Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
Religion
Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Our attention was first drawn to this work by a notice of it in that
sprightly paper, the _Round Table_. The writer of the notice therein
says: 'I am at a loss where to award its authorship, since it comes
anonymously, but from internal evidence it seems to be a translation
from the German, and to have been rendered likewise into French. It
seems also to have been written before the official publication of the
documentary evidence given on Joan's trial, which was committed to the
press for the first time in 1847, and which within ten years thereafter
was the occasion of an address to the present Emperor of the French,
accompanied by elaborate historical notes, praying him to take the
preliminary steps to secure the canonization of the Maid. It is always
to be regretted that a book is put forth, like the present, without any
vouchers for its authenticity, especially when the knowledge of its
origin dimly presents itself to the reader upon perusal.' We can imagine
no possible reason for the suppression of the name of the careful and
conscientious author of the work under consideration. Such suppressions
and literary piracies expose the writers and translators of America to
suspicion and censure. Have we any right to defraud an author of his
just fame, or to use his works to fill our own pockets, without at least
giving the name of the man to whose labors we stand indebted for our
whole tissue? We think our publishers should frown upon all such
attempts, bearing as they do upon the just claims of foreign authors.
The work in question is a translation from the German of Guido Goerres,
the son of the great Goerres, author of 'The History of Mysticism.' So
far as we have examined it, it gives the original without abridgment
until the thirtieth chapter, when, in the most interesting part of the
whole life, condensation and omissions begin. The ten last chapters of
the original are crowded into three. We have thirty-three chapters in
the translation, and forty in the original. Many of the most
characteristic, exciting, and intensely interesting passages of the
wonderful trial are excluded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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