Famous Reviews

Famous Reviews

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Title: Famous Reviews
Author: Editor: R. Brimley Johnson
Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11251]
Language: English
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FAMOUS REVIEWS
FROM THE SAME PUBLISHERS
FAMOUS SPEECHES. First Series. From Cromwell to Gladstone.
Selected and Edited with Introductory Notes by HERBERT PAUL. In
demy 8vo, cloth, 470 pp. 7s. 6d. net.
FAMOUS SPEECHES. Second Series. From Lord Macaulay to Lord
Rosebery. Selected and Edited with Introductory Notes by HERBERT
PAUL. In demy 8vo, cloth, 398 pp. 7s. 6d. net.

FAMOUS SERMONS BY ENGLISH PREACHERS. From the
VENERABLE BEDE to H.P. LIDDON. Edited with Historical and
Biographical Notes by Canon DOUGLAS MACLEANE, M.A. In
demy 8vo, cloth gilt. 6s. net.

FAMOUS REVIEWS
SELECTED AND EDITED
WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTES
BY
R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON

Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, But are not critics to their
judgment too? Pope.
LONDON
1914

CONTENTS
PREFACE
OF CRITICISM AND THE CRITIC
THE EDINBURGH REVIEW: EDITOR'S NOTE
From The Edinburgh Review (founded 1802)
LORD JEFFREY ON-- [SOUTHEY'S "THALABA" [SOUTHEY'S
LAUREATE LAYS [THOMAS MOORE [WORDSWORTH'S
"EXCURSION" ["ENDYMION"
LORD BROUGHAM ON BYRON
SYDNEY SMITH ON HANNAH MORE
MACAULAY ON-- [SOUTHEY'S COLLOQUIES [CROKER'S
"BOSWELL" [W. E. GLADSTONE [MADAME D'ARBLAY
ANONYMOUS ON-- [WORDSWORTH [MATURIN'S
"MELMOTH"
THE QUARTERLY REVIEW: EDITOR'S NOTE
From The Quarterly Review (founded 1809)
GIFFORD ON-- [WEBER'S "FORD" [KEATS
CROKER ON-- [SYDNEY SMITH [MACAULAY
LOCKHART ON-- [THE AUTHOR OF "VATHEK" [S. T.

COLERIDGE
SIR WALTER SCOTT ON JANE AUSTEN
ARCHBISHOP WHATELY ON JANE AUSTEN
W. E. GLADSTONE ON TENNYSON'S POEMS
CANON WILBERFORCE ON--[DARWIN [CARDINAL NEWMAN
ANONYMOUS ON SCOTT'S--["WAVERLEY" ["TALES OF MY
LANDLORD"
ANONYMOUS ON-- [LEIGH HUNT'S "RIMINI" ["SHAKESPEARE
HIMSELF AGAIN" [MOXON'S SONNETS ["VANITY FAIR" AND
"JANE EYRE" [GEORGE ELIOT
BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE: EDITOR'S NOTE
From _Blackwood's Magazine_ (founded 1817)
PROFESSOR WILSON ON--[POPE AND WORDSWORTH
(_Christopher North_) [LORD BYRON [DR. JOHNSON [CRUMBS
FROM THE "NOCTES"
ANONYMOUS ON-- [S. T. COLERIDGE [THE COCKNEY
SCHOOL I [" " " III [" " " IV [SHELLEY'S "PROMETHEUS"
THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW: EDITOR'S NOTE
From The Westminster Review (founded 1824)
J. S. MILL ON-- [TENNYSON'S POEMS [MACAULAY'S "LAYS"
JOHN STERLING ON CARLYLE
FRASER'S MAGAZINE: EDITOR'S NOTE
From _Fraser's Magazine_
THACKERAY ON DICKENS'S CHRISTMAS STORIES
CHARLES KINGSLEY ON THE LAKE POETS
ANONYMOUS ON CHRISTMAS BOOKS, 1837
W. F. FOX: EDITOR'S NOTE
From The Monthly Repository W. F. FOX ON BROWNING'S
"PAULINE"
DE QUINCEY: EDITOR'S NOTE
From Tail's Edinburgh Magazine DE QUINCEY ON POPE

PREFACE
Although regular literary organs, and the critical columns of the press,
are both of comparatively recent origin, we find that almost from the
beginning our journalists aspired to be critics as well as newsmongers.
Under Charles II, Sir Roger L'Estrange issued his Observator (1681),

which was a weekly review, not a chronicle; and John Dunton's The
Athenian Mercury (1690), is best described as a sort of early "Notes
and Queries." Here, as elsewhere, Defoe developed this branch of
journalism, particularly in his Review (1704), and in _Mist's Journal_
(1714). And, again, as in all other departments, his methods were not
materially improved upon until Leigh Hunt, and his brother John,
started The Examiner in 1808, soon after the rise of the Reviews.
Addison and Steele, of course, had treated literary topics in The
Spectator or _The Tatler_; but the serious discussion of contemporary
writers began with the Whig Edinburgh of 1802 and the Tory
Quarterly of 1809.
By the end of George III's reign every daily paper had its column of
book-notices; while 1817 marks an epoch in the weekly press; when
William Jerdan started The Observator (parent of our _Athenaeum_) in
order to furnish (for one shilling weekly) "a clear and instructive
picture of the moral and literary improvement of the time, and a
complete and authentic chronological literary record for reference."
Though probably there is no form of literature more widely practised,
and less organised, than the review, it would be safe to say that every
example stands somewhere between a critical essay and a publisher's
advertisement. We need not, however, consider here the many
influences which may corrupt newspaper criticism to-day, nor concern
ourselves with those legitimate "notices of books" which only aim at
"telling the story" or otherwise offering guidance for an "order from the
library."
The question remains, on which we do not propose to dogmatise,
whether the ideal of a reviewer should be critical or explanatory:
whether, in other words, he should attempt