DOI issue:
No. 133 (April, 1904)
DOI article:Reviews
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19881#0292
Reviews
is written by Dr. Richard Garnett, and deals
with English Literature prior to the reign of
Henry VIII. The second volume carries the
record up to the time of Milton, and Mr. Edmund
Gosse joins Dr. Garnett in the authorship. For
the third and fourth volumes Mr. Gosse is alone
responsible, and they deal respectively with the
times between Milton and Johnson, and Johnson
and Tennyson. That the authors have been
successful in providing a work full of enter-
tainment and instruction is unquestionable, and
we doubt not that the verdict of the public
respecting it will be one of unstinted praise. The
illustrations are exceedingly numerous, and have
been chosen with great judgment and knowledge.
The reproductions of the title-pages of many first
editions, the numerous facsimile autograph letters,
the portraits in photogravure, the illuminated
MSS. and miniatures in colour all add materially
to the value and interest of the volumes.
Versailles. By Gustave Geffroy. One vol.
illustrated. (Paris: Lamm.) The National Gallery>,
By Gustave Geffroy. One vol. illustrated.
(Paris : Lamm.)—M. Gustave Geffroy, the historian
of Impressionism, and perhaps one of the foremost
exponents of French art—alike in knowledge and
in style—has lately undertaken an important work:
to issue a series of volumes dealing with the chief
masterpieces in the museums of Europe. Several
volumes have already been published, including
one on Versailles and one on the National Gallery.
Those who have been accustomed to look upon
M. Geffroy as an enthusiastic writer on modem art,
will be astonished at the skill, method, and profound
knowledge he has displayed in treating what prac-
tically amounts to a history of art as a whole. Led
by this trustworthy guide, it is a pleasure to call to
life once more the great decorators of the palaces,
gardens, and pavilions of Versailles and to study
on the spot the work still preserved to us. The
" National Gallery " is not only an able criticism of
the Spanish, Italian, and Dutch schools, good ex-
amples of which are the chief glory of that fine
collection, but it is also an excellent history of
English painting—a fact of considerable importance
as, down to the present, no reliable or complete
account has appeared in French of the work done
on the northern side of the Channel. Both volumes
are illustrated with a number of good engravings.
Two Centuries of Costume in America. By
Alice Morse Earle. (Macmillan.) 2 vols. 2 is. net.
—In these democratic days when all individuality
is eliminated from costume, and, except on rare
state occasions, high and low, rich and poor appear
in garments resembling each other in general style,
the only differences discernible being those in the
quality of the material employed and the skill of
the seamstress or tailor, it is interesting to turn
back to the past and trace the changes that took
place in dress when it was a true reflection of the
period at which it was evolved, as well as of the
position and character of the actual wearer. In
such a study no better guide could be chosen than
Mrs. Earle, who, in her previous works, such as
" Home Life in Colonial Days," and "Stage Coach
and Tavern Days," has already proved herself to be
thoroughly saturated with knowledge of vie intime
of the two centuries she has elected to treat in her
new book. She fully recognises all the complex
issues bound up in her present subject, the deep
human and historical significance of every detail of
apparel, however trivial at first sight, with the
undercurrent of meaning controlling the apparently
accidental ripples on the surface of fashion. The
authoress combines, indeed, in a rare degree,
erudition with balance of judgment; she recognises
alike the humour and the pathos of love of dress,
and in the course of her fascinating narrative she
dispels many long-cherished illusions. Her book
is practically an encyclopaedia of English as well as
American costume, for there was no real break in
the continuity of what may be called the domestic
ties, binding the American Colonies to the Mother
Country until many years after the close of the
War of Independence. As late as 1799 society in
the new republic was still aristocratic, and as eagerly
interested in what was being worn at Court in
England as it had been in the time of the Pilgrim
Fathers. Beginning with the apparel of the Puritans
in New England, which, she says, thoroughly suited
the conditions of their life, and was by no means so
dull or sombre as is generally supposed, Mrs. Earle
passes on to consider that of the Virginia dames
and their neighbours, tracing with a patient and un-
erring hand the evolution from its first inception
of every detail of their complex array, explaining,
for instance, the origin of the lace whisk which
had such a fascinating effect upon the sterner
sex, and of the long persistent, but unbecoming,
topish hat. In later chapters night-gowns, night-
rails, and night-caps, coats and waistcoats, panta-
loons and pantalets, are passed in critical review,
and a short essay is devoted to the two mascu-
line vanities — muffs and ear-rings — now used
by women only. In the last chapter but one
of this exhaustive record, the keynote is struck
of the uniformity which was ere long to be the
deathblow of originality and character, and in the
273
is written by Dr. Richard Garnett, and deals
with English Literature prior to the reign of
Henry VIII. The second volume carries the
record up to the time of Milton, and Mr. Edmund
Gosse joins Dr. Garnett in the authorship. For
the third and fourth volumes Mr. Gosse is alone
responsible, and they deal respectively with the
times between Milton and Johnson, and Johnson
and Tennyson. That the authors have been
successful in providing a work full of enter-
tainment and instruction is unquestionable, and
we doubt not that the verdict of the public
respecting it will be one of unstinted praise. The
illustrations are exceedingly numerous, and have
been chosen with great judgment and knowledge.
