ポーが書評した本 (11) 『北米評論』 (1835) Books Reviewed by Poe (11): _North American Review_ (April 1835) [ポーの書評 Poe's Book Reviews]
本じゃなくて雑誌なんですけれど、入れちゃいます。同時代の雑誌自体の様子を見るのも意味があるかと思いますし。
North American Review. April, 1835 (vol. 40, no. 87)
『ノース・アメリカン・レヴュー』 1835年4月号 （第40巻、87号）
A) E-text at Internet Archive [University of Pittsburgh Library System]
Volume: v.40:no.86/87
Subject: North American review and miscellaneous journal
Publisher: Boston: O. Everett <http://www.archive.org/stream/northamericanrev408687bost#page/268/mode/2up>
B) E-texts at Making of America by Cornell University Library <http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=nora;cc=nora;view=toc;subview=short;idno=nora0040-2>
Contents | |
ポーの（じゃないかもしらんのだけれど）「書評」は、前の記事の(9)と(10) と同じく、『サザン・リテラリー・メッセンジャー』誌の1835年4月号の "Critical Notices"中のものです。一覧を並べておくと以下の18のreview が載ったのでした。――
* Review of Washington Irving's The Crayon Miscellany [これはポーではなくて "Sparhawk" の筆であるとほぼ確定しています]
* Review - North American Review
* Review - The London Quarterly Review
* Review of Jacob H. Drew - The Life, Character, and Literary Labours of Samuel Drew, A. M.
* Review of Henry Lee - The Life of the Emperor Napoleon
* Review of George H. Borrow - Celebrated Trials of All Countries
* Review of Andrew Reed - No Fiction. A Narrative founded on recent and interesting facts
* Review of Laure Saint-Martin Junot - Memoirs of Celebrated Women of All Countries
* Review of Charlotte Anley - Influence, a Moral Tale
* Review of Charles Whitehead - Lives and Exploits of English Highwaymen, Pirates and Robbers
* Review of Laughton Osborn - Confessions of a Poet
* Review - The Language of Flowers
* Review of Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth - Practical Education
* Review of James B. Fraser - The Highland Smugglers
* Review of John G. Lockhart - Valerius
* Review - An Account of Col. Crockett's Tour to the North and Down East
* Review of Susanna Warfield - Illorar de Courcy
* Review of Charles Fenno Hoffman - A Winter in the West
North American Review [NAR] はボストンで1815年に発刊されたアメリカの最初の総合文芸誌で、1930年代末に休刊になったのが1960年代に復刊されて現在も刊行されている、伝統のある雑誌です (NAR Home Page <http://www.northamericanreview.org/>。ボストン文壇と敵対したポーにとっては二重の意味でライバル雑誌ということになるでしょうか。
評者はまず16年前に出たブルクハルトの本の評論が今出ることについて、アメリカの出版状況と批評のありようについて触れます（これは後年のポーの「『ヘリコン山のざわめき』」評 (1841) とか「書評欄への年頭の辞」(1842) と響きあうところあるように思われ）。それからいくつかの評論について長短のコメントを加えています。個人的に興味深いのはコールリッジに関して、"psychological" と （自分の読みが間違っていなければ心理学を指して） "science" という言葉を使ってあれこれ長く書いているところ。不当な評価だと文句がつけられている『ポンペイ最後の日』を書いたブルワー=リットンの才能をポーは高く買っていて、いくつも評論を書くことになることも思い出しました（まあ、褒（ほ）めたり貶（けな）したりという対象かもしれませんけど）。
North American Review.―The April number is for the most part excellent. But we are forcibly reminded by it of a defect in the Reviews of this country, which it seems to us, might with some little exertion, be remedied. The fault to which we allude, is their tardiness in noticing the publications of the day. In this number of the North American, we find several pages devoted to a review of Burkhardt's Travels in Africa, which have been before the public sixteen years, while the crowd of new works of undoubted merit which fill our book stores, have not as yet, with but few exceptions, attracted the attention of the reviewers. In this book-making age, we are aware that it is impossible for a Quarterly to review the twentieth part of the productions constantly issuing from the press: but if, as we suppose, it is the design of these periodicals to direct the taste of the public in every department of science and literature, surely they should contain reviews of such works selected from the mass, as are best worthy of attention; and should endeavor to keep pace with the stream of publication. We can see little value in a review of a book after every reading man in the community has perused it, and formed his opinion upon its merits. Thus to lag behind the march of current literature, deprives the criticisms of the reviewer of much of their value and weight. In the instance of which we have alluded, it might well be asked whether the travels of Burkhardt, English reviews of which we read ten or twelve, or more years ago, could have the same claim upon the public interest as the newer works of Burnes, Jacquemont, Bennet and many others, whose books possess the charm of novelty? We subjoin the contents of the April number: 1. Politics of Europe : 2. Coleridge : 3. Mineral Springs of Nassau : 4. Life of G. D. Boardman : 5. National Gallery : 6. Italy : 7. Last Days of Pompeii : 8. Immigration : 9. Burkhardt's Travels in Africa : 10. Popular Education.
The first article contains a spirited review of the political events in France since the revolution of 1830, and of the foreign and internal policy of Louis Phiippe. The progress of the juste milieu system is well delineated, and a forcible picture is drawn of the present postue of the French government. We do not entirely coincide with the writer's ideas of the onward course of the cause of liberty, (or perhaps more correctly, of revolution) in France; but consider the article generally correct and instructive. That on Coleridge is admirable: and we heartily rejoice that in a work so much looked up to in England as is the North American, for the expression of our literary opinions, justice so ample should have been done to that extraordinary mind. A Baltimore newspaper, in allusion to the article in question, speaks of "the pitiful shifts to which the reviewer is driven to account for a fact which he admits, viz.―that there is but here and there an individual who understands him," [Coleridge.] "What stronger proof do we want," says the journalist, "of that confusion of thought and mysticism with which he has been charged?" We think far stronger proofs are necessary to support the accusation. That but few comprehend the metaphysical treatises of Coleridge, is owing to the simple fact, that few are so thoroughly versed in psychological knowledge as to maintain a position in the van of the science, the post universally acceded to Coleridge by the learned in ethics. It is for this class of men that he has written, and in whose applauses he has received a plentiful reward. These, at least, will not hesitate to say that so far from being justly charged with confusion of thought, and its consequence confusion of expression, no man who ever lived thought more distinctly even when thinking wrong, or more intimately felt and comprehended the power of the niceties of words. That his philosophical disquisitions are abstruse, is the fault of the subjects, and not of the language in which he has treated them, than which none can be more lucid or appropriate.
The article on Italy is interesting―also that on the National Gallery. In the notice of the Last Days of Pompeii, justice is by no means done to that most noble of modern novels. [Southern Literary Messenger, April 1835: 458]
////////////////////////////////////////
The Norh American Review [Browse Journals] @Cornell University Library Making of America Collection <http://digital.library.cornell.edu/n/nora/nora.html> 〔Volumes：1-171, and two INDEX vols. (1815 - 1900)〕