Memoir of Percy Bysshe Shelley. With new Preface by William
Michael Rossetti. (Slark.)—Critics who find it impossible to accept Mr. Rossetti's exalted estimate of Shelley, will give him credit for the most painstaking veracity. He is wholly free from what he calls "the poet's haziness of mind in matters of fact," and his judg. meat on all such matters is generally wise and impartial. He is modest enough to say of Professor Dowden's forthcoming biography, "It ought to, and I dare say it will, supersede most of the preceding literature on the subject ;" but as a brief and yet full narrative, Mr. Rossetti's memoir, published in 1870, and revised in 1878, will pro- bably hold its place as a thoroughly good piece of literary work, produced by a highly cultivated and sympathetic critic. In the
preface to the present edition, Mr. Rossetti states that since 1878 several fresh particulars about Shelley have been made public, and by the help of these he corrects, with the utmost brevity, some errors of his volume. For the most part they are insignificant errors, and are chiefly of interest as illustrating the truth-loving character of the biographer.
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