New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-10-31
FOREIGN LITERATURE.
NEW ENGLISH EDITIONS.

| LONDON, OCt. l0-By the uost ihpoi'"""
book on Messrs. Chapman & Halls list Of forthcom-
ing works is q new edition Of Walter savage Lam
dor. In a sentence so framed I could not include
| the complete title which is The Life and Works
of Walter Savage Landor" 1t might be permitted
us to hope that Mr. John Forster. when be promises
us a new and revised edition Of the Life, means to
indicate that be has proted by the criticism on his
life of Lander as originally issued 1t was perhaps.
in that original state. of the cumsiest bogra-
phies ever writtn-an overloaded, ill-digested
book from which no man who did not know Lam
dor personally or by his writings could gather what
manner of man ne was. Mr.. John Forster has been
writing biographies all his life and all his life he
has heard what ought to have been to him whole
some and helpful truths about his way OF dong
them. But his arrogance Is proof against All good
infuences-Or was until it bent beneath the storm
which beat about his Life OF Dickens and cleared
the air a little for the third volume which was dis
tinetly better than the first II he has rewrit-
ten in the same mood his Life of Landor | for one
shall be thankful TO him. There are few literary
men of this century whose Life is IN greater
need of being well written; few so Unknown;
few which it would be worth TO us 80 much to
know well. OF his writings almost the same may De
said. To make q complete collection OF them as
they appeared separately has long been dlfhcuit
some of the volumes ranking among the scarcest Oh
books published within 70 years. The so-called COM
plete edition in two big volumes published some 10
years since IS neither handy nor readably printed
! nor complete That now announced Will NIL seven
volumes, deny svo-room enough for good type
throughout On what principle Mr. Forster will edit
them We have vet TO learn. The edition will, IN any
case. make Lander more widely known. 1t is some
thing so curious is human nature-that he should
take his place on library shelves in library edi-
ton side by side with other classics of recent gem
eratons which have already passed, many less
worthy into that form.
| A new edition is to come from the same house OF
Dyces Shakespeare being the third. and with Mr.
Dyces final corrections The Shakespearean student
Will be eager to see what Mr.. Dyce's final views on
the text were In his first edition he took ground
! as a conservative, rejecting sternly nearly every
emendatiOn for which absolute necessity or uni
versal consent could not be pleaded. In the second
he appeared as a radical, and took liberties which
| seriously impaired the value OF that edition. IL
! was, nevertheless and TO this day has renamed
the best Shakespeare we have. The third may well
supersede it should it prove to have been edited
! in a graver frame of mind. No hint is given OF
the extent to which changes have been made. be-
yond the statement that the latest employment of
| Mr. Dyce's life was the present revision. 1t will
| be COMPLETED in nine volumes, deny Svo, the first
| TO be ready In November 1t may easily be made
a more slightly book than the second. By such
Encouragement of the volumes as shall bring them
more nearly to the same size.
! II is. / suppose to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's
| article on the Next Page of the Liberal Programme
that The Fortn0htIy RereWs third edition is to be
credited. When the article appeared the daily
newspapers. with one accOri-eyen the most radical
of the London dailies-prOnounced 1t Wild lmpos-
sibe un-English; and many other uniiatteTIng
| ritaI IN W Iph
proves that for mere publicity the next best thing
10 being roundly praised is 10 be sOundly abused
Mr. Chamberlain is not likely 70 be Prime Minister,
but he has a clever way of stating extreme opinions,
and what he writes is of being read-whch is a
long step toward the political success which he Is
supposed to covet.
The publishers of The Fortaigh&y Messrs
! Chairman IL Hall. and they have lately issued IN
book form the essays on Compromise which Mr..
John Morley the editor of that review, first pub
lshcd in Its pages. OF this The Echo justly says
| that it is like all works from Mr.. Morleys pen,
thoughtful. impressive and eloquent-an essay fit
to be the complement to Mr.. Mills on Liberty. The
same publishers announce Military and Religious
| Life in the Middle Ages, and at the Period of the
Renaissance by Paul LacrOix illustrated with "A
| chTomo-lithog and over 100 wood engravings
| royai svO This Is think, the thrd-It may be the
| fourth-Of the volumes translated from the French
of Lacrox. The French volumes are themselves
substantially a reissue in parts OF celebrated and
now scarce book. lie MOyen Age ct Ia Renaissance
in FIVE 0uarto volumes filed with chrOm0s and wood
engravings of great excellence for the period when
| they were produced-a period when the art of wood
! engraving had greatly decayed, and when Gunner
| had not yet carried chr0mo-iithoCraphy to that
hight he afterward reached for book illustration.
! The Imitation de Jesus Christ" had then. think,
=. tNo cf NH tho ix-rn
d'Heures De La RENE Anne de Bretayne" was to be
the most splendid and the Saintes Evangiles the
most perfect work-unless the Jean FOucquet may
DISPUTE with the latter the claim prominence of
! technical execution in cOlOrs. The "MOyen Age
is a unidue book and the French and English pub
fishers have done good service in pOpalariAng IFS
treasury of antique lore by the reproductions OF 1t
| which have appeared during the last few years.
| know of no single book from which the student can
| get so good a view of so many sides of middle age
life and don't hesitate % say this. though know
the original work has been sharply criticised for
! sundry inaccuracIes-as most other books deal
! ing with similar subjects have been and
NAV he. The volumes of the new series
are not equal in beauty the Old for the old plates
are here reworked. but for practical purposes they
are not much inferior They have, al any rate. the
advantage of being readily procurable at a moder-
ate price The French cheaper than the En-
glish. and better for those who can read French.
The English are nevertheless among the least dear
of English illustrated books, being published at
guinea and half. They ought not 10 cost more
than $40 in New-YOrk but probably do. Messrs.
! Chapman g. Hall have also nearly ready the fifth
thousand of the Rev. w. n. MOesworths very useful
History of England from 1880 TO 1874" IN the cheap
| form. vols. CT. $40.
In the press of the same publishers,-which must
A. Graln 40 Dine