Critical Essays and Literary Notes. By Bayerd Taylor. (Sampson Lew
and Co.)—In the Essays and Literary Notes of Mr. Bayard Taylor, we have a reprint of articles contributed by him at different dates to the Atlantic Monthly, the International Renew, the New' York Tribune, and other American journals. Most of these will probably be new reading for the English public, and they are inter- esting from the fresh and original thought that Mr. Taylor has givers to his subjects. Among the authors whom he criticises will be found many of those. who, either in the past or present, have contributed to place American literature on the level on which it stands ; and if BOLTIO among the names are unknown to English readers, Mr. Taylor's essays may be the means of opening up new sources of pleasure. The notes on these are, as a rule, short, but they are full of pregnant suggestion, and free-spoken though kindly criticism. In dealing with foreign authors, his judgment is perhaps less warped by mercy than when he speaks of his own countrymen, but criticisms by foreign critics are akin to those passed when death and time have. removed any lingering sentiment that might attach to an author whilst he is still a member of the body militant. A few of the essays are of greater length, and two of these, giving an account of his stay at Weimar, arc extremely interesting. Mr. Taylor had in view a combined life of Goethe and Schiller, and although this work never went beyond its author's brain, the amount of tradition that he managed to get to- gether for it during the months passed at Weimar gave prom ise of a work which wo are sorry to have lost. Those to whom Goethe is a sacred name will find these chapters full of sympathy, and the description of the highly cultivated society in which Goethe's memory still makes a living element may even attract a few enthusiasts to visit what, is otherwise " a dull, little town, in a hollow, among bare, windy uplands."
Previous page
