The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1882-03-02
Literature.

| WAsHINGToN IRVING. By Charles Dudley
| Warner. This is the initial volume of the
| American Men of Letters series, in course of
| publication by Messrs. Houghton Miffin a Co.,
| and subject and author are alike well chosen.
The question, ''Who reads an American book
once asked with sneer, might now be answer
| ed" -"Evcrybody." Our poet Longfeow is q
greater favorite in England than the English
poet Laureate; the works of many of our pop
ular authors not only have large sales in Great
Britain but are translated into French and Ger
man. while our magazines are formidable COM
petitors among English readers of the London
| mOnthlies. Yet of Irving it is truly said that,
LAS he was the first to lift American literature
into the popular respect of Europe, so for IA long
time he was the chief representative of the
American name in the world of letters" That
his works are less read to-day than at anv time
since they We're written, is due to no fault of
theirs. Models of literary workmanship they
certainly are, with style as pure and limpd as
the waters of mountain brooks-wells of Eng
lish undetiled. The writer well remembers an
extract from Irving's writings in one of the
school readers of thirty years ago, in which the
finding of bee tree was described in such man.
ner as to cause ones mouth to water in read
ing it, and the pages upon which it was printed
were oftener thumbed than those of other text
books. THE Sketch Book" the legends of
rip Van Winkle" and Sleepy Hollow, the
two last illustrated by Darby-an the '.knith-
erbOckcr History" have been among the most
popular of Iryings works, and found ready ap-
probation among literary people. Mr.. Bryant
described Irying'> style as lone of the most
agreeable in the whole range of our litcrature; :;
Alexander Everett lauded his works to the
skies i'll the North American Review and Sir
Walter Scott extended his hand across the At
lantic to welcome the first really imaginative
writer i'll America.
Mr. Warner has shown ready appreciation
of what the public of to-day care to know Of the
distinguished man of letters and evidently is in
complete sympathy with his subject. He pre-
sens Il life sketch and estimate of the character
and work of Irving that has not been, and is not
likely to be, eXcclled. The neat form. the
beautiful clear type, the solid paper. the gener-
Gus margins, and above all the cxqui>itely exc
cuted likeness Of Irving. make up "A book of url-
common worth and attractivenesS. Price Sl.25.
For sale at the bookstores, or will be sent post
paid by the publishers, Houghton, Miflin 4
Co.. Boston.
tHANCELLORsNILLE AND GETTYsBURG. BY
Abner Doubleday, Byt. Maj.-Gen. I. :. A..
and late Maj.-Gen. I. 5. n. This is the sixth
volume Of the Campaigns Of the Civil War Sc
rieS, prepared with view to bringing together,
for the first time, full and authoritative mill
tary history of the suppressorS of the Rebellion.
Mention has been made, briefly, of the five pre-
cedng volumes, whose accuracy is youched for
on the highest authority and whose interest and
historical value are unquestoned. The present
volume has a special element of interest in the
fact of General Doubleday's high personal
command and prominent part in the actions he
describes, especially in the battle of GettyS-
burg. He was placed in position in which
the closest experience and directions Of some
of the turning points of the engagement fell to
his part and the intensity of this experience he
succeeds in transmitting to his readers without
losing the wider survey Of the whole field or
abandoning the proper point of views Of the
military historian. 1t is believed that the dia-
grams and maps of positions in this volume il
lustratc many complicated passages of the bat
tie more clearly than they have hitherto been
presented to the general reader. Price, 81.
Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers, New York.
NOTES.
The next Round Robin will be "A Tallaha,-
see Girl"
The Century Magazine will, in the neNt and
succeeding numbers. be largely occupied With
NJ. p, the historian, writes about BeaconstieId.
and incidentally about the Jews i'll general.
The numbers of The Living Age for the weeks
ending February 18th and 25th contain Carthage
and Tunis, Edinburgh; Old and New Canons
of Poctical Criticism, Contemporary; The Sici-
" of Thucyddes and Theocritus, Nineteenth
Century; ''The Man with the Red Hair" A Bit
of Loot, and How the Stars got their Names,
Cornhill; Inside Kairwan, BlackWood; An
English Slave i'll Madagascar, Temple Bar;
The Life Of Richard Golden, by John Morley.
Macmillan; Youth and Age, and The Chinese
Navy, Spectator; Blacks i'll Greenland. Pail
Mall Gazette; The Persecution of the Jews in
Russia and Germany, Times, and Morning
Post, Bess. Character Sketch, Chambers
journal; and the usual amount of poetry.
Litteil Il Co.. publishers Boston.
SHIPPING ITEMS. United States Commits
sioner Allen upon aquestion of assault on board
United States vessel in a foreign port, decided
that the United States has jurisdiction over all