14 DECEMBER 1889, Page 24

The Two Brothers : a Fairy - Tale. By Mrs. Hall. (Griffith,

Far-ran, and Co.)—This tale is written, as we are told, in the simplest style and language, for the amusement of children of from eight to fourteen years of age." The author must excuse us if we say that there is commonly a considerable gap between eight and fourteen, and that the art of writing so as to please both ages is an uncommon gift. We do not find it in the author of The Two Brothers, whose style, is, indeed, a curious survival of that which writers of Mrs. Trimmer's time used to employ. The story is well enough in a way, another version of the old " good and idle apprentices ;" but the fairy machinery, so to call it, is certainly clumsy.