s Life of Chopin! What a combination of names to wing the
imagination upward into the ethereal regions of beauty, pure art, and
lofty emotion! The imperial pianist discourses upon the genius and
peculiar gifts of his brother musician. Before us arises a vision of the
strong and fiery Hungarian, with clanger of steel, flash of spur, and
ring of hoof, compelling his audiences to attention and enthusiastic
admiration; and also of the gentle-mannered and suffering, but no less
fiery Pole, shrinking from all rude contact, and weaving enchanted
melodies and harmonies, teeming with ever-varying pictures of tender
love, hopeless despair, chivalric daring, religious resignation,
passionate pleading, eloquent disdain, the ardor of battle with the
thunder of artillery, the hut of the peasant with its pastoral
pleasures, and the assemblage of the noble, the distinguished, the
beautiful, with the nameless fascinations of feminine loveliness, the
witching caprices of conscious power,--while through all and above all
glows the memory of the glorious past and mournful present of his
beloved country. The book, in fact, opens a vista into modes of life,
manners of being, and trains of thought little known among us, and hence
is most deeply interesting. The style is eminently suited to the
subject, and the translation of Liszt's French is equal to the original.
This is saying much, but not too much; for when a cognate mind becomes
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of an author, the transmutation of his
ideas into another form of speech becomes a simple and natural process.
To those who already know Chopin and are striving to play his music,
this book will be invaluable, as giving a deep insight into the meaning
and proper mode of rendering his compositions. To those who know nothing
of him, and who are still floundering amid the _fade_ and flimsy
productions that would fain hide their emptiness and vulgarity under the
noble name of music, this life of a true musician will reveal a new
world, a new purpose for the drudgery of daily practice, and the
expenditure of time, patience, and money.

The work, however, is not alone useful for those especially interested
in music, but, being free from all repulsive technicalities, will be
found highly attractive to the general reader. It contains a subtle
dissection of a deeply interesting character, sketches of Heine, George
Sand, Eugene de la Croix, Mickiewicz, and other celebrities in the world
o