Verdi: Man and Musician. By F. J. Crowest. (Milne. 7s.
Cal.) — If enthusiastic admiration for the subject of a biography is a sufficient qualification for writing it, no one ought to succeed better than Mr. Crowest. Unfortunately this is not the case, and the pity is that with all his enthusiasm, and with all the capacity for sympathising with the career and appreciating the compositions of a musician, which the writer's love for music and thorough knowledge of it give, he should have allowed so many blemishes to injure his book. It is not until we have read two-thirds of it that we get any distinct idea what manner of man Verdi was. Till then he is no personality, but a mere name to us. We could well have dispensed too, with the long criticisms from the Athenwum, quoted only to be contradicted, with which the author fills his pages. Mr. Crowest's own views and criticisms are far more to the purpose. Above all, he should avoid those smartnesses of style which border on vulgarity and jar on the ear,—for example, as such phrases or expressions : "the Trovatore, times and oft, has done the trick for managers in filling their coffers," or "pianoforte butchery." Mr. Crowest has sufficient command of language to dispense with such cheap tricks of style.
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