the-works-of-edgar-allan-poe-in-eight-volumes-volume-8

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895. Excerpt: ... a resolute effort at being sedate--that is to say, sufficiently prosaic and matter-of-fact for the purpose of a legend or an essay; but after a few sentences, we behold uprising the leaven of the Muse; then with a flourish, and some vain attempts at repression, a scrap of verse renders itself manifest; then comes a little poem outright; then another and another and another, with impertinent patches of prose in between--until at length the mask is thrown fairly off and far away, and the whole article--sings. Upon the whole, I have spoken of Mrs Osgood so much in detail, less on account of what she has actually done than on account of what I perceive in her the ability to do. In character she is ardent, sensitive, impulsive--the very soul of truth and honour; a worshipper of the beautiful, with a heart so radically artless as to seem abundant in art; universally admired, respected, and beloved. In person, she is about the medium height, slender even to fragility, graceful whether in action or repose; complexion usually pale; hair black and glossy; eyes a clear luminous grey, large, and with singular capacity for expression. The Literati of New York. In a criticism on Bryant (see vol. vii., p. 175) I was at some pains in pointing out the distinction between the popular 'opinion' of the merits of contemporary authors, and that held and expressed of them in private literary society. The former species of 'opinion ' can be called 'opinion ' only by courtesy. It is the public's own, just as we consider a book our own when we have bought it. In general, this opinion is adopted from the journals of the day, and I have endeavoured to show that the cases are rare indeed in which these journals express any other sentiment about books than such as may be attributed di...