife is plotting with her Italian admi-
rer, whom she hates but promises to marry if
he will assassinate her faithless husband The
plot fails The murderess at heart is horror
stricken, and crushed by remorse for she finds
too late that while she is plotting the death of
her husband, she still loves him.
The husband who has almost miraculously
escaped the knife of the assassin, by most
fortunate coincidence, gains at once the knowl-
edge that his young lady-love is passionately
devoted to another, and that his wife, who was
poor, and whose parentage was involved in mys-
terry, has been acknowledged as the daughter
and heiress of one of the oldest and richest
families in the land With so many aids in
reminding his ardor, is it any wonder that he
falls desperately in love with his dearest wife,
who is only too happy that he is not dead, as
she had designed. Of course, they make up,
and live to a good old age, more happy and
respectable than we had conceived it possible
such people could be under the Old Virginia
regime.
THE DISCARDED DAUGHTER; or the Children of the
Isle By the publisher.
This is another of Mrs. Southworths recent
| productions. Few of her stories have afforded
us more pleasure in their perusal 1t is a
simple narrative of domestic life in the South !;
yet embodying quite as much incident as we
usually find in half a dozen novels of the same
size, by writer's of less fertile invention. There
is no room for anything else occasional de-
scription excepted, there is nothing in the book
but incident She does not moraliZe or philosO-
phize, but leaves all that to the reader-appa-
rently having as much as she possibly can do to
manage the incidents with which her story is
furnished Notwithstanding this protusion,
there is no intricacy-eyents succeed each other
US naturally and inevitably as cause and effect,
| and the morale of the book is unexceptionable.
These stories of domestic life in the South have
for us a peculiar charm. There is much in
Southern life that is purely original, and inter-
woven as it is with " the peculiar institution"
it has also painful attraction for US. By the
way, we commend Mrs. Southworths sample
of what is called in the South negro talk, to all
| who would form correct idea of their peculiar
idiom; she is a truthful exponent of that new
phase of our literature
The LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW. October, 1852.
New York Leonard Scott d Co. For sale by
Taylor Maury, Pennsylvania avenue, Washing
ton ID. G.
Contents-British Birds and Stonehenge
Ionian Islands; Irish Salmon; Sindh-Dry
Leaves from Young Egypt; Memoirs of Doctor
Chalmers; Life and Letters of Lord Langdale;
Gold Discoveries Parliamentary Prospects.
wEsTMINsrER REVIEW. October, 1852 Published
and for sale above.
H. OvforJ Wbaw-
ellis Moral Philosophy; Plants and Botanists;
Our Colonial Empire; The Philosophy Of Style;
The Poetry of the Anti-Jacobins; Goethe as
Man of Science; Profession of Literature; Duke
of Wellington Contemporary Literature OF Eng
land, America, Germany and France. The
great reduction of postage on these pubhca-
tons must aid their circulation. Blackwoods
now payshnkRa cents a year postage, and each
of the W IL cents. The postage per
ann, of the Reviews and on the
Mag cent year
Tur CuRIsTIAN EXAMINER. July, September, No
vomber. Boston Crosby 4 Nichols. For sale as
above.
Contents.-Imagnatio and Religion; Edu-
cation of the Public Taste Icarian Communi-
ty: Sunday Schools; Natural Depravity and
Total Depravity; Buckingham's Personal Me-
moirs School and College Text Books; Notices
of Recent Publications Intelligence.
HARpERs New MONTHLY. November, 1852. For
sale by Franck Taylor, Washington,
This number closes the fifth volume, with
| circulation of more than ! 90 600 copies. The
December number will commence the new vol
ume, when the pictorial embellishments will
be increased, and still greater variety be given
to its literary contents
| We have on hand several books which shall
be noticed next week.