Literature.
Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Edited by “Boz.” London: Chapman and Hall.
Although it is a part of our plan, in the conduct of this Journal, to give it that varied character which shall constitute it the universal medium of instruction, information, and amusement for the class to which it is addressed, and therefore it needs no apology from us for introducing to our pages extracts from the writings of popular authors, such as those of the inimitable Dickens, yet we are impelled by a two-fold consideration to select from that source in this particular instance. That vein of withering satire in which the author has hitherto indulged in drawing out the character of Squeers, the Yorkshire school-master, is now, it seems, to flow afresh, in the delineation of Mr. Pecksniff, a Wiltshire architect. The broad dash of caricature with which he invests the portrait, is a peculiarity of the author that has no harm in it, since it is directed against a vicious practice, which deserves the strongest reprobation, and of which, as well as of the character of Pecksniff generally, it may be expected that our readers in particular will take an anxious cognizance. The very circumstance of the introduction of this worthy and his simple-minded pupil Pinch into the novel of Martin Chuzzlewit (for novel we suppose we must call it), will make us, and thousands of our class his readers, and eager expectants of the monthly issue which is to develope the workings of the miserable genius of Master Pecksniff. With this preface, we proceed with our purpose of drawing attention to the strong lights and shadows of the picture which arrests the eye of the architectural observer.