In this instance the book is the man, if we may so far change
Monsieur de Buffon's saying. It is full of fresh observations and
lively descriptions,--perhaps a little too overlarded and
oversprigged with prose and verse quotations,--but as lively as a
golden carp just landed. It describes scenes not familiar to most
readers, tells stories they have never heard, introduces them to new
costumes and faces, and helps itself by the aid of pictures to make
its vivacious narrative real. We are much pleased to learn that the
work has met with a very good reception; for we consider it as the
card of introduction of a gentleman whom the American people will
very probably know pretty well before he has done with them, and be
the better for the acquaintance.
* * * * *
_Dante's Hell_. Cantos I. to X. A Literal Metrical Translation.
By J. C. Peabody. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1857.
A man must be either conscious of poetic gifts and possessed of real
learning, or very presumptuous and ignorant, who undertakes at the
present day a _new_ translation of Dante. Mr. J. C. Peabody might
claim exemption from this _dictum_, on the ground that his
translation is not a _new_ one; but he himself does not put in this
plea, and we cannot grant to him the possession of poetic power, or
declare that he is not ignorant and presumptuous.
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