Early Reviews of English Poets by John Louis Haney
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page 26 of 317 (08%)
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the _Christian Remembrancer_ (1819-68), which was a monthly during its
early history; the _Retrospective Review_ (1820-26, 1853-54) conducted by Henry Southern and afterwards Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas as a critical review for old and curious books; the _English Review_ (1844-53); and the _North British Review_ (1844-71), published at Edinburgh. The impulse toward the study of continental literature during the third decade of the century gave rise to the _Foreign Quarterly Review_ (1827-46); the _Foreign Review and Continental Miscellany_ (1828-30) and the _British and Foreign Review_ (1835-44), continued as the _British Quarterly Review_ (1845-86). A most determined effort to rival the older quarterlies resulted in the _National Review_, founded in 1855 by Walter Bagehot and Richard Holt Hutton. Its articles were exhaustive, well-written and thoroughly characteristic of their class. In addition to the excellent work of both editors, there were contributions by James Martineau, Matthew Arnold, and Hutton's brother-in-law, William Caldwell Roscoe. Yet, in spite of the high standards maintained until the end, the _National_ ceased publication in 1864. The many failures in this class of periodicals seem to indicate quite clearly that the spirit of the age no longer favors a quarterly. For our energetic and progressive era such an interval is too long. The confirmed admirer of the elaborate essays of the _Edinburgh_ and the _Quarterly_ will continue to welcome their bulky numbers; but the average reader is strongly prejudiced in favor of the more frequent, more attractive and more thoroughly entertaining monthlies. It is one of the curiosities in the history of periodical literature that no popular monthly developed during the first half of the nineteenth century: the great quarterlies apparently usurped the entire field. We have already seen that the _Critical Review_ came to an end in |
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