CURRENT LITERATURE.
CHRISTMAS BOOKS.
The Gospel according to St. John. (Sampson Low and Co).—If, as seems very likely, the "Authorised Version " of the Gospel is approach- ing the end of its privilege (though, indeed, no new revision which shall be obviously disconnected with it can have any chance of success) it could not have a more splendid record of its existence than the edition of which this volume is the first part. The size is folio, the paper of that sumptuous, so to speak massive kind which none but English publishers think of using for their books, and the type, which has been founded, wo understand, for the purpose, a delight to the eyes. The illustrations are etchings after designs by M. Bide. Without being very striking or impressive, these are, for the most part, of great merit. The face of Christ is adequately and truthfully conceived, and that without too great a departure from the traditional representation of the features. Even great painters have given to these too groat an air of serenity and repose. Here they have more of a worn and wasted look, but without any loss of dignity and power. The faces, again, of the Apostles have nothing of the conventional smoothness, but have just the rugged features of fishermen and peasants, who have yet something in them which marks them out from common men. Nothing of its kind could be more admirable than the group of "Jesus washing the disciples' feet." "The man blind from his birth" is another fine scene. Taking the figures singly, the "woman taken in adultery" is perhaps the most masterly in the volume. The face, the arms hanging helplessly down, the whole pose of the figure, express with singular vividness the shame and grief which overpower her. Pilate, too, is another noble figure. Of the other designs we would mention with special praise "The entry into Jerusalem," with its striking air of reality and truth; "A man born into the world ;" and "The miraculous draught of fishes," though here, perhaps, the shore is rather that of a sea than of a lake. The only illustration in which there is a noticeable departure from the truth of the narrative is that of "Jesus walking on the sea." The Evangelist tells us that "the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew." M. Bide repre- sents a calm, moonlit sea.— Woman in Sacred History: Sketches. By
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Illustrated with fifteen chromo-lithographs. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Mrs. Beecher Stowe's sketches have all the vividness and power which we are accustomed to expect from hor pen. The familiar subject-matter is handled with freshness and power; the
narrative is felicitously illustrated and explained. At the same time, the illustrations justify the expression of the preface, that chromo-litho- graphy is a "rapidly maturing art." As regards technical execution, these are all that could be desired. There is no harshness or crudity about them. The colouring is both bright and harmonious. Whether wood engravings or etchings would not have been preferable in an artistic point of view is another question ; the chromo- lithographs are unquestionably good of their kind, and emi- nently attractive. Of their adaptation to the subject we cannot say so much. Few have anything characteristic about them. "Deborah" is an exception ; so are the graceful pictures of "Leah and Rachel," and "Mary and Martha," though in the latter of these the figure of Mary seems defective in drawing. Some of the illustrations are taken from well-known pictures, criticism of which would be out of place. Such are the " Sistine Madonna ;" Delaroche's "Miriam and Moses," though this is far enough away from the prophetess whom Miss Stowe's sketch describes ; and Batoni's "Mary Magdalene." Some, again, are adapted from designs which had originally a different purpose. and not always adapted with the best judgment. The "Femme Fellah of Charles Landoll° is a beautiful figure, and not unworthily rendered in the volume before us. But is there not a great ethnological blunder in making the features of a Copt serve for those of the Semitic Rebekah?— Tie Lyrics of Ancient Palestine. (The Religious Tract Society.)—These "poetical and pictorial illustrations of the Old Testament history" make a pretty and interesting volume. Poems from various sources have been selected with considerable taste and judgment, and the artists have not been behind in their part of the work.—A Midsummer Night's Dream. With Illustrations by Alfred Fredericks. (Bickers.) The illustrations here are of unequal merit. The two which meet us on opening the volume, "Athena" and "A. Wood near It," are excellent ; and generally the landscapes and the fanciful pictures of Titania, Oberon, and their elfin followers are of the same quality. In the figures, whether of the serious kind, as when the two pairs of lovers are represented, or of the ludicrous, where we have Bottom and his company, Mr. Fredericks is not so successful. The binding and general ornamentation of the volume are good.—Oxford and Cambridge ; their Colleges, Memories, and Associations. By the Rev. Frederick Arnold. With Engravings by Mr. E. Whymper. (Religious Tract Society.) Mr. Whymper's drawings are successful, both for general fidelity and effect, as far as concerns the architecture of the scenes represented, and this indeed is the essential part; his trees are not very happily given. Mr. Arnold's descriptions are lively and interesting. He adapts himself happily to the limits of his space, and makes a good selection out of the vast mass of materials ready to his hand. Mr. Arnold is an Oxford man, and when he gets into the comparatively unknown regions of Cambridge he occasionally errs even to the apprehension of the present writer, who does not pre- tend to any special knowledge of that University. "Pigs," he says, for instance. a propos of the of the bridge nicknamed the "Isthmus of Suez," is "the epithet which other colleges bestow on the Johnians
for eating in hall too fast." The epithet had its origin, we fancy, in the gridiron-like device which distinguishes the Johnian gown. There is a serious error, again, in his description of the examination for the mathematical Tripes in January. After speaking of the three days' examination, he goes on to say, "The majority of men, having passed, are quite content there- with, and do not care to go further, but those intrepid spirits, the candidates for honours, persevere." The truth is that both the "throe days" and the "five days'" examination, are for such candidates. The "majority of men" pass at quite another time and after a different examination.—The Reef and other Parables, By E. H. Bickersteth. (Sampson Low and Co.) Mr. Bickersteth writes pleasantly and gracefully, and does not fail to make interesting stories of his parables. For a Christmas-gift book of the more serious kind, this may be safely recommended.—Notable Shipwrecks. (Cassell and Co.) This is a subject in which, unhappily, there is always new matter for a compiler to put together. Here we have some of the old stories, so familiar, and yet so perpetually interesting, and two new ones added to the catalogue, so sad and at times so brilliantly illustrated by deeds of courage, since we wrote our last year's notice of "Christmas Books." There are "The Wreck of the Northfleet," which happened in the night of January the 22nd, and "The Wreck of the Atlantic," April 1st, 1873, the latter one of the most fatal disasters on record. There is a specially interesting chapter on "Missing Ships." Among these there have been four Atlantic steamers, the President, lost in 1841; the City of Glas- gow, in 1854; the Pacific, in 1856; and the City of Boston, in 1870.
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