New Publications
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NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Harper & Brothers have sent us the "Memoirs of Rachel, by Madame de B."1 It is a volume of the most piquant gossip and anecdote concerning the great tragedienne. The authoress is evidently a lady of remarkable talent, and the French critics, we are informed, consider her performance the most perfect biography of an artiste ever written. Rachel's career is faithfully depicted from the time when she was taken from the streets, a poverty-stricken little girl, with nothing to recommend her but her intelligence and her large, Jewish eyes, to the period when she attained the pinnacle of her fame, and when all that was eminent in talent, high in rank and princely in wealth delighted to do her honor. The "last scene of all," when, worn out by the intensified life she had led, by the trying scenes she had passed through, and perhaps, more than all, by her Transatlantic voyage with its physical effects and its many disappointments, death closed her career, are touchingly and faithfully portrayed. We extract a few paragraphs descriptive of the "final hour" which strike us as somewhat different from any account which we have yet seen of Rachel's death, and thus take leave of the book, only saying, in conclusion, that the general reader will find these "memoirs" perhaps the most interesting issue of the press that has been made this season.
He desire to live was intense; the nearer she approached to death, the more despairingly she clung to the life that was escaping her. Her docility to her physicians was implicit; she followed to the letter every prescription, obeyed every hint, asking but to live—to live—to live!
Her sufferings were extreme, and she must have often thought of his sister Rebecca's exclamation under similar circumstances: "Oh God, must one suffer thus to die!"
After having clung so despairingly to life, as the time approached she would at times speak of it calmly, though in reality her hopes were never quite extinguished. A week before her death she admitted a stranger of distinction to see her, and seemed gratified with the sympathy he expressed. To the never-failing request for her autograph, she replied, "Ah! you do well to ask for it now; it will soon be too late." She then wrote on a sheet of paper, "In a week from now I shall begin to be food for worms, and for writers of biographies. RACHEL."
The visitor, shocked at so sinister an anticipation, wished to decline the autograph, but she pushed it toward him, saying, "Take it, take it; it will, perhaps, be the last thing I shall ever write."
At eleven o'clock on Sunday morning the expectoration had become so difficult that it was feared she would choke; an unexpected effort having relieved her, calm succeeded to this crisis. Rachel then expressed a wish to finish the letter to her father. She dictated to the end, read it all over, and then exclaimed.
"My poor Rebecca, my dear sister, I am going to see thee! I am indeed happy!"
She then added a few words to the letter, signed it, and appeared to fall asleep. This state lasted several hours.
Sarah had, up to this moment, hesitated to call in religious assistance; the words uttered by Rachel now decided her, and she dispatched a telegraphic message to the Consistory of Nice, which immediately sent ten persons, men and women. They arrived toward eight o'clock, but they were not introduced for some times in the chamber, lest the sight of them should cause Rachel too great a shock. At ten o'clock there was another fit like that of the morning, which alarmed all the house. This the doctors said would be the last, and the members of the Consistory were summoned. Two women and an old man approached the bed, and began to sing in Hebrew a psalm, beginning,
"'Ascend to God, daughter of Israel.'
Rachel turned her face calmly toward the singers.
"'Behold, Lord. the agony of Thy handmaid: pity her sufferings; shorten her pains, my God, and let those she endures redeem her sins!
''In the name of Thy love, God of Israel, deliver her soul; she aspires to return to thee; break the bonds that bind her to dust, and suffer her to appear before Thy glory.'
The countenance of Rachel seemed illumined by celestial light; the singers continued:
"'The Lord reigneth, the Lord has reigned, the Lord will reign everywhere and for evermore!
"'Blessed, every where and forever, be the name of His glorious reign!
All present were moved by the tokens of heavenly grace Rachel had manifested. It can not be doubted that Rachel died with the hope of another life.
Miss Sedgwick's2 "Life of Joseph Curtis" is another contribution that will be relished by the lovers of biography. Mr. Curtis was a merchant and philanthropist. In the course of an unobtrusive and laborious business life of over fifty years, he proved how very much practical good can be accomplished in any society by a man of small means, but large and active faith. As the leader of the Manumission movement in New York, the originator and first superintendent of the juvenile House of Refuge, and as a most active and practical member of the School Board, his name will live in the memories of the citizens of New York. As a careful, kind, and loving father, his life is a model for all. The present memoir could not have been confided to better hands. Miss Sedgwick's merits as a writer in this field of literature are undisputed.
We have also received from the same publishers another Jacob Abbott's capital histories for children. Children of a larger growth might read this latest issue, which is a "Life of Richard the Third," with both pleasure and profit.