[563] The greatest of all--the direction and maintenance of the
revolution under the inspiration of what is called Romance--must be
again postponed for a little while.
[564] Of course the convulsions of '48 were ominous enough, but they
seemed to be everywhere repressed or placated for a considerable time;
and if there had been a single statesman of genius besides Herr von
Bismarck (I anticipate but decline the suggestion of Cavour) in the
Europe of the next two decades, they might not have broken out again for
a much longer time than was actually the case.
[565] Nearly--but fortunately for literature--not quite. The jobbery and
the tyranny which are inseparable from democracy in politics find room
with difficulty in _our_ "Republic."
[566] I am prepared for blame on account of some of the absences of
mention. Perhaps the most provoking, to some readers, will be those
affecting two industrious members of the aristocracy: Mme. la Comtesse
Dash--more beautifully and properly though less exaltedly, Gabrelli Anna
Cisterne de Courtiras, _Vi_comtesse de Saint-Mars--and M. le Comte
Xavier de Montepin. They overlapped each other in pouring forth, from
the 'forties to the 'nineties, torrents of mostly sensational fiction.
But I had rather read them than write about them.
[567] In the same place another novelist, M. Amedee de Bast, of whom I
again acknowledge ignorance, advertises no less than _four_ novels of
_four_ volumes each, as being actually all at press, _pour paraitre a
diverses epoques_. Dryden says somewhere "in epoches mistakes." Let us
hope there were none here.
APPENDIX
DATES OF PUBLICATION OF NOVELS ARRANGED UNDER AUTHOR'S NAMES IN THE
ORDER OF NOTICE HERE
(_These dates are given subject to the caution stated under Addenda and
Corrigenda for Vol. I., p. xvii of this present volume. It has not been
thought necessary to add editions, etc., as was done in Vol. I.: almost
all the books referred to being in common sale. For dates of the authors
themselves, see Index as before. Those of some books merely glanced at
are excluded to save room._)
Stael, Mme. de. _Delphine_, 1802; _Corinne_, 1807.
Chateaubriand. _Atala_, 1801, in the _Mercure_; _Rene_, 1802, in _Genie
du Christianisme_, 1805; _Le Dernier Abencerage_, 1805; _Les Martyrs_,
1809; _Les Natchez_ in _Oeuvres Completes_, 1826-31.
Paul de Kock. _L'Enfant de ma Femme_, 1812; _Gustave_, 1821; _La Femme,
le Mari et l'Amant_, 1829; _E
|