"To us he seems not inferior, in the extent and diversity of his talents, to any American writer of the present school. There is a keen insight into the human character and human motive; a capacity for deep and striking observations, which, mingled as they are, with a racy original humor, and a playful vivacity, may, and undoubtedly sometimes do, escape the ordinary reader. With an air of apparent levity, they combine much of the power of philosophical analysis, and a jest is often found to convey an important moral. His dialogue is full of spirit and colloquial ease, and the total absence of display or affectation. The style of his works is almost as various as the themes he discusses, or the objects he describes; in the 'History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan,' it is marked by the most naked simplicity; in the 'Letters from the South,' there are frequent pages of lofty enthusiasm, which we remember to have struck us as exceedingly beautiful; and, generally speaking, it is always happily adapted to the subject. Without being labored, highly polished, or ambitious, it is clear and energetic, occasionally, and we have sometimes thought designedly so, a little careless, as if in wilful opposition to the taste of the times. Though not dealing much in the pathetic, there are touches of feeling which sufficiently indicate that, if he has chosen the walks of humor, it is not from want of power to address the deeper passions. It may however be observed as a fault that his satire is often severe, and his opinions not unfrequently asserted too positively.
"We have thought this a proper opportunity to do something like justice to a writer, who is more thoroughly American—whether it be considered a recommendation or a reproach—than any of his more distinguished cotemporaries; and whose reputation has, without doubt, been circumscribed by that circumstance."
—From a review of The Dutchman's Fireside in the New-York Mirror.
The Dutchman's Fireside. A tale. By the author of "Letters from the South," "The Backwoodsman," "John Bull in America," &c., &c. Fifth edition. In two volumes [both included in this scan]. New-York: Harper Brothers, 1837. —Also available at archive.org. Here is an example of what is infuriating about the organization of Google Books. We found this edition easily at archive.org, though it was scanned by Google. Yet no search that we were able to devise found it on Google Books. We finally stumbled on it quite accidentally by following the "editions" link from an 1831 edition of the first volume. We never did find the second volume of the 1831 edition, which may or may not exist—with Google Books, there is no way to tell.
The Dutchman's Fireside. By James K. Paulding. For use in schools, with an introduction and notes. New York, 1900.
Edward Lytton Bulwer was so favorably impressed with The Dutchman's Fireside that he personally arranged its publication in London, according to another issue of the New-York Mirror:
The Dutchman's Fireside.—We are gratified to learn that this work has received the most substantial evidences of public favor. A continual demand has exhausted three editions, and a fourth has accordingly been put to press. We are by no means surprised at this, as the author is a writer of great power and humor, and will sustain an elevated station among the foremost of our candidates for literary renown. The popularity of his productions, however, has been partially injured by the frankness with which he expresses his opinions; which, in our estimation, deserves any thing rather than censure. Had he possessed less independence and more policy, had he flattered the prevailing tastes of certain classes and denominations, his productions would, no doubt, have been far more widely circulated. But he has pursued a different course, and although we may regret innumerable instances of carelessness in what he has written, all must, nevertheless, admire him as an author, and esteem him as a gentleman. By the late arrival we perceive that the "Dutchman's Fireside" has been announced for re-publication in England. A literary friend has just shown us a letter from Edward Lytton Bulwer, from which we are permitted to make the following extract:
"I have received," says the author of Pelham, "the Dutchman's Fireside, and think it excellent. I sent it to Mr. Colburn, with a letter of recommendation, and he has already advertised it for sale. I hope it will prove as successful here as it deserves. I am happy to coincide with you in admiring its merits."
The opinion of Mr. Bulwer—himself one of the most deservedly popular novelists of the day—is by no means without its value.
Koningsmarke, or, Old Times in the New World. New edition revised and corrected. In two volumes. New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1834-1835.
Volume I.Selim, the Benefactor of Mankind. London: J. Cunningham, 1840. —We have not been able to find this Oriental tale in a printed book anywhere but in this small-print two-column edition from "The Novel Newspaper." The same volume contains numerous other novels and tales, most of them forgotten. Koningsmarke is also bound in the same volume, having been published in the same series in 1839. Likewise Cooper's Imagination, one of his early productions, originally published under the name "Jane Morgan." Is another undiscovered gem hidden here among the paste?—Here in this collection of ultra-cheap mass-produced novels, by the way, is the answer, twenty years later, to Sydney Smith's notorious question, "Who reads an American book?"
Volume II.
Selim, the Benefactor of Mankind. Ebook version at the Project Gutenberg Consortia Center.
In our opinion, Selim is the most successful imitation of Voltaire ever undertaken by a writer in English. Johnson's Rasselas may be a better tale, but Mr. Paulding has caught the spirit of Voltaire so thoroughly that his work almost seems to be a translation rather than an original composition.
Westward Ho! A Tale. By the author of "The Dutchman's Fireside," &c., &c., &c. In two volumes. New-York: J. & J. Harper, 1832.
