Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 68, No. 421, November 1850Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 68, No. 421, November 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
The prince has stolen the diadem from his own wife, in such a manner
as to cast suspicion upon others, and the Jew is to sell it to furnish
supplies for the extravagance of this dissolute heir to the crown.
Geigenfritz's knowledge of the shameful transaction is afterwards made
instrumental in procuring the release of Von Horberg and the other
prisoners. Convinced that the time is not yet ripe for the realisation
of their schemes of political regeneration, they emigrate to the United
States. There, a postscript informs the reader, Von Horberg, divorced
from his unworthy wife--who during his imprisonment, has become the
mistress of the prince-royal--is married to Anna Hammer. The interest
of the story is throughout well sustained.
_Anna Hammer_ will probably soon be, if it be not already, in the
hands of the translators. Rendered into English with a little care, by
equivalents, instead of with that painful literalness and abundance
of foreign idioms which too frequently shock us in translations of
German books, it would be very pleasant reading. Notwithstanding its
defects, its occasional carelessness and slight improbabilities, it
better deserves a translation than many of the foreign novels to which
that compliment has been paid within the last few years, and than some
which have been lauded to the skies and largely read. And we take this
opportunity to express our surprise that no member of the industrious
corps of translators from the German has directed his or her attention
to the writings of a man, who, for originality and genius, perception
of character and power of description, is very far superior even to
those of his German cotemporaries who have enjoyed the highest favour
in England. We refer to the gifted author of the German-American
Romances. Miss Bremer--although a Swede, we here class her amongst
German writers, her works having been done into English from the latter
language--has been translated at every price, and in every form, from
expensive octavo to shilling pamphlets. Not a bookshop or railway
station but is, or has been, crowded with her works. Without in the
least depreciating the talents of a lady who has written some very
pleasing tales and sketches, we should yet be greatly flattering her
did we place her on a level with such a writer as Charles Sealsfield.
Styles so opposite scarcely admit of comparison; but we apprehend there
are few readers to whom the best of her books will not appear tame and
insipid, when contrasted with the vigorous and characteristic pages of
such works as _The Cabin Book_, _The Viceroy and the Aristocracy_, or
_Pictures of Life in both Hemispheres_. Yet Sealsfield has been read
in England only to the limited extent of some short extracts in this
Magazine,[46] and of some yet briefer ones in a defunct Review.[47]
In the States he is better known and appreciated. There he has been
translated and re-translated in volumes, pamphlets and newspapers,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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