CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Bachholees in Italy. Edited by Julius Stinde. Translated by Harriet F. Powell. (George Bell and Sons.)—Frau Wilhelmine in Italy is decidedly less attractive than the "Sketches of Berlin Life." It must, of course, be taken into consideration that continuations are always apt to fall flat, from the mere fact that the charms of novelty and surprise no longer exist, for the loss of which even the pleasure of meeting again one's old friends does not entirely make up. But patting aside this general fact, we feel somehow that Frau Wilhelmine, who—with her eminently middle-class philistine mind— was so perfectly in harmony with her Berlin circle, is out of keeping with Italy. The humorous vein of satire with which she is treated does not sufficiently reconcile one to her as a travelling companion, and amusing as she is, causes to the present writer a feeling of annoyance similar to that with which he regarded the shoals of tourists in Italy who belonged to Frau. Wilhelmine's class, whether they were English or German. The German language seems so out of place there ! It must, however, be taken as a tribute to the reality of Frau Buchholz that a grudge of thin personal kind should be borne against her, so that the present writer would actually feel a certain warm satisfaction in being classed in her mind with those proud, insolent English "who were always stamping on her feet" (figura- tively speaking, it may perhaps be better to mention). There are charming little bits of description here and there to relieve the general tone. The translation is truthfully and pleasantly done, and the book does not lose very much in its English form.
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