PREFATORY NOTICE. FREDERIKA BREMER, the daughter of a Swedish merchant, became favorably known as a writer of Tales and Stories, in her own country, about ten years ago. But the literature of Sweden is little cared for in the other countries of Europe, and little read. While, therefore, her reputation rose rapidly and high at home, she was not heard of abroad. The Germans, as might have been foreseen, were the first to discover and make known her merits; and when, in 1841, Brockhaus, the great Leipzig publisher, projected his Ausgewählte Bibliothek der Classiker des Auslandes (Select Library of Foreign Classics), he began it with her "NEIGHBOURS." It was a fortunate opening; and, before the end of 1842, out of sixteen volumes which he had published, eight were composed wholly of her stories. It is apparently from this source, that Mrs. Howitt has had the pleasure of making known Miss Bremer's pretensions to the English public and to the American, beginning, as Brockhaus did, with "The Neighbours," which she translated last year. We trust she will find encouragement to go on, and complete the pleasant series she has undertaken. "THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTERS" appeared originally without the author's name. It was printed in two small volumes at Stockholm in 1834, under the title of Presidenten's Döttrar, berättelse af en Guvernant, and is the first in the series, Nya Teckningar utur Hvardagslifvet. It constitutes the fifth volume of Brockhaus's Library; but, in the German, quite a large number of passages are omitted, which are found in the Swedish; some of them of little consequence, but some containing touches of the pencil which should not have been omitted in the copy, since they add to the truth and expression of the sketches and portraits in the original. In the present translation, all these passages have been carefully retained, in justice alike to the author and to the reader. AP'00 |