Select Specimens of the Great French Writers in the 17th,
18th, and 19th Centuries. By G. Eugene Fasnaoht. (Macmillan.)— The plan followed by M. Fasnacht has been to give together specimens and criticisms on the writers, and to prefix, by way of introduction, an abridgment of Vinet's " Discours stir la litt6ra- ture francaise," and E. Faguet's " LittGrature du 19e siecle." The seventeenth century is divided into two periods,—the first, pre- faced by Sainte-Beuve's account of the foundation of the French Academy, contains Corneille (1606-84), Pascal, and La Roche- foucauld ; the second begins with Moliere and ends with Fenelon. A second part includes writers from Fontanelle to Bernardin de Saint Pierre ; a third, writers from Mirabeau to H. Taine,— Madame de State, Chateaubriand, Wronger, Lamartine, Thiers, Balzac, Victor Hugo, Dumas, George Sand, and. Ronan, being, perhaps, the most famous names. The volume contains a great mass of matter, judiciously chosen.
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