are the proper length for a novel,
and they have become, as a maximum, a rule rarely departed from. We are
content that it should be so, and, indeed, heartily rejoice at it, when
we see works of fiction spun out by indefatigable French manufacturers
into interminable series, through which, at twelve hours a-day, the most
insatiable devourer of the romantic needs a month to toil. Following the
fashion of the times, and encouraged by the example of his successfully
diffuse brethren, M. de Bernard, weary of launching trim corvettes and
dashing frigates, has taken to build line-of-battle ships. He had better
have kept to the small craft, which he found to float so well. Two of
his recent works, "Le Beaupere," and "Le Gentilhomme Campagnard," have
lost in merit what they have gained in length. The subject of the former
is most unpleasant: its catastrophe unnecessarily painful. And the
"Gentilhomme Campagnard," just now concluded, although containing, as do
all his books, much spirited dialogue, many well-drawn characters, and
well-contrived incidents, is weakened by being spun out, and at times,
by its tediousness of detail, reminds us of De Balzac. And here we will
remark, that there is a certain general resemblance between the styles
of De Bernard and De Balzac; so much so, that when the former first
wrote, some persons conjectured his name to be a pseudonyme adopted by
the latter, to the detriment of publishers, to whom, it was said, he had
contracted to deliver all he should produce. And the malignant hinted,
that the author of "Eugenie Grandet" was sufficiently unscrupulous and
hungry of gain to render such a stratagem on his part any thing but
improbable. Whether Charles de Bernard be an assumed name or not, it has
long since been evident, that the books published under it proceed from
a more guarded and uniformly sprightly pen, than that of M. de Balzac.

The plot of the "Gentilhomme Campagnard," is based on the dissensions of
two villages, or more properly speaking, of a hamlet and a very small
town, situated within a mile of each other, and which had once
constituted two separate parishes, but had been amalgamated at the
revolution of '89, greatly to the detriment and indignation of the
weaker party. It is in 1836 that M. de Bernard takes up the
imaginary history of their jealousy and squabbles, as a canvass
on which to embroider the flowers of his invention. The hamlet,
Chateaugiron-le-Vieil, is inhabited, and virt