Biondelli's Language Atlas. 517 among the Sanscrit dialects, and in this he is at direct variance with Clough and Rask. Among his authorities relative to the Persian family, Seyffarth and Beer are omitted. The original home of the Persian he places in Bactria. He differs with some of the best German inquirers in the same field with respect to the origin of the Pelvi, which he looks on as the parent of the Persian. In pointing out the vast extent over which the Celtic races were formerly spread, Illyria and other portions of south-eastern Europe ought not to have been forgotten. Biondelli gives some interesting details relative to the Celtic settlements formed in some parts of America, where the original language and manners are maintained to the present day. The attempt to divide the Celtic into two families-Gaelic and Cymrish-will scarcely succeed; and though the Celts may, at an early period, have found their way to America, yet to derive their language thence, is a somewhat hardy speculation. The suggestions relative to the Albanian race are bold, new, and well deserving of attentive consideration. Here, indeed, Biondelli is more at home than among the Celts and the Indians. He supposes the Albanian,_at one time, to have been spread over the whole of south-eastern Europe. Our author values somewhat too highly the antique purity of the Islandic, and still more that of the modern Frisian; but his frank researches into the dialects and literature of the German and Slavonian tribes are far beyond what we could have expected from an Italian. These brief remarks do but scant justice to a work like the present, but when one or two more volumes have appeared, we shall not fail to return to Mr. Biondelli's erudite inquiries. The present volume is accompanied by the first part of an atlas, containing, among others, two maps entitled Regno delle Lingue IndoEuropee, and Prospetto Typografico delle Lingue parlate in Europa. To the first is added a comprehensive and convenient tabular survey of the Indo-European languages. The work, when complete, is likely to be voluminous, for the author's plan is extremely comprehensive : being divided into no less than seventeen distinct sections, while to these a Conclusione is to be added. 1. Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts. (Fragments from the Biography of a Scamp.) By JOSEPH BARON VON EICHENDORff. Berlin. 1842. 2. Wien vor vierhundert Jahren. (Vienna Four Centuries ago.) A Novel in 2 volumes, by EDWARD BREIER. Vienna. 1842. 3. Der Missionär. (The Missionary.) A Novel, by A. VON STERNLeipzig. 1842. BERG. 4. Die Familie Treuenfels. (A Tale of the Thirty Years' War.) By M. RICHTER. Leipzig. 1841. 5. Novellen. (Tales.) By BRUNS HENRICUS. Leipzig. 1841. 6. Historischer Roman. (An Historical Novel.) By FR. LUBOVols. I. and II. Grimma. 1841. JATZKY. 7. Das Blutende Herz von Christburg. (The Bleeding Heart of Christburg.) An Historical Novel of the Olden Time of Prussia. By FERDINAND SCHREIBER. Meissen. 1841. 8. Graf Ladroni, oder die Todtenkrone. An Historical and Romantic Picture of the Time of the Thirty Years' War. By ERNST SCHUBERT. Leipzig. 1841. 9. Die Schwarzen Hausren. (The Black Hussars.) By AUGUST LEIBROCK. Leipzig. 1841. 10. Xenia, Tochter des Grossfürsten Boris Godunow von Russland. (Xenia, Daughter of the Grand Duke Boris Godunow of Russia.) By J. SARTORI. Danzig. 1842. 11. Aus der Schule des Lebens. (From the School of Life.) By A. QUEDNOW. Stuttgart. 1842. 12. Linchen, oder Erziehungsresultate. (The Results of Education.) By DR. SCHIFF. Hamburg. 1841. 13. Der Kerkermeister. (The Gaoler.) By F. M. WANGENHEIM. Leipzig. 1842. 14. Die Seelenverkäufer. (The Soul Sellers.) By F. M. WAN3 vols. Brunswick. 1841. GENHEIM. 15. Myosotis. By AMELIA VON SCHOPPE, geborne Weise. Leipzig. 1841. 16. Die Verwandten in Copenhagen. (Our Relations in Copenhagen.) By PENSOROSO. 3 vols. Leipzig. 1841. 17. Ibrahim Pascha. An Historical Picture of the Seventeenth Century. By GEORGE. Leipzig. 1841. 18. Die Marquise de Noverre. By M. DOERING. Leipzig. 1842. 19. Novellen. (Tales.) By JULIUS SEIDLITZ. Leipzig. 1842. 20. Hygea und Eros. Ein Cyklus interressanter Badegeschichten, von BOHEMUS. 3 vols. Leipzig. 1842. 21. Mein Wanderbuch. (My Roadbook.) By C. HERLOSSOHN. 2 vols. Leipzig. 1842. 22. Grenzer, Narren, und Lootsen. (Borderers, Fools, and Pilots.) By ERNST WILLCOMM. 2 vols. Leipzig. 1842. 23. Erzstufen für 1842. (A Collection of Tales.) By IDA FRICK. Dresden. 1842. 24. Die Bandomire. By HEINRICH LAUBE. 2 vols. Mitau. 1842. 25. Die drei Schwestern. (The Three Sisters.) A Novel, by CHR. LYNX. Leipzig. 1842. 26. Das Schloss Loevestein im Jahre 1570. (The Castle of Loevestein in 1570. An Historical Novel of the Eighty Years' War.) By J. VAN DER HAGE. 3 vols. 27. Skizzen aus der vornehmen Welt. Vol. I. Breslau. 