"The ill.u.s.trations are truly beautiful, and are exquisitely engraved.
They are from designs by Darley, who has risen to high eminence in his department of art. The entire execution of the volume is a proud evidence of growing superiority in book-making on the part of American publishers. And this liberality has not been displayed upon a work unworthy of it."--_N. Y. Commercial Adv._
NEW BOOKS
RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY
A. HART, late CAREY & HART,
_No. 126 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia._
HISTORICAL AND SECRET MEMOIRS OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, (Marie Rose Tascher de la Pagerie,) FIRST WIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
BY MLLE. M. A. LE NORMAND.
_Translated from the French by Jacob M. Howard, Esq._
In 2 vols., 700 pages, muslin extra gilt.
"It possesses great intrinsic interest. It is a chequered exhibition of the _undress life_ of Napoleon. All the glitter and pomp and dust of glory which bewilder the mind is laid; and we behold not the hero, the emperor, the guide and moulder of destiny, but a poor sickly child and creature of circ.u.mstance--affrighted by shadows and tortured by straws."--_Philada. City Item._
"This is one of the most interesting works of the day, containing a multiplicity of incidents in the life of Josephine and her renowned husband, which have never before been in print."--_N. O. Times._
"This is a work of high and commanding interest, and derives great additional value from the fact a.s.serted by the auth.o.r.ess, that the greater portion of it was written by the empress herself. It has a vast amount of information on the subject of Napoleon"s career, with copies of original doc.u.ments not to be found elsewhere, and with copious notes at the end of the work."--_N. O. Com. Bulletin_.
"Affords the reader a clearer insight into the private character of Napoleon than he can obtain through any other source."--_Baltimore American._
"They are agreeably and well written; and it would be strange if it were not so, enjoying as Josephine did, familiar colloquial intercourse with the most distinguished men and minds of the age. The work does not, apparently, suffer by translation."--_Baltimore Patriot._
"It is the history--in part the secret history, written by her own hand with rare elegance and force, and at times with surpa.s.sing pathos--of the remarkable woman who, by the greatness of her spirit was worthy to be the wife of the soaring Napoleon. It combines all the value of authentic history with the absorbing interest of an autobiography or exciting romance."--_Item._
PROSE WRITERS OF GERMANY.
BY FREDERICK H. HEDGE.
ILl.u.s.tRATED WITH EIGHT PORTRAITS AND AN ENGRAVED t.i.tLE-PAGE, FROM A DESIGN BY LEUTZE.
_Complete in One Volume Octavo._
=Contents.=
Luther, Boehme, Sancta Clara, Moser, Kant, Lessing, Mendelssohn, Hamann, Wieland, Musaus, Claudius, Lavater, Jacobi, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Fichte, Riehter, A. W. Schlegel, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Zschokke, F. Schlegel, Hardenberg, Tieck, Sch.e.l.ling, Hoffmann, Chamisso.
"The author of this work--for it is well ent.i.tled to the name of an original production, though mainly consisting of translations--Frederick H. Hedge of Bangor, is qualified, as few men are in this country, or wherever the English language is written, for the successful accomplishment of the great literary enterprise to which he has devoted his leisure for several years.
"Mr. Hedge has displayed great wisdom in the selection of the pieces to be translated; he has given the best specimens of the best authors, so far as was possible in his limited s.p.a.ce.
"We venture to say that there cannot be crowded into the same compa.s.s a more faithful representation of the German mind, or a richer exhibition of the profound thought, subtle speculation, ma.s.sive learning and genial temper, that characterize the most eminent literary men of that nation."--_Harbinger._
"What excellent matter we here have. The choicest gems of exuberant fancy, the most polished productions of scholarship, the richest flow of the heart, the deepest lessons of wisdom, all translated so well by Mr.
Hedge and his friends, that they seem to have been first written by masters of the English tongue."--_The City Item._
"We have read the hook with rare pleasure, and have derived not less information than enjoyment."--_Knickerbocker._
"The selections are judicious and tasteful, the biographies well written and comprehensive."--_Inquirer._
NAPOLEON AND THE MARSHALS OF THE EMPIRE.
Complete in 2 vols. 12mo.,
_With 16 Steel Portraits in Military Costume_.
Contents.
Napoleon, Jourdan, Serrurier, Lannes, Brune, Perignon, Oudinot, Soult, Davoust, Ma.s.sena, Murat, Mortier, Ney, Poniatowski, Grouchy, Bessieres, Berthier, Souchet, St. Cyr, Victor, Moncey, Marmont, Macdonald, Bernadotte, Augereau, Lefebvre, Kellermann.
The biographies are twenty-seven in number--Napoleon and his twenty-six marshals, being all those created by him--and therefore these pages have a completeness about them which no other work of a similar design possesses.
The style is clear and comprehensive, and the book may be relied upon for historical accuracy, as the materials have been drawn from sources the most authentic. The Conversations of Napoleon, with Montholon, Gourgaud, Las Cases and Dr. O"Meara have all been consulted as the true basis upon which the lives of Napoleon and his commanders under him should be founded.
"The article on Napoleon, which occupies the greater part of the first volume, is written in a clear and forcible style and displays marked ability in the author. Particular attention has been paid to the early portion of Napoleon"s life, which other writers have hurriedly dispatched as though they were impatient to arrive at the opening glories of his great career."--_N. Y. Mirror._
"The lives of the Marshals and their Chief, the military paladins of the gorgeous modern romance of the "Empire," are given with historic accuracy and without exaggeration of fact, style or language."--_Baltimore Patriot._
"We have long been convinced that the character of Napoleon would never receive "even handed justice" until some impartial and intelligent American should undertake the task of weighing his merits and demerits.
In the present volume this has been done with great judgment. We do not know the author of the paper on Napoleon, but whoever he may he, allow us to say to him that he has executed his duty _better than any predecessor_."--_Evening Bulletin._
"The style of this work is worthy of commendation--plain, pleasing and narrative, the proper style of history and biography in which the reader does not seek fancy sketches, and dashing vivid pictures, but what the work professes to contain, biographies. We commend this as a valuable library book worthy of preservation as a work of reference, after having been read."--_Balt. American._
"This is the clearest, most concise, and most interesting life of Napoleon and his marshals which has yet been given to the public. The arrangement is judicious and the charm of the narrative continues unbroken to the end."--_City Item._
"The publishers have spared no pains or expense in its production, and the best talent in the country has been engaged on its various histories. The style is plain and graphic, and the reader feels that he is perusing true history rather than the ramblings of a romantic mind."--_Lady"s Book._
"The result of these joint labors is a series of narratives, in which the events succeed each other so rapidly, and are of so marvelous a cast, as to require only the method in arrangement and the good taste in description which they have received from the hands of their authors.
The inflated and the Ossianic have been happily avoided."--_Colonization Herald._
"Their historical accuracy is unimpeachable, and many of them (the biographies) are stamped with originality of thought and opinion. The engravings are numerous and very fine. The book is well printed on fine white paper, and substantially bound. It deserves a place in all family and school libraries."--_Bulletin._
"It abounds in graphic narratives of battles, anecdotes of the world-famed actors, and valuable historical information."--_Richmond Inquirer._
"We receive, therefore, with real pleasure, this new publication, having a.s.surance that great pains have been taken in the preparation of each individual biography, and especially in collating the various authorities upon the early history of the Emperor. There appears to be nowhere any attempt to blind the reader by dazzling epithets, and the accuracy of construction throughout is highly creditable to the editor."--_Commercial Advertiser N. Y._
"The style is simplicity itself, wholly free from the amusing pomposity and absurd inflation that distinguish some of the works which have gone before it."