SERIAL LITERATURE.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 372, 7 November 1849, Page 3

SERIAL LITERATURE.

A small library issues from the press on the Ist of every month. It is a new and increasing fashion in literature to cuve out works inio slices and seiye them up fresh and fresh twelve times in ihe year. Prose and poetry, original and selected, translations and republications of eveiy cl«ss and character, are now included in the list of serials. The mere enumeration of titles would require more space than we can eommiind, and any attempt to aua'yse the contents, or to estimate the influence which the class exerts upon the literary taste of the day would expand our remarks into a volume. - We must mention, howevar, as an event, the appearance of the first number of a new story, David Copperfield, by Dickens, the ebief and founder of the serial novel. His livul humourist, Mr, Thackery, has finished one and began another ot domestic histories within the twelvemonth. The new story, Pendennis, has journeyed ge»sn-twentieths of its way to completion. It bears a strong family likeness to its predecessor, to far at we may judge of an unfinished work, and manifests ihe same powers of minnte observation and delicate d Uneation of character. Mr. Lever rides double with Roland Casbel and Con Oregon, making their punctml appearance upon the appointed days. His heroes are Irish, of course, and belong to the class which, he himself has created, us

much as Cooiwr cre<it.<d the red men of his novels T et'pcsoflwth r<««t; I)ut happily, the real mcv, wither Irish o. lucliiu. differ widely fiom their portraits Ji» the the iomanri«,ts' jugei. In Mr. Lever's two seiials, now running their ources, the respective heroes are taken from the extremes of wealth and iio\t ty. They are, neveitlieless, imicU alike in most u-spects, both possesin? the same very peculiar ttandard of morality, ami both spirited, nn.l amusing, and incinu-d to vagabondism. Mr. Albert Smith trtatt the "slow" anil the "dull" as synonymous, and supplies ihe exact converse of both characters in Ins Pottlston Legacy. Fast and funnily has personage move, art, and tilk. the story opens with the opening of .\ lailioad , and travel* at iailro»d pace nil Ihe way. We sp<\ik of me above as thsng< J'at are, and are to be; mid. th refore, with the proper resn vations tor the nvia.bers not jet published. ClemcK Lor inter, by Mr. Ansus Reach, has come to the »oe o» Winding, and "t ids complete in its I v \y of |»«r ( I<rtfid gold. It is a romance of striking ititeiest, where wild and a host supernatural passion of revenge is cshib'ted woiking in the midst of polished and civilised society. The cont-ast is eTettivly contrived be, ween the baibarisim of inipuUe and lefinemrnt t>f mfiucrin the inbeM-or of the vendetta ; and th; in cident by which the schrmr of vengance U at first aidi-d and" firuly IrusiMl d and devised and sustained very i.itistica ly. Of an«tl»v order is Mr. Jorrol i's Man Made of Muney. Inei-'en's are of little consequence to this autl-o . exi-ept by way of p j gs to hang reflections and rondnMon* upon. It is not a stoiy he hi, to its'], but .1 i'j o-y he wuits to establish, which slijiiulatM the production of most of Mr. Jorrold's works nn.l the Ulan Made of Monty among the rest which he Ins piopa«ated it T<> it up briefly, it is, that riches ore cviU and the s mrce of evils; and that pove ty is fc°od and the O|.po'tmity for good. Like many oilier theone«, it is right in pait.aud, though Mr. Jeirold may advocate it with too little refceive", there are plenty of counterdutint; mfluincei at worK to icsioie the epu'hbrtnm of opinion on the side of wealth. In the minute touches of descriptive and incidental leflections, ihe author of the Man Made of Mo. toy i-. then as always, most relicitous. l'absin? over the long 1 sf of magazines and leviews as belonging to another cl >ss o<" publication we come to a nim.fr°us seiies of reprints, new aditiosn, &c, iskued in monthly purts and generally in a chepp and CJmpedious form. ShaUcspjare and By ion among the poets, Bulwer, Dickens, anp James among the novellists, appear pretty regularly— the poets being enriched with notes and illustrations. Other writers and m"scell.inc(»usn ovels find lepnhlicuion in the Parlour JAbary of Fulton, with so rigid an applnaiiou of economy, that for two shilling* we may purchase » guinea and a lnl f 's woith of the most popular romances at the original pricp value, stand, Knight's erries of Monthly Volumes, Murray's Home and Colonial Library, and i he Scientific and Literary Libraries of Mr. Bohn. The contents ot these col 'ect ions are very diversified ; many volumes ate altogether oiiginal, and others are new translation ■> of ioreign woiki, or modernised versions of antiquarian a » !«ors. A large mfiis of the most, valuable works contained in our literature may be found in Mr Bolin'a Libranj. The class of publications introduce 1 in them all partakes but of the serial churaccer. It is only the iorm of their appeaiance which «i v e» them a place among the periodicali.— lllustrated London iVeUM.