The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-06-23
New Books.

PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE. By Charles
Reade Authors Edition. New York: Shell
don i Co.
This vigorous and striking novel, whose
publication as serial has whetted the pub
lie appetite, is now issued complete in one
volume, from the presses Of Sheldon &c Co.,
and may be found at MIR. John Russell's, in
King street.
| BREEzIE LANGToN. A Story of '52 to '55. By
Hawley Smart, author of A Race for o WIFE,
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1870.
The novel which bears the fanciful name
of 'Breezie Langton" is destitute of plot
but its light and airy tone enables the reader
to scamper over its pages without "boggins"
heavily 1t isa string of sketches OF life on
the race-course and life in camp, Joined to-
gether by thin thread of circumstance and
mild intrigue, and if there were nothing in
the world worth talking about except the
Crimean war and the turf, this would be q
capital novel for the times. The story is not
unnatural, and in some respects is too realis-
tic. Slang and horse-talk, however COM
mon in the circles with which Mr. Smart is
familiar are neither edifying nor pleas
ing to the general public. The CONVEX
sations are unaffected enough, but we
submit that it is waste Of paper and
patience to flll page with the flat gossip
which is the usual accompaniment OF the
matutinal tea and toast, but has no earthly
interest when enthroned among the plati-
tudes of print There is over-much dullness
in every life, and we expect the novelist to
pick out the rugged peaks and bosky dells,
not the fat road and bare common; we crave
the plums Of the conversational pudding,
not the leaden insipidity Of the circumam-
bient batter Most of Mr.. Smart's characters
are of the horse horsey, and the writer con-
Asses that he is not at home when he leaves
Behind him the racing field and the mess
table But 9lr. Smart can do better work.
He has sprightliness and fluency; he needs
study and care. Time and labor will enable
him to turn out novel which will last for
more than one season, and OF which we may
not be forced to say, that it ought to have
been much better, while it might he great
deal worse.
For sale by John Russell, King street.
QUEEN HoRrENsE A I.ite-picture Of the Napo-
leonic Era. By L. Miihlbach. Translated by
Chs Chapman p @o Coleman; Now York; D. Apple
Miss Miihlbach has written this time a
bare historical sketch, which cannot be call
ed historical novel. 1t confines itself to
the persons and events which have become
famous, and does not make them the sub
stantial basis for a superstructure OF imagi-
nati7e genius. Scott and James, and our
own Silnms, used history, and the men of
history, as means of giving reality to the
past and interest to the fictitious personages
whose loves and hates they told. But, in
the present case, Miss Muhlbach turns out
work which has neither the force and exacti-
tude ofhistory, nor the charming uncertainty
OF the pure romance The days of the French
Revolution, the rise of Napoleon and his fall,
the true patriotism Of Louis Bonaparte-
these can and do give deep interest to the
tale of the sorrows OF sQueen Hortense," :"
but it would have been wiser in the author
to make the book more truly novel or
more certainly history.
For sale by John Russell, King street.