UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF Her most Gracious Majesty the Empress. THE ST. PETERSBURG ENGLISH REVIEW, OF LITERATURE, THE ARTS, AND SCIENCES. EDITED BY S. WARRAND, Teacher of the English Language and Literature to THEIR IMPERIAL HIGHNESSES; AND THOMAS B. SHAW, B. A. of the University of Cambridge. VOLUME IV.-FIRST YEAR. ST. PETERSBURG, Published by HAUER and Co, Nevsky Perspective, No 3, Petiliat's House. 1842. 2705. 59. Edited by her Niece. Vols. I., II., III. London. 1842. When we reviewed, ten years ago, that strange display of egotism which Madame D'Arblay was pleased to call Memoirs of her Father,' we expressed a wish that she would condense and simplify into a couple of interesting (and interesting they would be) volumes her own story and her contemporaneous notes and bona fide recollections of that brilliant society in which she moved from 1777 to 1794. We lay some stress on the words bona fide-not as imputing to Madame D'Arblay the sligtest intention to deceive, but because we think that we see in almost every page abundant proof that the habit of novel-writing has led her to colour, and, as she may suppose, embellish, her anecdotes with sonorous epithets and factitious details, which however, we venture to assure her, not only blunt their effect, but discredit their authority.'Quart. Rev. vol. xlix. p. 125. We were not then in the secret of Madame D'Arblay's having from her earliest youth kept the diary now presented to us; but we guessed, from many passages in the Memoirs of Dr. Burney, that she was in possession of copious contemporaneous materials for her own, and we candidly forewarned VOL. IV. 1 |