Volume I.
Volume II.
—This review of Westward Ho! in, of all things, the American Railroad Journal, seems to have captured what is good and bad in Paulding with unusually keen perception:
The basis of this story, to the best of our knowledge, is entirely original; and it is one of the finest for a superstructure of poetry or romance, that we have seen treated in a long time. It is a tale of hereditary madness. To say that the author has made the most of his materials would be far from the truth; for when did ever Mr. Paulding write a book, without provoking nearly as much as he pleased the reader? A want of due elaboration is the great defect in almost all his writings; and though deservedly a great favorite with his countrymen, it is by storm rather than sapping, that he has entrenched himself in their good graces. His ideas are poured out with the strength of a mountain torrent, but their course is frequently as irregular, and too often as turbid as their flow is full and powerful: and even where the stream, after descending into smoother channels, is gliding on sweetly and transparently, as, with the brook from which we take our simile, when, after its boisterous course, it luxuriates through a sunny meadow, or lingers in some quiet grove—it will wheel away on a sudden into a ruder bed, as if delighting alone in startling and bewildering those who would trace it on its varying way. The work before us is as characteristic of this talented (the word's as good as any in the American language) writer, as either of his productions we can call to mind. It evinces power, humor, and fancy, strong national feelings, and warm domestic affections. But though entertaining, and in many parts beautifully written, there is hardly a page upon which there is not some trace of carelessness. Like the 'Dutchman's Fireside,' many passages are beautifully elaborated, while not a few are given in the rough. We think, however, that Westward Ho! will prove very popular. Many, doubtless, who prefer life in the boudoir to life in the forest, and believe not in romance, unless its pictures are colored with a Gothic pencil, and have a baronial castle in the background, will fling down the book with distaste; but we think, that without our giving further clue to the plot, the extracts below, while they show the vigor with which our author has handled a fresh subject, will whet the desire of our readers to dwell more familiarly upon this racy production.The Merry Tales of the Three Wise Men of Gotham. By the author of "The Dutchman's Fireside," &c., &c. New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1839.
The Old Continental; or, the Price of Liberty. By the author of "The Dutchman's Fireside," &c., &c. In two volumes [both included in this scan]. New-York: Paine and Burgess, 1846.
Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827. With an account of the recapture of the vessel by the survivers; their shipwreck and subsequent horrible suffering from famine; their deliverance by means of the British schooner Jane Guy; the brief cruise of the latter vessel in the Antarctic Ocean; her capture, and the massacre of her crew among a group of islands in the eighty-fourth parallel of southern latitude; together with the incredible adventures and discoveries still farther south to which that distressing calamity gave rise. New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1838. —The first edition. A very good scan at archive.org.
“Notwithstanding this circumstantial and veracious looking length of title, the work is all a fiction. It is written with considerable talent, and an attempt is made, by simplicity of style, minuteness of nautical descriptions, and circumstantiality of narration, to throw over it that air of reality which constitutes the charm of Robinson Crusoe, and Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative. This work has, however, none of the agreeable interest of the two just named. It is not destitute of interest for the imagination, but the interest is painful; there are too many atrocities, too many strange horrors, and finally, there is no conclusion to it; it breaks off suddenly in a mysterious way, which is not only destitute of all vraisemblance, but is purely perplexing and vexatious. We cannot, therefore, but consider the author unfortunate in his plan.” ——The New-York Review, October, 1838.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket, North America: comprising the details of a mutiny, famine, and shipwreck, during a voyage to the South Seas; resulting in extraordinary adventures and discoveries in the eighty-fourth parallel of southern latitude. London, 1838.
The same London edition, scanned in color at archive.org.
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. By Edgar A. Poe. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1840.
“He is one of the very few American writers who blend philosophy, common sense, humor and poetry smoothly together.… He lays his hand upon the wild steeds of his imagination, and they plunge furiously through storm and tempest, or foam along through the rattling thunder-cloud; or, at his bidding, they glide swiftly and noiselessly along the quiet and dreamy lake, or among the whispering bowers of thought and feeling.… There are few writers in this country—take Neal, Irving, and Willis away, and we would say none—who can compete successfully in many respects with Poe. With an acuteness of observation, a vigorous and effective style, and an independence that defies control, he unites a fervid fancy and a most beautiful enthusiasm. His is a high destiny.” —St. Louis Commercial Gazette, quoted in the “Advertisement” prefixed to Vol. II above.
And from the same Advertisement:
“Mr. Poe is decidedly the best of all our young writers—I don’t know but that I may say, of all our old ones.” —J. K. Paulding.
Eureka:
A Prose Poem. By Edgar A. Poe.
New-York: Geo. P. Putnam, 1848. —Poe at his
nuttiest produced this theory of everything, “What
I here propound is true… Nevertheless it is
as a Poem only that I wish this work to be judged
after I am dead.”