been less ingenious or
striking, its defects would have been unnoticed among the beautiful
pictures, the unconscious breathings of poetry, and the sweet caprices
which twine around the strange plot, as the tendrils and leaves of the
vine cover over, yet indicate by their course the fantastic twinings of
the parent vine. It is needless to say, that we commend this most
agreeable work to our readers. We are glad to see that 'Pere Antoine's
Date Palm' which has attained so great a popularity, and several other
fascinating tales by Aldrich, are incorporated into the present volume
as the 'library' of the hero.

LES MISERABLES. III. Marius. By Victor Hugo. New-York: Carleton.

'Sure an' didn't I tell ye I was a _poor_ scholar,' said the young Irish
sham-student-beggar to the gentleman who refused him alms because he
could not read. In the same strain, as it seems to us, Victor Hugo might
reply to the wearied readers of these tales: 'Why, do they not call
themselves miserable?' Miserable indeed is the 'Marius' installment now
before us--a mere sensation plot, brilliantly patched here and there
with the _purpureus pannus_, or purple rag of a bit of imperial or later
history, 'coached' up for display, but falling lamentably into what
under any other name would be called a gross imitation of Eugene Sue.
The point of the present volume, to which its scenes tend, is, of
course, a robber's den--a decoyed victim--the police in waiting, and a
tremendous leap from a window--the whole suggesting Mr. Bourcicault's
moral sensational drama, or rather its French originals, to an amusing
extent. Still the _genius_ of the author, always erratic, of course, is
shown in more than one chapter. The trials and sufferings of 'Marius,'
and his noble independence of character, as well as the peculiar and
widely differing traits of his friends the students are set forth with
great spirit, and with the intention of a good purpose. Victor Hugo is
in all his works unequal unless we except 'Hans of Iceland,' which is
completely trashy throughout; but he was never more so than in 'The
Miserables.' We have spoken of this third part as though its first title
were an illustration of the _nomen et omen_ so much believed in of old.
We may add that like the _Mois_ of Alexandre Dumas, it has simply an _s_
too much,

THE FLY-ING DUTCHMAN. By John Q. Saxe. Illustrated. New-York:
Carleton. 1862.

An amusing little series of pictures, drawn a