A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895)Saintsbury, George
History
A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895)
Saintsbury, George
English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
Causes of the French Revolution_ which is not worthy of it. His complete
works fill seven volumes.
Of these, the earlier travels are readable enough, and sometimes very
noteworthy in matter. It is almost enough to say that they contain some
of the latest accounts by an Englishman of France while it was still
merry, and of Venice while it was still independent; an early picture of
Alpine travel; very interesting personal sketches of Voltaire and
Frederick the Great; and one memorable passage (remembered and borrowed
by Scott in _Redgauntlet_) telling how at Florence the shadow of Prince
Charlie, passing the Duke of Hamilton in the public walks, fixed his
eyes earnestly on the Duke, as though saying, "Our ancestors were better
acquainted." _Zeluco_ and the _Journal_ alone deserve much attention
from any one but a professed student of literature. The value of the
latter has been admitted by all competent authorities, and it is
enhanced by the fact that Moore was a strong Whig, and was even accused
by some zealots of favouring Jacobinism. His picture, therefore, of the
way in which political revolution glides into ethical anarchy is
certainly unbiassed the other way. Of _Zeluco_ everybody, without
perhaps a very clear knowledge of its authorship, knows one passage--the
extremely humorous letter containing the John Bull contempt of the
sailor Dawson for the foolish nation which clothes its troops in "white,
which is absurd, and blue, which is only fit for the artillery and the
blue horse." But few know much more, though there is close by a much
more elaborate and equally good piece of Smollettian fun in the quarrel
of Buchanan and Targe, the Scotch Whig and Jacobite, over the reputation
of Queen Mary. The book, however, besides the unlucky drawback that
almost all its interest lies in the latter part, has for hero a sort of
lifeless monster of wickedness, who is quite as uninteresting as a
faultless one, and shows little veracity of character except in the
minor personages and episodes. In these, and indeed throughout Moore's
work, there is a curious mixture of convention with extreme shrewdness,
of somewhat commonplace expression with a remarkably pregnant and
humorous conception. But he lacks concentration and finish, and is
therefore never likely to be much read again as a whole.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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