About Dickens. By Henry Leff man, M.D. (The Author, Phila-
delphia.)—A lover of Dickens may learn not a little from this volume. The first of the six essays may be taken with some probability as the occasion of the book. "Dickens's Doctors" is the subject. Dickens, Dr. Leffman feels, was not quite fair to the doctors, but he was not much better to any class,—perhaps the Nonconforming ministers have most to complain of. The chapter about Dickens and animals is distinctly informing. Why should it be called " Dickens as a Nature Faker " ? So is that on " German Appreciations of Dickens." A diligent student of the writer, Dr. Leffman always learns much, he tells us, from translations. What is a more familiar phenomenon than that to know a passage thoroughly one must turn it into some other language ? The colloquialism of Dickens presents an enormous difficulty. " Spell it with a we "—incorrectly given here as " put it down"—must be a puzzler indeed. Then there are the frequent allusions to nursery rhymes. A special criticism is that "Little Dorrit" should have been rendered, not by "Kleine Dorrit," but by the affectionate diminution " Dorritchen." Altogether, this is a welcome addition to " Diclsensiana."
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