22 DECEMBER 1894, Page 22

The New Fairy - Book Edited by William Andrews. (William Andrews and

Co., Hull.)—Although Mr. Andrews does not, in this volume, attempt anything in the shape of competition with the well.known series of fairy-books for which Mr. Andrew Lang is the sponsor, he has here collected a number of admirable stories by different hands. Boy and girl readers will think none the worse of them that their leading characters are of the old-fashioned sort, —fairies, elves, giants, magicians, and princes in disguise. Thus in the opening story we have pre- sented to us a Princess Beauty who stumbles upon a poor little matchboy, and subsidises him in her own small way. He, of course, turns out to be a prince, and the two get married. In another story, there figures a gentle giant who is only between sixty and seventy feet in height, and who is as good as the best of fairies. In a third, we have a serpent who, getting "the kiss of Christian charity" from a young gentleman, is transformed into a beautiful woman. All the stories in the collection, how-

ever, are well written. The illustrations are not very numerous ; but in their way they, too, are excellent.