dinary popular essayists of the Country
Parson school. Extravagance is however to American narrative what it is
to Arab conversation, something much less _outre_ to those who are born
to it than to strangers, who are unable to discount like the natives as
fast as the sums total are set down. Making every allowance for every
defect, there remains in 'Orpheus C. Kerr' a residuum of irresistible
humor, provoking scores of hearty laughs, and many indications of a
basis of thought and of literary ability which place him far in advance
of the later writers of his school. He takes a wider range, too wide
indeed at times, since he occasionally becomes 'Cockneyfied.' We wish
that 'Villiam' and the Willis-y 'my boy' were less frequently mentioned.
Yet as all this is atoned for by abundance of true American fun, we
readily pardon such echoes, trusting that in his future writings our
humorist will endeavor to be in all things truly original. He can be so
by the very simple process of pruning.

POEMS. By THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. New York: Carleton. 1863.

Most of these very pleasant little strains of word-music and of graceful
thought have been frequently brought before the American public, and
become familiar favorites. They now reappear to advantage in a delicate
blue-and-gold volume, with a medallion portrait of the poet.

MODERN WAR: Its Theory and Practice Illustrated from Celebrated
Campaigns and Battles. With Maps and Diagrams. By EMERIC SZABAD,
Captain U. S. A. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1863.

An excellent work, of an eminently practical nature, which may be read
with interest and profit by every one in a time when there
are so few who do not assume to be more or less critical in the art of war.

THE PIRATES OF THE PRAIRIES; or, Adventures in the American Desert.
By GUSTAVE AIMARD. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson. New York: Frederic
A. Brady. 1863.

A very trashy wildcat romance, highly spiced with sensation sentiment,
"r-r-revenge," and other melo-dramatic attributes. Its author is well
known as an extensive contributor to what may be called the
Sadly-Neglected-Apprentice school of literature and of readers.

ANDREE DE TAVERNEY, or the Downfall of French Monarchy. By
ALEXANDER DUMAS. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers. 1863.

When we, on the publishers' authority, inform the reader that this is
really 'the _final_ conclusion' of the 'Countess of Charny,' the
'M