FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  
riters, and hitherto deemed entirely lost. They furnish, according to the accounts in the journals, an extensive list of proper names calculated to throw great light upon many obscure periods of history. Among these volumes, it is said, some are calculated to give a complete interpretation of hieroglyphic writing--the discoverer having already successfully applied them to the interpretation of the inscriptions engraved on the obelisk of the Hippodrome at Constantinople. This may be quite true, but such statements are to be received with some suspicion. * * * * * A literal prose translation of Homer, by Mr. T. A. Buckley, has just appeared in London. No prose version will cause any just notion of the spirit of Homer. Of the half dozen metrical translations published recently, we think that of our countryman Munford the best. Henry W. Herbert has given us parts of the Iliad in admirable style. No one, however, has yet equalled old Chapman--certainly not Pope nor Cowper. The most successful translation into a modern language is unquestionably the German one by Voss. Mure and Grote have written the ablest dissertations in English upon the Homeric controversy, but they are not poets, and could not if they would translate the great bard. * * * * * R. P. GILLIES, a contemporary of the great authors of the last age, has published in three volumes _Memoirs of a Literary Veteran_. More than half a century spent in the society of the lions of literature, could hardly fail to furnish a store of amusing anecdotes, and a sprinkling of interesting information. Mr. Gillies has also this advantage over many collectors of similar reminiscences, that he was not only an author among authors, but that his social position in early life gave him access to the best circles. Scott, Wordsworth, Campbell, the Ettrick Shepherd, Rogers, Galt, Maginn, Haydon, and many more names of interest, figure frequently in his pages. Upon the whole, however, his work is tedious, and quite too much occupied with matters that can be entertaining only to his most intimate associates. Gillies was one of the early contributors to "Blackwood," and figured as "Kemperhausen" in the _Noctes Ambrosianae_. He was also the originator and first editor of the Foreign Quarterly Review, and was one of the first to make German literature familiar in England. * * * * * It a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

interpretation

 

Gillies

 

literature

 
translation
 
calculated
 

German

 
furnish
 

published

 

authors

 

volumes


information
 

similar

 

reminiscences

 

hitherto

 

collectors

 
advantage
 

author

 

contemporary

 

Memoirs

 
GILLIES

translate

 
Literary
 

Veteran

 

amusing

 

anecdotes

 

sprinkling

 

riters

 
century
 

society

 

interesting


Campbell

 

contributors

 

associates

 

Blackwood

 

figured

 

intimate

 

entertaining

 

occupied

 

matters

 

Kemperhausen


Noctes

 

Review

 

familiar

 

England

 

Quarterly

 

Foreign

 
Ambrosianae
 

originator

 

editor

 

tedious