WONDROUS TALE OF ALROY. THE RISE OF ISKANDER. BY D'ISRAELI. AUTHOR OF VIVIAN GREY, THE YOUNG DUKE, CONTARINI FLEMING, &c. &c. &c. "Genius is stamped on every page; feelings such as the muse delights in abound, nay, overflows, while a true heroine loftiness of soul, such as influenced devout men of old when they warred for their country, glows and flashes through the whole narrative."— Athenæum. "The dullest reader will perceive how rich are the materials he has employed-how full a scope the narrative presents, for stirring adventure, and for gorgeous description. The author, too, is no fireside delineator of fancied pictures. He has visited the vast plains and the mighty ruins, the burning deserts and the mystic rivers he describes: he assists his imagination by his memory. "In selecting extracts from the work, we are made the more sus ceptible of its genius and its defects; it is too achingly brilliant. Every page is loaded with poetical adornment.” New Monthly Magazine. "Mr. D'Israeli's style is very brilliant; the acute remark, the neat antithesis, the pointed sentence, sparkle over every page.-Ibid. IN THE PRESS. Godolphin, a Novel. The Premium, 24mo.-Plates. The New Gil Blas. Naval History of England, by Britain and Ireland, by the Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD, in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Mar 31, 1947 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. TO MISS FANNY KEMBLE. FAIREST LADY-INIMITABLE ACTRESS-SWEETEST POETESS! It does not signify: we cannot help it. To you, pout or laugh as you will, these pages must be, and are hereby most respectfully dedicated. You may call it presumption, or even impertinence, without your permission, to venture on such a liberty. We confess it, and yet we are under the necessity of informing you that you have only yourself to blame for it. In the first place, you must needs come to this western hemisphere. You, and not we, are responsible for the consequences of that. In the next place, you did, with malice prepense-it can be proved on you, set about turning people's heads for which you can have no excuse. And thirdly, and lastly, as if you were determined to leave no kind of mischief "unattempted in prose or rhyme"-not satisfied with having given us the lofty verse in your Francis the First, and received our best applause, you must still, wherever you are, keep writing and publishing your charming rhymes, to attract our admiration. If, therefore, in seizing this occasion to express a little of it, we should happen to give offence, we say it again, boldly and impudently—“The first offence is yours!" Lay aside that strange fascination of your bright eye! Throw away that magic wand by which you conjure up your potent spells—leave off writing and publishing your "sweet and gentle minstrelsy," or else forgive the crime you instigate us to commit. If you will persist in provoking our admiration in so many ways, you must even submit to. the fate you so richly deserve. You have no right to complain, though the phrase may seem uncourte |