The Anthology of Modern French Poetry (Senior Course), edited by
Professors Cassel and Karcher, may rank among the best works of the kind ever published in this country. It contains selections from all those modern French poets who constitute the so-called Romantic school, and whose works form a most remarkable phase in the history of French literature. Besides Victor Hugo and Lamartine, the great representa- tives of the romantic movement, a host of less illustrious but by no means ordinary poets have given France a splendid treasure of poetry, which is unfortunately but little read out of that country. These poets occupy the greater part of the book before 1213, so that any one wishing to become acquainted, if but in a superficial manner, with the poetry of modern France, cannot do better than study its contents, and that study will prove no less instructive than captivating. We have only one fault to find with the editors, that of not having preserved a due propor- tion, according to merit, in the selection of the poems. Thus, -while Lamar- tine, for instance, is represented by only five poems, Mons. T. Karcher, one of the editors, and a poet himself, has no less than six of his own ; and though we cannot but speak with praise of them, we still think such men as Lamartine, Alfred de Musset, and others, deserve to occupy a more prominent place in a book which claims to reflect a whole period of literature. Apart from this, we consider the Anthology a most valu- able addition to the stock of works for the use of French students and contrasted with similar books already existing, it contains much that deserves to bo better known.
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