The Life of William Malcepeace Thackeray. By Lewis Melville. With
25 Illustrations and Portraits. 2 vols. (Hutchinson and Co. 32s.) —Mr. Melville is of opinion that Thackeray's wish to be spared a biography was not serious. What Thackemy feared was, we fancy, the inept laudation of an incompetent judge, and that is what Mr. Melville has bestowed upon him. There is no single new fact, so far as we can discover, produced in these two portly_ volumes ; they are simply a rehash of all that has been written about Thackemy, eked out with profuse quota- tion from his writings. Except for silliness the volumes are void of offence, taken as a commentary; as a bibliography they are decidedly.useful ; but the state in which the letterpresa appears is by no means creditable to the publishers. There is no evidence that the proofs have been read, even by a moderately competent printer's reader. Mr. Melville may, for instance, have written the phrase "more Thackemyana," but he can scarcely have intended to write " Altephi " for Adelphi, " Talleyrande " for Talleyrand. Surely some one connected with the issue of the book might have detected these things, even if no one knew the gender of mos. Moreover, the pagination was confused in the volume which came into our hands. Mr. Melville, who is obviously the merest novice in literature, may, perhaps, be excused for underrating the importance of accuracy in these matters : his publishers cannot.
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