very high degree of respect and admiration. How could
that acquaintance be so delightfully, or so effectually made, as by the
interchange of literature? The great works of English genius are read,
studied, and admired, throughout the vast empire of Russia; the language
of England is rapidly and steadily extending, and justice, no less than
policy, demands, that many absurd misapprehensions respecting the social
and domestic character, no less than the history, of Russia, should be
dispelled by truth.

The translator, in conclusion, trusts that it will not be superfluous to
specify one or two of the reasons which induced him to select the
present romance, as the first-fruit of his attempt to naturalize in
England the literature of Russia.

It is considered as a very good specimen of the author's style; the
facts and characters are all strictly true;[10] besides this, the author
passed many years in the Caucasus, and made full use of the
opportunities he thus enjoyed of becoming familiar with the language,
manners, and scenery of a region on which the attention of the English
public has long been turned with peculiar interest.

[10] The translator recently met in society a Russian officer,
who had served with distinction in the country which forms the
scene of "Ammalat Bek." This gentleman had intimately known
Marlinski, and bore witness to the perfect accuracy of his
delineations, as well of the external features of nature as of
the characters of his _dramatis personae_. The officer alluded
to had served some time in the very regiment commanded by the
unfortunate Verkhoffsky. Our fair readers may be interested to
learn, that Seltanetta still lives, and yet bears traces of her
former beauty. She married the Shamkhal, and now resides in
feudal magnificence at Tarki, where she exercises great sway,
which she employs in favour of the Russian interest, to which
she is devoted.

The picturesqueness as well as the fidelity of his description will, it
is hoped, secure for the tale a favourable reception with a public
always "_novitatis avida_," and whose appetite, now somewhat palled with
the "Bismillahs" and "Mashallahs" of the ordinary oriental novels, may
find some piquancy in a new variety of Mahomedan life--that of the
Caucasian Tartars.

The Russian language possessing many characters and some few sounds for
which there is no exact equivalent in English