The Chattanooga Daily Rebel. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1862-1864, 1863-03-06

~ 10 Icitcohi'B ~ hcArn ~ '"N p
mind, sober by nature and cultivated BY e1
perience
4 B6s- TIE literature Of Paris from Paul de
Koe to Dumas, fills, and the literature Of
France from volfaire 10 Victor Hugo, render
perhaps more perfect likeness of the time
aud people they represent than the literature
Of any other class or nation, the Elizabcthian
era Of England alone excepted. We see much
Of German thought with little Of German life,
the poetry Jess than he actus existence Ot
the Italians are given US, whilst the-geniuS
OF Cervante made bu; oarieature for Spain
they do these things differently in France, and
in Paris, the soul Of the French, high life or
liw life. good.or bad, depraved or decent, ala
mode or a la-paysan, it is all French to the
marrow bone; and however translated you
never mistake the written offspring Of the true
and loyal French mind. The stage, the jour
nal, tie hebdomidSl, history, science, romance
reflect If; the people catch the electric spirit,
transmitted upon the Geographic nerves Of the
French nature, it goes echoing over the land.
and the popular lessons taught and taken,
come through and from the national literature,
intense. brilliant, fascinating, but wofully des.
iiue Of the better part of morals.
Victor Hugo has published his long looked
for social romance Dramatized and transla-
Sted by fifty pens it is all over the non-blocka-
ded world by this tim6. Les Miserbles. Such
is the title. The scene Paris The dranatis
Personae, the .Bohemans. literary book, a
novel Of The craft, crafty. A wild. passionate
tragic monsrosty, with power aud pathos,
good aud in, woven through aud through it..
A young girl fair as the poets ideal can con
ceive, and more passionate than it would be
prudent Tor young girls to be in this country,
aud also than they should be even in Paris,
fails in love with a brilliant blackguard Of a
Bohemani and thence the story goes. As our
friends West aud johnson Of this city aye
about 10 re-publish it, we muSt not anticipate
the plot.
In England the magazines aud reviews are
ull Of it, Tho "Westminieter." usually so
r gid in its principles, contains a very mpetu
Gus eulogy. ltsays;
Fauiseccentrcties redundancies, extrava-
lgances, errors against good taste, it unques
lllonably has. Any critic who liked the task
might devote whole essay to those alone.
But when the most ihydious criticism has done
It's worst the immense power, the noble char
acter of tic work, remains uniniured. The
foundation of half dozen great reputat ons
might be discovered in the pages of Les Mis-
erables' Perhaps no higher prai could be
.lglven to the work than to say that heralded
as Il was by months and months of most vehe-
uent preliminary laudaiion, highly wrought
up as public expectation had purposely been,
the world was not disappointed in the end.
The presence Of genius is felt Ivy the reader in
every chapter and page. A deep insight into
human nature. warm and almost passionate
lsympathy with human suffering, pictorial
power scarcely rivaed in our days, dramat-
, lie Orce which strikes out new aud thrilling
effects III every new situation, an inexhausti-
bile variety Of character, incident and illuutra.
:" iionand vivid eloquence absolutely unequal.
o By ally living. author of the same cass---
these are some. md only some Of the leading
qualities, by means OF which Victor Huge has
made Les Miserables one OF the great litera
ny monuments.oi the century. Il Is one of the
, master pieces Of The age which has produced
! lit"
Tho "Edinbnrgh" on the contrary takes q
= different view Of it, Concluding with the
wholesale charge that Victor Hugo is a writer
r "who creates artifcially in tho midst Of civil
u zalion social damuation' the essayist in the
body of his criticism thus describes "Les Mis-
N erables':-
"Our sober Judgment obigeg us, notwith
standing the indispulable power and beauty o.
= many passages, to condemn Les Mserabes
:. on moral grounds, as gross and uDscrupulou.
Il appeal to popularity, and in literary point q
Il view, az he receptacle OF every gaudy piec,
(, of rhetoric ami paradox, which during a lohp
y career Of authorship may have remained o.
u hand But it's success has bepr
N complete Partisan workmen club together II
q their Gieliers, to purchase copy Of this men
4 dacious appeal to the working classes, an,
" assemble at night TO hear il read aloud. Par
J, ish prieSts IN remote villages borrow the bool
]. from the neiglboring chateau and gloat Over
b. the history Of Social iniquily, in their lionel,
~ parsonages AN France at the present motnent
II imbibing tho doctrine that ii men steal anc
u murder, and II women fall into the loves
IS depths Of inIamy, il ia, no fault Of theirs; III,
81 sin lies at the door OF that collective abstrac
20 being called society. " The one steI
which is said 10 divide the sublime from N,
y ndiculons, has no errors for Victor Hugo. II,
* stands perpe,ually Colossus like, astride Of
81 tho frontier, with one foot in either domain
n AZ all times the chief characteristic of his die
!, ton Ia great p openaity for startling antithe
y 10 and paradox. Black is laid upon white
b. great things are opposed TO small, beauty +
II hideocsnese, excessive sanctity TO excessiy
is crime, pompous terms arc applied to trivia
:, things, and homely expressions to the mos
y lofty IDEAS"