1842. 28. Abendfahrten auf den Lagunen. (Sketches of High Life.) (Evening Excursions on the Lagoons.) An Historical Novel, from the papers of a celebrated Cantatrice, by GEORG LOTZ. 3 vols. Hamburg. 1842. German Tales and Novels. 519 29. Das Tyroler Bauernspiel. (The Peasant Game of the Tyrol.) Characteristic Pictures of the years from 1809 to 1816. 2 vols. Magdeburg. 1841. 30. Vier und zwanzig Stunden. (Twenty-four Hours.) By C. DRAEKLER-MANFELD. Leipzig. 1842. 31. Die Juden und die Kreuzfahrer in England, unter Richard Loewenherz. (The Jews and the Crusaders in England, under Richard Cœur de Lion.) By Eugen Rispart. 2 vols. Leipzig. 1841. 32. Don Carlos, Prätendent von Spanien. (Don Carlos, the Spanish Pretender.) By H. E. R. BELANI. 3 vols. Leipzig. 1842. 33. Der Zögling der Natur. (The Pupil of Nature.) A Novel, by L. MUEHLBACH. Altona. 1842. 34. Gesammelte Novellen (The Collected Tales of FRANZ BERTHOLD. Edited by LUDWIG TIECK. 2 vols. 2 vols. Leipzig. 1842. AMONG the tales and novels of which the titles have here been enumerated, there are many of which it will be most charitable to say nothing, and of which the only redeeming quality is their brevity. The German novelist is not bound, like his fellow-labourer in London, to the prescribed length of three volumes, but may make his story as short or as long as he will, limiting himself, at his pleasure, to two volumes, to one, or even sending his little narratives out to the world by six or eight at a time, when each is too diminutive to be ushered forth by itself. In the above list, there are but few tales that occupy more than one volume, and that volume is mostly a dwarf compared to the bulky tomes issued in such quick succession from the factories of Marlborough-Street or Burlington-Street. The Baron von Eichendorff's Scamp is but a half-and-half vagabond. The German word Taugenichts is far too severe for him, for the fellow is good for something; he can play the fiddle, and not only earn his own livelihood, but afford good entertainment to the Baron's readers. Eichendorff was hardly the man to paint a scamp; for the worst scamp, in passing through his hands, had certainly been converted into something upon which, though we might not esteem it, we should be sure to look indulgently. Eichendorff has long been an active contributor to the light literature of his country; and all his works, whether in verse or prose, preserve the same goodhumoured, easy-going character that has recommended him to the kindness and indulgence of idle and uncritical readers. The Baron wants vigour, and many things beside; but he has a certain grace and humorous badinage, which appear nowhere to more advantage than in his smaller poems, of which a collection was published at Berlin in 1837. The tale now before us is neatly told; but, if we mistake not, has been printed before, and that nearly twenty years ago. The present edition has nothing new about it, we believe, but the clever illustrations from the pencil of Schrödter, of Düsseldorf. Sternberg's Missionary' is a Moravian, who wanders forth on his mission of love to the new world. The scene opens immediately after man. the death of Zinzendorf, the founder of the sect, who at his death bequeathed his spiritual authority over his disciples to his daughter Sarah. At least the elders of the sect had not been able to gather more than that, from the feeble and imperfectly articulated words of the dying Zindendorf, however, had left three daughters, each named Sarah, and the difficulty was, to know which of them the father had intended for his successor. The elders, after much deliberation, decided in favour of the youngest, a widow residing in Paris, who made her appearance among the plain and unsophisticated flock of Zinzendorf, with a splendid equipage, and a host of servants. The embarrassments of the lady herself in so unsuitable a situation, and still more the embarrassments of the flock, have been woven by the author into an interesting narrative, well worthy of the repute he had before acquired. His Sternberg has now been about ten years before the German public as a novelist. His first work was Fortunat, a fairy tale, which has been rapidly followed by a multitude of tales, none of which can be said to betray any marks of the haste with which they must have been prepared for the press. His Die Zerrissenen had a great success, and the word itself became a password in familiar conversation throughout Germany. His Lessing has likewise enjoyed popularity, notwithstanding its constant violation of local and historical truth. Molière, intended as a companion to Lessing, was, comparatively speaking, a