England, Literary and Social, from a German Point of View.
By Julius Rodenberg. (Bentley.)—This book has an attractive title. We are always glad to hoar what the" intelligent foreigner" has to say about us. Unhappily, he has little to say in this instance, but is not unwilling to make a big book out of it. The first seventy pages aro, for the moat part, a criticism or description of the "Canterbury Tales " and their author. A very few pages suffice for the Kent of the present time. "Shakespeare's London" is another chapter of the same kind. There is another chapter, on " The Jews in England," which is equally foreign to the purpose. We suppose that all these digressions are protected by the word " literary " in the title, but the result is that we got little of what we expect. " An Autumn on the English Lakes" is more to the purpose than anything else that we can find in the volume. This is pleasantly written, as, indeed, is the greater part of the book.
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