The Portland daily press., 1878-05-11

Stories from Homer by Rev. Alfred j.
Church, Head Master of King Edwards School,
Retford New York: Scribner g Armstrong;
Portland: Loring, Short & Harmony This is
an entirely successful attempt to translate into
English, with much abridgement of detail,
the Iliad and the Odyssey. Such a work as
this seems almost a literary necessity, so con.
stantly does the general reader meet references
to Homer, and so often are tho episodes of the
great classic poems used as illustration and
comparison. 1t is suited to those whose
acquaintance with Homer was as a text book in
the unappreciative season of early YOUTH to
those whom want of kno Wedge of the Greek
has prevented, and the great length of the
poetic transations has deferred from reading
Homer; as well as to those who are glad to
recall the great passages that stirred them
when they read of Achilles fighting against
fate before the gates of Troy, or held their
breath while Ulysses slipped past the place
where Scylla and Charybdis kept baleful ward
and followed him in his wanderings back to
Ithaca. These stories, it is already said, are
in briefer form than that given to them by the
singer, whose audience loved detail and would
know of this mans armor and the names and
color Of his horses; and how that this man sore
ly hit on the shoulder, fell; and that left his
life because spear thrust cleft his head, and
darkness was in his eyes, and so he went over
among dead heroes-.o fight over, 10 gray fields
of shades, bloodless battles with soundless
spears.
Mr. Church's tact in the selection of passages
is fine, and his English is most admirable. Saxon
sy,ry oil NIT hair oA, -
to the work the tone of an original. not trans
lation, while the simple and forceful phrases
of Homer constantly appear translated literally
into our speech. The beauty, effectiveness and
thorough intelligence of Mr.. Church's work
merit the highest commentators and Stories
from Homer may be unhesitatingly pronounced
a most satisfactory, valuable and delightful
addition to the many existing translations of
the classics.
Messrs Houghton & Osgood send an exceed
ingly choice and elegant selection of books
Cowper's Poems q vols. and Thomson's Poems,
in the Riverside Edition; Mr.. Longfellow's
Keramos, work whose beauty was set forth
as praise may depict poetry, in last weeks
literary review in these columns; another vol
ume of Poems of Place, wherein are to be
found selections from poems of which Russia,
its sce.es and its traditions, form the theme.
Byron's Mazeppa takes up much space, and de.
serves the place rather by its prominence as IA
miliar tale OF Russia than its literary worth. 1t
is little characteristic of the scenes or the native
sentiment of Russia, it is a rather tawdry and
theatrical tour de force of Byron, to which he
has wished to give the wild landscape of Rus.
sia as background. How widely it differs
from the tone of Russian feeling, how entirely
It is conventional piece of work, of which
time has worn off the gliding, will be seen by
comparing its fervid, forid and insincere
rhetoric with the songs of the Russian People,
on page 223, or with Mr.. Longfellow's White
Gar, page 21S. Coichis (Transcaucasia) gives
the opportunity for three selections from Mr..
Morris admirable Life and Death of Jason.
Also from Messrs Houghton & Osgood are
Memoirs of Gen. Bartlett, reviewed from ad.
vance sheets last week; Favorits Poems by
Leigh Hunt and Essays from Ella, two volumes
of the Vest-pocket Series; Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds, another volume of Mr.. M. f. Sweetsers
agreeable and reliable Artist Biographies, and
which reads like Court Journal so full is it of
names of the titled and eminent of the time.
The character of the great portrait painter is
clearly set forth; and Mr.. Sweetser proves him
self in each volume of this series to have the
rare art of apprecating the best of the life and
intentions of his subjects; and never sacrificing
truth he is always able to give genial and
pleasant portraiture. All these publications of
Messrs. Houghton & Osgood are for sale by
Messrs. Loring, Short & Harmon.
The Cruise of the Challenger by Sir g. Wy
vile Thomson New York: Harper Brothers;
Portland: Loring, Short s. Harmony although
the author calls it a preliminary account of the
voyage, occupies the space contained in two
large volumes And of its many pages there is
not one but contains useful, practical and
highly interesting facts as to the physical geog-
raphy, natural history, etc. of the line of the
cruise. The course of the Challenger may be
learned from the headings of the chapters.
starting from Portsmouth (England) it pro-
ceeded to Teneriffe, Sombrero 81. Thomas. the
Bermudas, Madeira, Brazil and the Cane of
Good Hope, at which point the homeward
journey began. Sir q. Wyville Thomson is
Professor of Natural History at the University
OF Edinburgh, and to him was committed the
charge OF that department of science on board
the Challenger. How admirably his work was
done, with what spirit, untiring energy and
Keen observation, may be gathered from the
results as set forth in this. volume Beside its
scientific worth, it is most agreeable reading, |
and one feels himself to have made valuable