Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), April 12, 1845, vol. 1, no. 15, p. ???-???

[page 227, column 1, continued:]

LIFE IN ITALY. The Improvisatore. From the Danish of Hans Christian Andersen. Translated by Mary Howitt. New York: Harper and Brothers.

This is No. 49 of the “Library of Select Novels,” and embraces 125 closely printed octavo pages, in minion, double columns, — yet is sold for a shilling — a thing difficult to understand. It can scarcely be expected that this state of affairs can last; and we advise all to secure a complete set of the “Library of Select Novels.” We doubt if in the world there exists in the same compass, for anything like the same price, the game amount of excellent light reading as will be found in the 49 numbers of this series. The Improvisatore is a peculiar work, and affects the reader with a singular sense of the new in letters: — this feeling results from our want of acquaintance with the Danish turn of thought and expression.