13 DECEMBER 1884, Page 19

Every Boy's Annual. Edited by Edmund Rontledge. (Routledge and Sons.)—Mr.

Frith contributes to this volume a story of the Crusades, Major-General Drayson one which has South Africa for its scene, nnder the title of " The • White Chief of the Umzimvuba Caffres," and M. Jules Verne's inexhaustible pen, " Kevalan the Inflexible; or, Adventures in the Engine," while there is a story, "Escaped from Siberia," to which no author's name is affixed. Mr. E. Rontledge must be supposed to know the tastes of the clients for whom he is catering, but we cannot help suggesting that the pro- portion of fiction to fact is enormous. B •yond " Drawing-Room- Conjuring," by Professor Hoffmann, there are but three articles. Bat, doubtless, the fiction is good of its kind.