Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), December 20, 1845, vol. 2, no. 24, p. ???, col. ?

[page 373, column 1, continued:]

Critical Notices.

Biographical and Critical Notices. By WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT, Author of “The History of Ferdinand and Isabella,” “The Conquest of Mexico,” etc. New York: Harper & Brothers.

An octavo of 638 pages — uniform with the previous works of Prescott issued by the same house. In all respects this beautiful volume is a valuable addition to our literature.

The essays included are purely of a literary character, with little reference to local and temporary topics, and with a single exception are from “The North American Review” — styled by the author, in the Preface to the British edition, “the most considerable journal in the United States.” We fear that its consideration, at present, is confined chiefly to the precincts of Faneuil Hall.

Of the essays themselves it is quite superfluous to speak. They have been justly and universally admired, and in our own view are, generally, the best American papers of their kind. Their titles are, Charles Brockden Brown — Asylum for the Blind — Irving's Conquest of Granada — Cervantes — Sir Walter Scott — Chateaubriand's English Literature — Bancroft's United States — Madame Calderon's Life in Mexico — Moliere — Italian Narrative Poetry — Poetry and Romance of the Italians — Scottish Song — and Da Ponte's Observations. The first of these articles is from Sparks’ “American Biography,” and is of unusual interest, conveying a just and forcible picture of one of the most singular and powerful of American intellects. The memoir can scarcely be termed critical, but it abounds in passages evincing the keenest discrimination in respect to the literary position of the author reviewed.

The papers next in value are, perhaps, those on Sir Walter Scott, and Chateaubriand's English literature — but, in all, the the taste, judgment, and scholarship of Prescott are rendered manifest. We shall speak again of this volume, next week: