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KECENT NOVELS.*
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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TO the heart satiated alike with pleasure as with pain , the recollections of boyhood , with its airy castles and fearless disregard of all impediments , comes back like a gleam of sunshine in a forest , hitherto impervious even to the rays of noon . No man , however his moral nature may have degenerated by constant intercourse with the world , but can con over with pleasurable sensations that period of his life when his actions were all dictated by generous principles and spontaneous impulses ; when the divine image in which he was created , had ' not . been quite erased and obscured by the unhallowed yearnings of humanity ; when the one purpose of his soul was to emulate the deeds of great and just men who had gone before him , and add another to the list of sainted individuals whose names had contributed lustre to the age of Christianity .
It is , therefore , with renewed enjoyment that we turn over many of the pages of a new novel from tlie pen of Mr . Farrar . " Juliau Home" is well calculated to recal vividly to the mind , not only our own early school-days , but the more advanced period of scholastic life . In the earlier chapters especially , a charming picture is presented to us in the person of the hero , whose youthful mind , as yet , has not been turned aside from its original state of purity and truth . He is introduced to us as a pattern of juvenile virtue , possessing , even at . that early age , a spirit of deep humility which prompts him greatly to depreciate his own superior talents , and to magnify to an exorbitant degree the mediocre gifts of Iris fellow-students . His mind is framed in the most delicate and sensitive mould , his keen susceptibilities exposing him to the easy shafts of such
Ill-conditioned of his schoolcompanions ^ as have chosen to constitute themselves his enemies . To demonstrate the trials , and vexations which such a mind must necessarily , luidergo in the course of a laborious college career , is the preient intention of the author ,- —an intention he has thoroughly succeeded in carrying out to the letter . The scene of his trials is , of course , Cambridge . The difficulties of JuliaiVs position were considerably augmented by the necessity of his entering the college of Saint Werner ' s as a sizar , which necessity arose from the impoverished state of his family , and an unhappy difference with a . wealthy female relation , who . had signified an intention of nominating him the sole heir to her property .
Under these circumstances he lias to groan in spirit beneath the taunts arid innuendoselicited by the envy of certain of his fellow collegians , particularly galling to a spirit so easily accessible to ridicule . This part of the work should be commended fur its truthfulness to nature , and the author ' s invective against some of the internal regulations , by which a distinction is made ( on certain public occasions ) between the sizars and their more wealthy though often less accomplished brethren . In a public institution , whose avowed object is the instilment of the highest degree of louming into such niiuda as are capable of receiving it , there should be but one distinction , —tluit of industry and superior attainments .
It is certainly a pity that novelists ,. for the sake of a situation to enliven a particular parfc of -their story , should sacrifice the consistency of the whole . This is an error into which Mr . Farrar has unhappily fallen . That the situation is a striking one we allow ; but it is both forced and unnatural , and entirely incompatible with the former picture he has given us of his hero ' s character . Juliau Home has hitherto been presented to the reader as a youth of a reflective and even poetical turn of mind ; though extremely sensitive , yet amiable and unreseritful under injuries ; certainly not inclined ! to harbour either passionate or vindictive feelings , even against his worst of foes ; suffering opposition , but , under no pro ; vocation , offering any . The great object of his life was the acquirement of knowledge , —knowledge , says the author , " for ids own sake , " and nob to secure the attainment of an ulterior ambitious
project . In process of time , Home , having incurred the hatred and jealousy of an idle ; reprobate fellow , Brog-ton , —a disgrace to hisoolj ege , —becomes subjeefcod to much vexation through sundry practical j okes , which the . latter has invented for the purpose of irritating 1 and annoying his unoffending- adversary . ' All these , however , Julian has both the good sense and good temper to trout with profound contempt , and receives thorn in the spirit of a most stoical and philosophical indifference , thereby ontiroly baffling the designs of his enemy . And now comes the inconsistency , for which , wo confess , we were totally unprepared by the former treatment of the work . The Clerkland scholarship being * at this time open to competition among * the undergraduates , the hero is of course found foremost in the ranks of those who , by diligence and persevering * industry , are endeavouring * , heart and eoul , to gain the priico . Tho last morning * but one of the oxnminatid ' n ' had arrivQd , when
Julian Homo / a Talo of Colloj / a Xslfo . Uy Frederic W . Famir , M . A . Fellow of Trinity College , Cambridge , author of " Brio : or , Lifcfclo by liittlo . " Adiun and Oharloa Blaojc . Zuoi / Orofton . By the author of ¦ " Mftrgnrofc Maltland , " " Adnra Qrftor ao , " " 'JPho Days of My Life , " &o . ( Hurst and Blwketfc . )
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* r * T'hh T # nd »< r and Saturday Analyst . [ Jan , 14 , 1860
