Books and Play - Books. By Brander Matthews. (Osgood, Mcllvaine,
and Co.)—Mr. Matthews has much that is interesting
to tell us about copyright, the subject of his first essay. Who
would not be a Venezuelan author ? Venezuela gives a perpetual copyright, and if there were only a reading public would be a
paradise. On plays and playrights he has something to say, and
he criticises entice, English critics especially, with severity. The English novel is naught, and the Spectator, among other journals,
exaggerates its merits. He thinks better of Messrs. Andrew Lang and Robert Louis Stevenson than he does of most Britishers. "Huckleberry Finn" he pronounces to be Mark Twain's best story, and we are not disposed to quarrel with him here, nor when he appreciates MM. Francois Coppee and Ludovic Ilalevy. Altogether Mr. Matthews is a little too cock-sure, but he is worth reading. Is not " nervous and satisfactory" a curious collocation of epithets when one desires to praise a certain translation ?
Previous page
