MRS. JAMESON. Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical. From the last London edition. 1 vol. 12mo. $1.00, gilt $1.50. A volume which ought to be in every woman's library, and read daily in aid of the womanly virtues. It is a production to do good to the heart and the intellect, and the diamond of Shakspeare's genius is never seen to greater advantage than by the side of this pearl of a commentator. The great dramatist might have had more things in his mind than are dreamt of in our philosophy, but we doubt whether he ever thought to have had in this age and generation so judicious and true an illustrator of his mind's'impersonations as has risen up in the gifted Englishwoman. - KNICKERBOCKER. Nothing else has been written on the poet's female characters, that can at all compare with it. — COURIER. GEORGE COMBE. The Constitution of Man; Considered in Relation to External Objects. By George 1 volume, 12mo, price 75 cents. The edition of this work before us is the 27th published in this country, from the latest English edition, and is corrected and much enlarged. Of the merits of the work it is almost needless to speak, as its extensive adoption as a general reading book in families, and class book in schools, has made its reputation everywhere familiar. There are few books extant, the universal introduction of which would be productive of more benefit. - NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER. ALFRED TENNYSON. Complete Poetical Works. Illustrated with a fine Portrait of the author. 2 vols. 16mo. $1.50, cloth $1.75, gilt $2.50. There are few living poets who can be compared with Tennyson, in those peculiar, distinctive qualities, which raise the true poet to that quick apprehension of spiritual beauty, which furnishes him with perpetual inspiration, and to the glad world an overflowing song. EDINBURGH REVIEW. Of the living poets of England - we include not the few choice spirits of Scotland-Tennyson at this time occupies the highest rank, and he is destined to a wide and high regard.-DR. GRISWOLD. The Princess. A Medley. 1 vol. 16mo. 50 cents, gilt $1.00. If we were to express the feeling of satisfaction with which we have just read every word of this beautiful, charming and profound little book, we should be thought extravagant. Nor does it stand in need of any enthusiastic commendation to secure for it a very large circle of readers, for of all living poets hardly any has a wider or more desirable reputation in this country than Tennyson; the mere announcement of a new Poem from his pen will send thousands on an immediate pilgrimage to their respective bookstores. N. Y. TRIBUNE. The poem, of which we have here given the merest skeleton, is full of those delicate, subtle masterstrokes of original genius for which Tennyson is remarkable. It is wrought up with all his marvellous power of language and illustration, and we scarcely doubt will be by common consent pronounced the noblest of his works. COURIER AND INQUIRER. In Memoriam. (Just Issued.) 1 vol. 16mo, cloth, 75 cents. WILLIAM MOTHERWELL. The Poetical Works. With Memoir by James M'Conechy, Esq. A new Edition, Enlarged. 1 vol. 16mo. 75 cents, cloth 88 cents, gilt $1.25. The first thing which strikes the reader of Motherwell is the versatility of his poetic talents. He appears equally in his element in the wild, ravenous, life-scorning war-spirit which runs through the Battle-flag of Sigurd and the Sword Chant of Thorstein Raudi, in the sweet pathos and simplicity of Jeannie Morrison, and My Heid is like to rend, Willie in the gloomy grandeur of Halbert the Grim, and the mournful sublimity of The Midnight Wind; and in the light, bouyant and devil-may-care feeling which almost dances 'along the line' of the Trooper's Ditty. There is no feebleness in Motherwell, no mawkish sentimentality, no straining after effect, but his poems are fresh, natural and original, teeming with felicitous expression and rich and appropriate imagery, and bearing evidence on every page of the fine imagination and deep feeling from which they sprung. TIMES. Motherwell was a poet of the right cast, a man of fire and inspiration. When we read his verses, we feel that the writer is not mocking us with an affectation of what he describes; but that he has surrendered himself, heart and soul, to the passion that carries us along with him. - LITERARY WORLD. His language never gives offence by its verbiage or indistinctness, and his lines are unexceptionable. He exhibits invention and fancy. but his greatest merit is his earnestness. It is this throwing the whole soul into his theme, which breathes forth in the pathos of "Jeannie Morison," and the intensity of " Agony! Keen Agony!" giving to both an individuality which is scarcely merited by any peculiar originality of thought or expression. His genius may rather be called domestic, and exhibits a gentleness and delicacy in the pathetic, and an intensity and passion in more stirring themes, which may be looked for in vain among writers of higher pretensions, and whether on mournful or passionate subjects, his productions are equally removed from puerility on the one hand, or affectation on the other. POST. Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern. Edited by Motherwell. With an Historical Introduction and Notes. 2 vols. 16mo. $1.50, cloth $1.75, gilt $2.50. In fact it is a book which takes after the heart of almost any body who has one, and with its rich Scotch brogue and its high strung Scotch feeling, it must be a hard heart that will not be touched now and then with it. CHRONOTYPE. Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, is the title of a work in two volumes, by one who in his brief life-time gained a deserved reputation as one of the sweetest poets, Scotland, the land of poesy, has yet produced. These volumes are devoted to the illustration of the ancient narrative ballads of Scotland, and possess great attraction for all who feel interest in the songs of a people. Motherwell's task was performed con amore- no one more capable could have been found, and the Minstrelsy, therefore, is a work that well deserved the compliment paid by its republication. — U. S. GAZETTE. A collection in two volumes of narrative ballads - the romantic poesy, so to speak, of those facile writers who lived in a generation long since passed away. To the first volume is affixed an able introduction by William Motherwell on the style and fashion of the ballads which form the compilation—an exercise bearing its due burthen of instruction, and well calculated to explain the nature of the "minstrelsy" which follows. These ancient ballads have an interest not only from the quaintness and piquancy of their style, but from the peculiarity of the tales upon which they are founded, and they are novel too, to most readers, having been gathered together, with much care, from many "holes and corners." We doubt not that these ancient songs embody many true tales in their quaint numbers-tales which, in one sense, have become like olden legends, sacred from tradition and peculiar associations. — TRANSCRIPT. Most of the ballads he has selected, are beautiful specimens of that natural poetry, which springs directly from the heart and imagination, in words and images fresh and bright from nature's own mint. The interest of the reader is enhanced by feeling that he is reading poems which were sung, centuries ago, in the palace halls, and by the cottage hearths of a whole nation, and which formed the literature of thousands on thousands of minds who had no other. Every thing in them betokens youth of feeling. The minstrels seem to have looked upon nature, as if it had just come from the Creator's hand, and as if they were the first to exercise upon it the plastic powers of imagination and passion. -COURIER. RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES. Poems of Many Years. 1 vol. 16mo. 75 cents, cloth 88 cents, gilt $1.25. The author, who is, or was a Member of Parliament, has for the last ten years divided with Tennyson the administration and affection of Young England.' His style is eminently pure, and something in the Wordsworthian strain. The Lay of the Humble' is one of the most touching things in the language. We never saw a thoughtful child that could read it without shedding tears - and many a child-like man has wept over its simple pathos and beauty. Milnes is too sincere and sensitive not to please the million. His poems are full of beauties. - POST. To all sensitive and irritable spirits his poems must come like a benediction. A large number of them have been widely circulated. In England his reputation is quite extensive; and the present elegant edition of his best compositions must have the effect of making his genius more generally recognized in this country. -- COURIER. HORACE AND JAMES SMITH. Rejected Addresses: Or, the New Theatrum Poetarum. From the last London Edition, carefully Revised, with an original Preface and Notes, by the authors. 1 vol. 16mo. 50 cents. It is perhaps the most successful attempt at poetical parody in our language. As the joint production of two brothers, Horace and James Smith, the work is a remarkable evidence of genius. Although at first declined by the London publishers, it has gone through nineteen editions in England. - TRANSCRIPT. In selecting one of the raciest and wittiest works of the age, for re-publication, Ticknor & Co. have certainly evinced as much judgment as the whole appearance of the work betrays good taste and the perfection of the art of printing. The work has already gone through nineteen London editions, which is a sufficient guarantee for its popularity in this country, so long as British and American taste bear any thing like their present close resemblance.-TIMES. |