The reproductions of the title-pages of many first
editions, the numerous facsimile autograph letters,
the portraits in photogravure, the illuminated
MSS. and miniatures in colour all add materially
to the value and interest of the volumes.
Versailles. By Gustave Geffroy. One vol.
illustrated. (Paris: Lamm.) The National Gallery>,
By Gustave Geffroy. One vol. illustrated.
(Paris : Lamm.)—M. Gustave Geffroy, the historian
of Impressionism, and perhaps one of the foremost
exponents of French art—alike in knowledge and
in style—has lately undertaken an important work:
to issue a series of volumes dealing with the chief
masterpieces in the museums of Europe. Several
volumes have already been published, including
one on Versailles and one on the National Gallery.
Those who have been accustomed to look upon
M. Geffroy as an enthusiastic writer on modem art,
will be astonished at the skill, method, and profound
knowledge he has displayed in treating what prac-
tically amounts to a history of art as a whole. Led
by this trustworthy guide, it is a pleasure to call to
life once more the great decorators of the palaces,
gardens, and pavilions of Versailles and to study
on the spot the work still preserved to us. The
" National Gallery " is not only an able criticism of
the Spanish, Italian, and Dutch schools, good ex-
amples of which are the chief glory of that fine
collection, but it is also an excellent history of
English painting—a fact of considerable importance
as, down to the present, no reliable or complete
account has appeared in French of the work done
on the northern side of the Channel. Both volumes
are illustrated with a number of good engravings.
Two Centuries of Costume in America. By
Alice Morse Earle. (Macmillan.) 2 vols. 2 is. net.
—In these democratic days when all individuality
is eliminated from costume, and, except on rare
state occasions, high and low, rich and poor appear
in garments resembling each other in general style,
the only differences discernible being those in the
quality of the material employed and the skill of
the seamstress or tailor, it is interesting to turn
back to the past and trace the changes that took
place in dress when it was a true reflection of the
period at which it was evolved, as well as of the
position and character of the actual wearer. In
such a study no better guide could be chosen than
Mrs. Earle, who, in her previous works, such as
" Home Life in Colonial Days," and "Stage Coach
and Tavern Days," has already proved herself to be
thoroughly saturated with knowledge of vie intime
of the two centuries she has elected to treat in her
new book. She fully recognises all the complex
issues bound up in her present subject, the deep
human and historical significance of every detail of
apparel, however trivial at first sight, with the
undercurrent of meaning controlling the apparently
accidental ripples on the surface of fashion. The
authoress combines, indeed, in a rare degree,
erudition with balance of judgment; she recognises
alike the humour and the pathos of love of dress,
and in the course of her fascinating narrative she
dispels many long-cherished illusions. Her book
is practically an encyclopaedia of English as well as
American costume, for there was no real break in
the continuity of what may be called the domestic
ties, binding the American Colonies to the Mother
Country until many years after the close of the
War of Independence. As late as 1799 society in
the new republic was still aristocratic, and as eagerly
interested in what was being worn at Court in
England as it had been in the time of the Pilgrim
Fathers. Beginning with the apparel of the Puritans
in New England, which, she says, thoroughly suited
the conditions of their life, and was by no means so
dull or sombre as is generally supposed, Mrs. Earle
passes on to consider that of the Virginia dames
and their neighbours, tracing with a patient and un-
erring hand the evolution from its first inception
of every detail of their complex array, explaining,
for instance, the origin of the lace whisk which
had such a fascinating effect upon the sterner
sex, and of the long persistent, but unbecoming,
topish hat. In later chapters night-gowns, night-
rails, and night-caps, coats and waistcoats, panta-
loons and pantalets, are passed in critical review,
and a short essay is devoted to the two mascu-
line vanities — muffs and ear-rings — now used
by women only. In the last chapter but one
of this exhaustive record, the keynote is struck
of the uniformity which was ere long to be the
deathblow of originality and character, and in the
273