20 JANUARY 1877, Page 22

An Unrequited Love: an Episode in the Life of Beethoven.

By Ludwig Nohl. Translated by Annie Wood. (Bentley.)-About twenty years ago there were published some extracts from a young lady's diary relating to Beethoven—published, it will be understood, by the lady herself, who was then on the threshold of old age. Since then she has died, and the present volume gives the passages in a fuller form. We are inclined to think that this is a mistake ; not that there is anything here published which it would have been better to keep back, but simply because, when the subject is of so delicate a kind—the affection that the writer wasted on an unresponding heart—it is only the writer herself who could be trusted to deal with it. It is a melan- choly book from beginning to end, and most readers would find it tedious.