failure. But in all his works we find good taste and a fertility of invention, while his dialogues are full of spirit, and often the happiest aphorisms are put into the mouths of his characters. It is in his shorter tales, however, that Sternberg is most happy; when he has attempted to expand his subject into a novel of several volumes, he has seldom been equally successful. The Family of Treuenfels is from the pen of an author who after a long interval comes again before the public, but with a work by no means calculated to support his former reputation. Something better might have been expected from one to whom we owe the Old Man of Fronteja, and Kurt der Jägerbursche. Lubojatzky's Historical Novel is a striking and well-drawn picture of the state of society in Paris before the revolution of 1830. The conclusion of the work is yet to come; and though there can be little of suspense as to the winding up of a tale founded on events of such recent date, we must condemn this piecemeal system of publication. Who will not have forgotten the incidents of the first two volumes when the third appears? Xenia is from a well-known pen, but will not add to the reputation of the authoress. Sartori is only an assumed name; the lady's real name is Neumann. The School of Life, by Quednow, appears to be the coup d'essai of a young author, who possesses information and good perceptive power, but after making an excellent plot, has spoiled it in the working out. There is much that is really promising in this little tale. Blood, murder, robbery, incest, perjury, seduction, madness, blas German Tales and Novels. 521 phemy, and bombast, are mingled in edifying confusion to make up Wangenheim's Gaoler, a concatenation of horrors suited to the morbid taste of a certain class of readers, but utterly revolting to common sense and good feeling. Dr. Schiff's novel of Linchen deserves notice only on account of the dishonest manner in which the author and the public have been dealt with by the publisher. Dr. Schiff some years ago published a tale under the title of Die Ohrfeige. The thing had no more success than it deserved, but the copyright having passed in due time into the hands of another bookseller, a new titlepage was printed, and the old tale put forward under the new title of Linchen. The author published a declaration in the newspapers, with a view to exonerate himself from all participation in so gross a fraud; but the speculating man of trade came forth with a rejoinder, in which he insinuated that the author had been a consenting party to the trick. A fraud precisely similar has been played by another German bookseller with August Lewald's Seydelmann und das deutsche Schauspiel, which has just been brought out as a new book, under the title of Seydelmann, ein Erinnerungsbuch für seine Freunde. Amalia von Schoppe's novels already fill from 120 to 130 volumes, though the lady has scarcely been more than fifteen years before the public; and though she is a woman of talent, it is not surprising that her works should be hastily planned and very imperfectly finished. The collection of tales published under the title of Myosotis,' bears the usual characteristics of Amalia's former writings. Her historical tales show extensive reading, and just enough power to make us regret that so little pains should be expended on them. Among her writings none is calculated to excite more interest than the Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben, published in 1838, in which, there is no doubt, her own history is represented under that of Clementine. If so, she presents herself to the public as a woman of no ordinary character, intelligent but unimpassioned, of a frank and energetic disposition, and devoid of prudery and false sentiment. A son of Amalia von Schoppe, we perceive, has lately come before the public as a translator from the French. Mein Wanderbuch is a lively story enough, with some good pictures of modern manners. Willkomm is a favourite, and deservedly. He is most successful where a bold landscape forms the background to his pictures. His borderers, on the present occasion, are the mountaineers between Bohemia and Lusatia; his pilots are the denizens of the island rock Heligoland. Ida Frick's writings, so far as literary worth goes, cannot be ranked above the commonplace, but it is impossible not to sympathize with her evident wish to raise her own sex by an improved system of education. She is an advocate for female emancipation, but her object is not a subversion of existing social relations. She envies her male friends the greater freedom they enjoy, but does so only because she sees in that freedom the means of obtaining greater knowledge, and a more VOL. XXX. NO. LX. 2 M |