Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847.Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847.
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
On the other hand, we shall be able to introduce to our readers
(should it be hitherto unknown to them) one volume, at least, which
they will be willing to transfer from the American to the English
library. The "Mosses from an old Manse," is occasionally written with
an elegance of style which may almost bear comparison with that of
Washington Irving; and though certainly it is inferior to the works of
that author in taste and judgment, and whatever may be described as
artistic talent, it exhibits deeper traces of thought and reflection.
What can our own circulating libraries be about? At all our places of
summer resort they drug us with the veriest trash, without a spark of
vitality in it, and here are tales and sketches like these of
Nathaniel Hawthorne, which it would have done one's heart good to have
read under shady coverts, or sitting--no unpleasant lounge--by the
sea-side on the rolling shingles of the beach. They give us the
sweepings of Mr Colburn's counter, and then boastfully proclaim the
zeal with which they serve the public. So certain other servants of
the public feed the eye with gaudy advertisements of every generous
liquor under heaven, and retail nothing but the sour ale of some
crafty brewer who has contrived to bind them to his vats and his
mash-tub.
The first book we opened of this series is one called, with a charming
alliteration, "Views and Reviews," by the author of "The Yemassee,
&c." whom we fortunately learn, from another quarter, to be a
gentleman of the more commodious name of Mr Sims; and the first words
which caught our eye were "Americanism in Literature," printed in
capital letters, it being the title of an essay which has for its
object to stimulate the Americans to the formation of a national
literature. This appears to be a favourite subject with a certain
class of their writers, more distinguished for ardour than for
judgment. Mrs Margaret Fuller, in her Papers on Literature and Art, is
also eloquent on the same theme. Let us first hear Mr Sims. There is
in this gentleman's enthusiasm a business-like air which is highly
amusing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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