The Boston Book. Being Specimens of Metropolitan Literature. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1 vol. 12mo.
This beautiful volume contains prose and poetical pieces from some fifty writers hailing from Boston, such as Willis, Dana, Hillard, Sumner, Emerson, Sprague, Choate, Webster, Buckingham, Whittier, Fields, Lowell, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Holmes, and the like. A number of the articles are original contributions. Among the best of these are the poems by Holmes and Parsons. The editor has exhibited great taste in his choice of matter, both as regards excellence and variety, including, as he has, in one duodecimo, not only fair specimens of Boston belles-lettres, but selecting pieces addressed to almost every mood, satirical, humorous, tender, thoughtful, impassioned, imaginative and didactive, and written in all varieties of style and manner. We have poets lyrical, and poets elegaic; poets of the school of Goldsmith and Gray, and poets of the school of Wordsworth and Coleridge; prose writers with sentences long as Hooker’s, and prose writers with sentences short as Macaulay’s; and the general impression left by the book is, that the city it represents is under the dominion of no clique of writers, but that all kinds find “ample room and verge enough” for their peculiarities, and follow their own sweet will without any fear of established canons. In looking through the volume, one is surprised to find how few of the contributors are men of letters by profession. There are literary clergymen, poetic physicians, ethical merchants, and transcendental lawyers in abundance, with a good representation of men who live on the interest of their money, and only write from occasional impulse, but no litterateurs, and no hacks.
The book is really creditable to Boston, and its interest is not merely local. The publishers have issued it in that style of elegance for which they are widely celebrated.
The Pilot; a Tale of the Sea. By the Author of the Spy, etc. Revised, Corrected, and Illustrated, with a new Introduction. Notes, etc. by the Author. New York: George P. Putnam. 1 vol. 12mo.
We are glad to welcome this handsome volume, so soon following the lead of “The Spy.” A collection of Cooper’s works, in a style worthy of their merit and their position in American literature, we doubt not will be a good speculation for author and bookseller. The present volume is one of the most popular of the series, and will ever keep its position among standard novels, whatever fate should befall some of the others.
The Caravan; A Collection of Popular Tales. Translated from the German of Wilhelm Hauff. By G. P. Quackenbos, A. M. Illustrated by J. W. Orr. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 16mo.
This is a good translation of a good book. The stories are thoroughly German, though the costume and manners are Asiatic, and from their supernatural character, take a strong hold upon the feelings through the imagination. The Spectre Ship is especially powerful.