The Story of the Kearsarge and Alabama

San Francisco : Henry Payot & Co.

THE author, who has been induced to publish this narrative of the famous combat between the Kearsarge and the Alabama, by the want that existed of a popular, detailed, and yet concise account of the affair, may congratulate himself on having exactly met this want. We have read his clear, full, brief history of an action already so familiar with fresh interest and fresh intelligence. With no feeble-minded impulses to be dramatic or picturesque, he is graphic in the best way, and brings the whole occurrence before his reader with the simplicity of a sensible man, and the quiet power of an artist. We think we could have read even a duller narrative with pleasure in the exquisite print which the publishers have given his little book, and which is noticeable as characteristic of the California press.