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live to fill out the old-fashioned , uncrinolined skirt which flows with such amplitude around her ! Joy g 0 > with those whoJive under the shadow of her stewpans and her basting ladle ! Health and happiness to those who fatten upon her entries and her entremets ! bne is a woman who understands her suhject , and as such we respect her , Mrs . Tickletooth opens her bbolc with " G . H . M . ' s" letter describing the proper ordinance of a dinner . It had better have been left out . The lelter had much of good in it , spoilt with more of nonsense , and to the whole composition the old criticism will apply , that what was good in it was old , and what was new was bad . Nothing can excuse the niaiserieofcommending roses to be laid by the sides of the plates , as consolations for timidor stupid guests . Mrs . Tickletooth , however , evidently entertains no great amount of respect for the composition , since she appends to it the amusing parody wherewith Punch rebuked the ostentatious Heliogabalus of Berkeley Street , No , it is not for gourmets of this class that lire worthy matron has indited her pages ; ihe working-man's wife who sends her bit of meat and batter to the bake-house , will find in them a treasury of knowledge ; the help-mate of the tradesman , who celebrates the Lord ' s-day with an added pudding , will bless her as a benefactress ; the wives of even thbse who can afford to entertain their friends hospitably with a good- dinner , will not consult her in vain ; no one , indeed , but those who profess the very highest mysteries of gastronomy , and whose studies in the recondite pa « -es of Careme , Tide , Beauvilliers , &c , enable them to despise her humble revelations , will consult her in vain . And perhaps even this la ; t class might gain a useful hint or two , did they condescend to take some heed of her teachings . One great charm of this book , indeed , is that its authoress does not affect to despise the higher refinements of cookery-. There is none of that vulgar declamation against " kickshaws ; " which marks the regular , old Conservative English Cook . On the contrary , she puts a proper value upon these things , and even uses them when they can be made consistent with economy . " Gr . H . M . " will be charmed to hear that the merits of espagnole and veloule , as " foundation sauces / ' are notoverlooked—^ and more than that , he will find some charming little dishesjiamed and described for the benefit of those who can affprd an occasional indulgence in expense , Such as would not be misplaced even upon his own lordly table . Here , for example , is a splendid and , what is more , apracticable receipt for Soup cfla bisque-r-a . triumph of the French kitchen ; further ori ; the famous Bouillabaisse , sung by the great William Makepeace Thackeray ; nrion ; the favourite and familiar Sole au gratin and the succulent JPowlet a la Marengo , which fed the Conqueror of kings after that famous victory whence it derives its name . These , however , are but your '" cates and delicates . " To come to more common food , how can we sufficiently applaud the admirable receipts for Irish stew , stewed rump steaky and similar delicacies which crowd these pages ? Even ' . the ' archives' of that cosy and appetising little gastronomic grotto in Cornhill , yclept Birch's , have been ransacked to produce the veritable receipt there used for making that wondrously toothsome and most gelatinous compound , called * ' Birch ' s Mock-Turtle Soup . " This , however , is not a secret for common cooks , but rather for those who have graduated in the aiL Nor unenlivened with anecdotes are these practical foi-mulEe , nor yet with quaint arid titne-honoured quips at the expense of hashed mutton , the cold shoulder , and other similarly detestable family abominations . Utility is combined with ornament in these pages in a manner which proves the accomplished housekeeper . One of the pleasantest and most useful features in the volume , is the number of original receipts with which it abounds . The sage oracle of the Cleikum Inn , after coinini ? to the end of her list of puddings , well observed that , in addition to these , everybody should have " My own Pudding . " Mrs . Tickletooth , however , is not satis-fled with a pudding , and we find everywhere in her pages such matters as " chicken-pie a Ja Tickletooth , " " plum-pudding a la Tickletooth , ' ' . and a " goose-stuffing a la Tickletooth , " so mild in its qualities , that Daphnis and Chloe , on their wedding tour , could not object to partake of it . We ' have the word of the authoress , that " every receipt in this book is founded upon my personal expenenqe . " That is much to sny , and we believe it ; for although it would have been possible to collect unequal number of rocoipts , and print them in a book , it would not have . been possible to lay down such admirably practical principles as are to bo found everywhere in it . Apparently , there is not much in saying that to fry rtsh properly you must have \ n your pnn enough boiling fat , oily or dripping " to $ wim the fish ; " and yet that is a truth which nine tenths of 'plain" qooks neglect or ignoro , and which is the cuuse of the abominable burnt or flaccid snecinions of the finny tribe , which infest the tables of our middle classes . Tho proper comprehension of this pieco of advice leads to tho little understood truth , that frying is , after all , nothing but boiling in oil . Most of our coolcs frizzle ; they don ' t know how to fry- ¦ Thoro is a capital chapter towards tho end of the volume on public dining-housfcs in England and Franco , and we cordially agree with ihe authoress in assigning tho superiority to tho best London houses over tho same class in Paris . FronoU cookery , as it may bo obtained at Philippe ' s , or tho Cul'd do Paris , is a very Kino thing * , and at the same timo a very expensive ono . For tho sumo price at which a first-rate dinnor may bo had at either of these . temples of Apicius , an equally good dinner may bo had , and by the best Fronoh artists , nfc the Clarendon or thu Burlington ; but when yon go lower down the soa | o , the superiority of some of our London houses is rannifi'wt .. Where , in all Paris , ia such a dfnner to bo obtained , afc an ythin ^ ' nupvorioning * tho same price , as may bo had at Simpson ' s in tho StVand , tho . Albion , tho llninbow , or even at tho Wellington for tho London Dinnor P Certainly not at tho dingy and odorous
dens in the Palais Boyal , where the gourmet may be refreshed with soup , three plats , dessert , half a bottle ot wine , and bread a disc 7-etion for two francs . Mrs . Tickletooth speaks strongly on the demerits of this disgusting refection . ¦ ' m . ¦ . ¦ ¦¦¦ t - i # But the reader will say that we have occupied quite enough of his time about a mere cookery hook , and perhaps we have ; ^ yet in ouv opinion , if he has learned a single fact which will enable him to enioy life better than heretofore , —or if , better still , he finds that we have coaxed him into spending a shilling upon Mrs . lickletooth s little volume—his time will not have been spent unprontably .
Kecent Novels.*
EECENT NOVELS . *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1860, page 46, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2329/page/18/
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