CURRENT LITERATURE.
GIFT-BOOKS.
A very dainty little series is that of the Christmas Stories from "Household Words" and " All the Year Round," edited by Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall). In some cases, as in "No Thoroughfare," he employed only a single collaborator,— Wilkie Collins. In "Mugby Junction," which opens the series, he wrote the first four chapters, the remainder being written by Andrew Halliday, Charles Collins, Raba Stretton, and Amelia B. Edwards. In " The Wreck of the ' Golden Mary," again, the names of his assistants are not given, the author- ship being merely assigned to "Charles Dickens and Others." But we believe that in every case—except "No Thoroughfare" —the whole was designed and sketched out by Dickens. In any case the reprint is timely, handy, and agreeable to the eye. The little volumes are prettily bound, printed in good type, and each has a well-executed frontispiece by A. Jules Goodman. As for the contents, we hope it is unnecessary to say what excellent and wholesome entertainment is to be got out of these Christmas stories. " Mugby Junction " is, perhaps, our favourite. The romance and mystery of the railroad have seldom, if ever, been so vividly portrayed as in that splendid passage in the opening chapter :—" A place replete with shadowy shapes, this Mugby Junction in the black hours of the four-and-twenty. Mysterious goods trains, covered with palls, and gliding on like vast weird funerals, conveying them- selves guiltily away from the presence of the few lighted lamps, as if their freight had come to a secret and unlawful end. Half-miles of coal pursuing in a Detective manner, following when they lead, stopping when they stop, backing when they back. Red-hot embers showering out upon the ground, down this dark avenue and down the other, as if torturing fires were being raked clear ; concurrently, shrieks and groans and grinds invading the ear, as if the tortured were at the height of their suffering. Iron-barred cages full of cattle jangling by midway, the drooping beasts with horns entangled, eyes frozen with terror, and mouths too; at least they have long icicles (or what seem so) hanging from their lips. Unknown languages in the air, con- spiring in red, green, and white characters. An earthquake, accompanied by thunder and lightning, going up express to London. Now, all quiet, all rusty, wind and rain in possession, lamps extinguished, Mugby Junction dead and indistinct, with its robe drawn over its head, like Ctesar."—In connection with these reprints we may mention Messrs. Dent's latest addition to the " Temple Series,"—an exquisitely dainty reprint of Pickwick in three eminently pocketable volumes (Is. 6d. net each). A more charming and delightful edition of this great classic we have never seen. Though the size of the volumes is so small the print is perfectly legible.
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