It only remains to say a few words of the translator's labours; and
although we do not pretend to decide on the fidelity of the version he has
given us, or how much his author may have lost or gained in his hands, we
cannot but think that we perceive internal evidence of efforts to be
faithful, even at the hazard of losing perhaps something of more value in
the attempt. However this may be, it is plain that Mr Shaw is himself a
vigorous and eloquent writer of his own language, as the extracts we have
given may vouch. We feel greatly indebted to him for unlocking to us the
stores of Russian fiction, which, if they contain many such works as _The
Heretic_, will well repay the labour of a careful examination. There is
about every thing Russian an air of orientalism which gives a peculiar
character to their dress, their mansions, their manners, their feelings,
their expressions, and their prejudices, which will probably long continue
to distinguish Russian literature on that of the other nations of Europe,
whose steps she has followed, perhaps too implicitly, in her attempts to
overtake them in the race of civilization and intellectual improvement.
* * * * *
THRUSH-HUNTING.
BY ALEXANDER DUMAS.
We have heard of certain cooks, the Udes and Vatels of their day, whose
boast it was to manufacture the most sumptuous and luxurious repast out of
coarse and apparently insufficient materials. We will take the liberty of
comparing M. Dumas with one of these artistical _cuisiniers_, possessing in
the highest degree the talent of making much out of little, by the skill
with which it is prepared, and the piquant nature of the condiments
applied. A successful dramatist, as well as a popular romance-writer, his
dialogues have the point and brilliancy, his narrative the vivid terseness,
generally observable in novels written by persons accustomed to dramatic
composition. Confining himself to no particular line of subject, he
rambles through the different departments of light literature in a most
agreeable and desultory manner; to-day a tourist, to-morrow a novelist;
the next day surprising his public by an excursion into the regions of
historical romance, amongst the well-beaten highways and byways of which
he still manages to discover an untrodden path, or to embellish a familiar
one by the sparkle of his wit and industry of his researches. The majority
of his books convey the idea of being written _currente calamo_, and with
little trouble to himself; and these have a lightness and brilliancy
peculiar to their lively author, which cannot fail to recommend them to
all classes of readers. They are like the sketches of a clever artist, who,
with a few bright and bold touches, gives an effect to his subject which
no labour would enable a less talented painter to achieve. But M. Dumas
can produce highly finished pictures as well as brilliant sketches,
although for the present it is one of the latter that we are about to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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