18 DECEMBER 1886, Page 23

CURRENT LITERATURE.

GIFT BOOKS, Exc.

John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character, from the Collection of "Mr. Punch." (Bradbury, Agnew, and Co.)—This is a handsome quarto, with a portrait of John Leech for frontispiece, and some six hundred sketches, more or less, contributed to Punch during the years 1842-1864. The fertility and ingenuity of the man are happily displayed by this collection, and, we may add, his taste. Remembering that it was in broad humour that he had his forte, it is noticeable how seldom. he approached to vulgarity. There will be found a curious com- mentary, some day, on the history of the first portion of the reign of Queen Victoria, in these pictorial annals of an observer who was as shrewd as he was humorous.