Descriptive Lists of American, International, Romantic, and British Novels. Compiled
by W. M. Griswold. (Griswold, Cam- bridge, Mass.)—This bulky volume of more than six hundred pages, printed in double columns, must have given no slight labour to the compiler. His purpose is to remind readers that novels written some years ago may be better worth reading than many fictions of the day. A short review abridged from an English or American journal is given under each title; but as some of these notices are severe instead of laudatory, they do not in all cases fulfil the compiler's aim. Mr. Griswold prints his Lists in a kind of phonetic orthography, which must, we think, disgust even American readers. Here are a few specimens of this amputating process. "Rit " for "right," " si" for "sigh," " 6t " for " ought," " brat " for " brought," " that " for " thought," " knits " for " knights," " lit " for " light ;" and where a verb ends with " e," the vowel is usually clipped off,—" hay," " liv," " ar," may suffice for examples. The English " reviler " (to give one more specimen of Mr. Griswold's spelling), in taking up a book like this, is repelled at the outset. There is a criticism in the volume by a certain Maurice Thompson, in which he observes that American young people read English books to their own undoing. The writers, he says, intend no harm; their books are strictly moral ; but "they are un-American, and we do not want them." Well, this is very much our feeling with regard to the abominable orthography of this volume. There may be no intention to do our
language harm, but Mr. Griswold's spelling is un-English, and we do not want it.
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