10 JANUARY 1891, Page 20

Scribner's Magazine for 1890 has been published in two handsome

but not unwieldy volumes, It contains, in addition to innumerable short stories, several complete novels in serial form, of which "Expiation," by Octave Thamet, and the semi-historical "In the Valley," by Harold Frederic, are the chief, and a number of very readable miscellaneous articles, dealing with all sorts of subjects, from the electric railway of to-day to the footprints of Charles Lamb and the manner in which Stanley wrote his book. It is perfectly justifiable to pay Scribner the hackneyed compliment of saying that one may open it on chance at any page with the certainty of finding there what will instruct, amuse, or edify.