The Works of Oliver Goldsmith, Illustrated. With a Life by
John Francis Waller, LL.D. (Cassell, Petter, and Galpin.)—This is a very handsome volume—paper, typo, and binding are all of the best. The illustrations are numerous, and if they are open to the charge of conventionality and want of keeping, the same faults are to be found in the "Vicar of Wakefield " itself. If one were to object that while the illustration of the Vicar stirring the fire (p. 28) represents him as living in a room like the parlour of an old-fashioned farmhouse, the picture of the evening concert (p. 9) places him in a magnificent drawing-room and dresses the whole family in the height of the fashion, it might fairly be replied that the novel itself abounds in similar incongruities. In the same spirit the artist illustrates the plays. The picture of Marlow trying to kiss Kate Hardcastle (" She Stoops to Conquer," act. iii., sc. 1) represents a stage attempt at a kiss. You see that Marlow does not mean to succeed, and Kate is putting him aside just as the first young lady does it at the Haymarket or Olympic. This principle seems to us quite defensible if of late years it had not been so much overdone. The ffins- trations of "She Stoops to Conquer" seem to us on the whole the best in the volume. They have more expression than those of the Vicar. Throughout the volume the drawings are spirited, though sometimes incorrect. It is a very handsome edition of a dear old friend.
Previous page
