221.HUMBOLDT TO VARNHAGEN.
Berlin,March 7th, 1858.
Berlin,March 7th, 1858.
Berlin,March 7th, 1858.
Berlin,March 7th, 1858.
I presume that you, dear friend, have not seen the indiscreet, almost talentless, book of Normanby. I shall not return it to Lady Bloomfield without offering it to you. Skip over it according to the index, and send it kindly back to me in four or five days. It depicts a badly played comedy.
My reverence to your amiable niece. Your most attached
A. v. Humboldt.
A. v. Humboldt.
A. v. Humboldt.
A. v. Humboldt.
Sunday Night.
Sunday Night.
Sunday Night.
Sunday Night.
“A Year of Revolution. From a journal kept in Paris in 1848. By the Marquis of Normanby, K.G. London, 1857. 2 vols. in 8vo.”
Varnhagen remarks in his diary, under March 8th, 1858: “Humboldt sends me, with kind lines, the book of the Marquis of Normanby on the revolution of 1848. He calls it an indiscreet book, and almost talentless. I call it stupid, and perfidious in its contents; it showsthe evil results of meddling with diplomacy, particularly if unofficial, as was that of the Marquis at the time. Lamartine as well as Cavaignac gave far too much heed to him. He is one of the dullest and most tedious Englishmen ever heard of.”
March 9th, 1858. Varnhagen adds this further remark on Normanby: “Read a little more of Normanby. He is a poor fool, but his bad book is good enough to expose the paltriness of Louis Philippe, the villany of Guizot, and the pernicious influences of sneaks and sharpers. His forte consists in the perfect success with which he flattens down to insufferable monotony the enlivening and exhilarating effects of the torrent of events.”