NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Evening Star, Issue 4057, 26 February 1876, Page 2

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The ‘Survivors of ike Chancellor, dfariin Paz, ‘Kiou. Sampson, Low, and Co., London'; Keith and iUde,* Dufaedin.

Jules Veme is a French writer of romance; not of the romance of chivalry, but of sdenoe. So strictly matter of fact is -the, knowledge of the present day, that to associate .fiction, with science aeems at first sight, impossible. To- '■ adopt ibis view as the correct ens would,, howeverj be a mistake. Every age has its 4itrra- . , tore/ and we do not know a better means of acquiring a correct conception of its social and intellectual condition than by study of it. No writer publishes works in advance of bis time. \ . He knows wall that if he details what few or •: none but hinase f can receive, however true it . mayi be/ his %ork will' hg' rejected fa the - - dreamy nonsense of a diseftsedbrain. It in a .different cas - if science and .fiction, the possible . of the future, can be so mixed bb with the f-.sets < of the past as to form an exciting, amusing, ana instructive nar-ative. The faculty of dovag this |b,a somewhat ra r c one, but. Jules , , y erne seems to possess it, and he has found an , artistic aid in Baon. The two work, together, and explain .and illustrate, each-other.. Jules 1 VVrne tells the story in woi'ds, -Rlou in pictir es;, ; eao helps the other. Had De Foe been a*soci atod|w th one who oo old have entered into his - spirit, seized the point ef time for depicting the ' mo-t telling situations he described and executing the pictures with the free stole and ready hand of Biou. even “ llobih on Crusoe*' 'would have had additional charms for youthful readers. We have no doubt that bur f re* fathers, on reidhig De Foe’s si ory were more impressed, with, its improbability than maiiy' of their geat-grandclfildren. for bo £ many s mewhat llke extraordinary events have Occurred that even Crusoe seems ou* done by reality. Tbs true story of the Pitca'oi Islanders puts Hob'nson Crusoe into the shade. t-'. Jnles Verne’s works are so nearly connected > r witbi the possible that in time to come they maylbe regarded by youthful readers «s. Jmost true’ The * S -rviy- rt of the i hanticleer” is '■ -t an Oxoiting narrative of' fire, shipwreck, And. 4 ‘ escape at sea. It has suffered somewhat / through ifis translator being a "lady unac- , : quainted with nsutical tot ms, and the literal rende -ing of those in use among the lb. nch gives ' ■a Romewnat ludicrou* turn to certain forms of This dqfebtlsnpt, however. V s prominent as to loan a drawback to the pleaofreading the -Work; in fact.it Amidst. . adds a ohann. to it by ;f « <i vnmf “Mirtin Paz” is ; a South Amerionn-stovy, and : one - | which much to bring; Jules Venae r | “to r»pto as:a, writer jof fiction. “ Dropped :-V ictihq the Clouds ’is a v ud conoe -lion. It» a ■; ■> , story of escaping from Richmond, 17.8.. during ' ito sh-ge by General Grant. In a wEa niglit, > five- daring men take-their passage balldcn it that jhad been filled and moored for the.'purpose - of ccjmfflunlcatJng with General Lee, fih 100n A . . as the kdhd and weather were propitious.' Ad, howtvfir- it matteied nbt fp a rejionef, an. engineer, a -sail- iv a negrov A" youth', and A dog whether L-e relieved the city cr Giant took it • the Wiafi thatwa* a deterrent to others :g \\m them a chance pfpesoape; end, regardless :of. - fl danger, (-torm. ana seise the.-, ■> opportunity offe- ed . For five days they vyerp V, ~: driven by A hu> whst 'dfrectlon fhey 1 ;--5i .-knew not.; sn'i «s they bad through tjte skies at the ratef hojr, no wonder they were pnxrlfcato &bw ‘ whethto‘ thielr lan ung was ia New «. some- t Dark vapour wM aU sr6iina.«beqi. Snok waa the , density of the they coidfl not be . eertoinwhether ffo Section'' '’M fight, Oo^sonkdfroiii TOanug " of the ocean could have reachßd-<the>iA .thirojufS'-J' y.l*. tho tibwttrtty, WhQe ‘ idgOMd ' [ibs. , ,v :vliiv k iy tc

The danger* oftheir landing are aggravated vby the perils of the pea. They skim along the waves, however, ahd with the loss of the engineer and his dog “ four of them were thrown oa a desert ooast, seven thousand milpg from their country 1” By what chances the lost were saved, how knowledge .and genius triumphed over difficulties, how expedients were adopted for escaping from the great perils into which they nad rushed in their impatience to leave the beleaguered City, Jules Verne has related in French which has been i well translated Into English by W. H. G, Kingston. Few narratives' can be more exciting than those contained in these volumes. The. reader does not stop to ask. himself are they true, but hurries on to learn what comes next.