God's Word, for all their craft and force, One moment will not linger, But spite of Hell, shall have its course, 'Tis written by his finger. And tho' they take our life, APPENDIX. JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER'S REVIEW OF MADAME DE STAEL'S " ALLEMAGNE." ** [1830.] There are few of our readers but have read and partially admired Madame de Staël's Germany; the work, indeed, which, with all its vagueness and manifold shortcomings, must be regarded as the precursor, if not parent, of whatever acquaintance with German Literature exists among us. There are few also but have heard of Jean Paul, here and elsewhere, as of a huge mass of intellect, with the strangest shape and structure, yet with thews and sinews like a real Son of Anak. Students of German Literature will be curious to see such a critic as Madame de Staël adequately criticised, in what fashion the best of the Germans write reviews, and what worth the best of them acknowledge in this their chief eulogist and indicator among foreigners. We translate the Essay from Richter's Kleine Bücherschau, as it stands there reprinted from the Heidelberg Jahrbücher, in which periodical it first appeared, in 1815. We have done our endeavour to preserve the quaint grotesque style so characteristic of Jean Paul; rendering with literal fidelity whatever stood before us, rugged and unmanageable as it often seemed. This article on Madame de Staël passes, justly enough, for the best of his reviews; which, however, let our readers understand, are no important part of his writings. This is not the lion that we see, but only a claw of the lion, whereby some few may recognise him. To review a Revieweress of two literary Nations is not easy; for you have, as it were, three things at once to give * Fraser's Mag., Nos. 1 and 4. |