"The Greville Memoirs, already in a third edition in London, in little more than two months, have been republished by D. Appleton & Co., New York. The three loosely-printed English volumes are here given in two, without the slightest abridgment, and the price, which is nine dollars across the water, here is only four.
It is not too much to say that this work, though not so ambitious in its style as Horace Walpole's well-known 'Correspondence,' is much more interesting. In a word, these Greville Memoirs supply valuable materials not alone for political, but also for social history during the time they cover. They are additionally attractive from the large quant.i.ty of racy anecdotes which they contain."--_Philadelphia Press._
"These are a few among many ill.u.s.trations of the pleasant, gossipy information conveyed in these Memoirs, whose great charm is the free and straightforward manner in which the writer chronicles his impressions of men and events."--_Boston Daily Globe._
"As will be seen, these volumes are of remarkable interest, and fully justify the encomiums that heralded their appearance in this country. They will attract a large circle of readers here, who will find in their gossipy pages an almost inexhaustible fund of instruction and amus.e.m.e.nt."--_Boston Sat.u.r.day Evening Gazette._
"Since the publication of Horace Walpole's Letters, no book of greater historical interest has seen the light than the Greville Memoirs. It throws a curious, and, we may almost say, a terrible light on the conduct and character of the public men in England under the reigns of George IV. and William IV. Its descriptions of those kings and their kinsfolk are never likely to be forgotten."--_N. Y. Times._
D. APPLETON & CO., PUBLISHERS, 549 & 551 Broadway, N. Y.
THE LIFE OF
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
THE PRINCE CONSORT.
By THEODORE MARTIN.
_With Portraits and Views. Volume the First. 12mo. Cloth. Price_, $2.00.
"The book, indeed, is more comprehensive than its t.i.tle implies.
Purporting to tell the life of the Prince Consort, it includes a scarcely less minute biography--which may be regarded as almost an autobiography--of the Queen herself; and, when it is complete, it will probably present a more minute history of the domestic life of a queen and her 'master' (the term is Her Majesty's) than has ever before appeared."--_From the Athenaeeum._
"Mr. Martin has accomplished his task with a success which could scarcely have been antic.i.p.ated. His biography of Prince Albert would be valuable and instructive even if it were addressed to remote and indifferent readers who had no special interest in the English court or in the royal family. Prince Albert's actual celebrity is inseparably a.s.sociated with the high position which he occupied, but his claim to permanent reputation depends on the moral and intellectual qualities which were singularly adapted to the circ.u.mstances of his career. In any rank of life he would probably have attained distinction; but his prudence, his self-denial, and his apt.i.tude for acquiring practical knowledge, could scarcely have found a more suitable field of exercise than in his peculiar situation as the acknowledged head of a const.i.tutional monarchy."--_From the Sat.u.r.day Review._
"The author writes with dignity and grace, he values his subject, and treats him with a certain courtly reverence, yet never once sinks into the panegyrist, and while apparently most frank--so frank, that the reticent English people may feel the intimacy of his domestic narratives almost painful--he is never once betrayed into a momentary indiscretion. The almost idyllic beauty of the relation between the Prince Consort and the Queen comes out as fully as in all previous histories of that relation--and we have now had three--as does also a good deal of evidence as to the Queen's own character, hitherto always kept down, and, as it were, self effaced in publications written or sanctioned by herself."--_From the London Spectator._
"Of the abilities which have been claimed for the Prince Consort, this work affords us small means of judging. But of his wisdom, strong sense of duty, and great dignity and purity of character, the volume furnishes ample evidence. In this way it will be of service to any one who reads it."--_From the New York Evening Post._
"There is a striking contrast between this volume and the Greville Memoirs, which relate to a period in English history immediately preceding Prince Albert's marriage with Queen Victoria. Radical changes were effected in court-life by Victoria's accession to the throne.... In the work before us, which is the unfolding of a model home-life, a life in fact unrivaled in the abodes of modern royalty, there is nothing but what the purest mind can read with real pleasure and profit.
"Mr. Martin draws a most exquisite portraiture of the married life of the royal pair, which seems to have been as nearly perfect as any thing human can be. The volume closes shortly after the Revolution of 1848, at Paris, when Louis Philippe and his hapless queen were fleeing to England in search of an asylum from the fearful forebodings which overhung their pathway. It was a trying time for England, but, says Mr. Martin with true dramatic effect in the closing pa.s.sages of his book: 'When the storm burst, it found him prepared. In rising to meet the difficulties of the hour, the prince found the best support in the cheerful courage of the queen,' who on the 4th of April of that same year wrote to King Leopold: 'I never was calmer and quieter or less nervous.
Great events make me calm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves.' Thus ends the first volume of one of the most important biographies of the present time. The second volume will follow as soon as its preparation can be effected."--_From the Hartford Evening Post._
D. APPLETON & CO., PUBLISHERS, 549 & 551 Broadway, N. Y.