The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 11, July, 1835Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 11, July, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
_American Republication of Foreign Quarterlies_.--The London, Edinburg
and Westminster Reviews for April, 1835, have been republished by Mr.
Foster, in his cheap and valuable series of periodicals. The Edinburg
Review contains an article on American Poetry, in the course of which
a general glance at the literature of this country is taken; and a
more favorable opinion expressed of its achievements than that work
has hitherto entertained. This fact is worthy of remark, when it is
recollected that the taunting query, "Who reads an American book?"
emanated from that journal not many years since. The most attractive
articles in the Westminster, are those upon "Lucy Aiken's Court of
Charles II," and "Dunlop's Memoirs of Spain." To us, an article in the
Quarterly on "Maria, or Slavery in the United States, a picture of
American Manners, by Gustave de Beaumont, one of the authors of a work
on the Penitentiary System in the United States"[1]--"The Stranger in
America, by F. Leiber," and "New England and her Institutions, by one
of her sons," is the most attractive in the April number. The work of
M. de Beaumont has not, as we have heard, been translated or
republished in this country. His views of our manners and institutions
are exhibited in the form of a novel, which the Quarterly declares to
possess considerable interest, and to display in parts a large share
of the true genius of romance, notwithstanding that the incidents are
few and the commentaries copious. The author declares in a preface,
that "though his personages are fictitious, every trait of character
has been sketched from the life, and that almost every incident in his
tale may be depended on as a fact that had fallen under his own
observation." The reviewer is somewhat scandalized at the author's
avowal of "his belief that the democratic system of government, as now
established in America, is the best machinery that ever was invented
for developing the political independence and happiness of mankind,"
and endeavors to show that M. de Beaumont's strictures upon our
manners and condition (and he cannot be charged with undue lenity in
his censure) are inconsistent with that avowal. The reviewer makes
copious extracts from the work, which show that the author is disposed
to censure severely the condition of the colored population in this
country, without a fair consideration of the circumstances which
produced it. But we can scarcely judge of the book from the extracts
in the review, which are probably the most unfavorable that could be
found, as the reviewer displays a strong desire to draw from the
opinions of the French author, support for the assertions of English
travellers.
[Footnote 1: "Marie, ou l'Esclavage aux Etas-Unis, Tableau de Moeurs
Americaines par Gustave de Beaumont, l'un des Auteurs de l'ouvrage
intitulé Du Systeme Pénitentiare aux Etas-Unis."]
* * * * *
MY LIFE, by the author of Tales of Waterloo, &c. New York: Harper &
Brothers. 1835.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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