A PICTURE-BOOK OF NORWAY.
Norway. By Nico Jungman. Text by Beatrix Jungman. (A. and C. Black. 20s. net.)—No more delightful book on Norway has ever been published than this joint work of Mr. and Mrs. Jungman. First, as to the literary part of it. Mrs. Jungman does not concern herself, as some writers in this series of books have done, with the past history of Norway, except with a few of its legends ; nor does she allude to the present unsettled state of its politics. But the fact of Norwegian unrest will be well known to most of her readers, and makes indeed an interesting background to her brilliant series of passing impressions. She and her husband are ideal travellers : in no hurry to reach any point or to finish their journey, they loiter from place to place, living among the people, finding their way to their hearts, and making discoveries as to manners and customs quite unfamiliar, in remote parts of the country where the difficulties of travelling have till now kept many Southern visitors away. Mrs. Jungman's " text" is quite as interesting, in its way, as her husband's pictures. Mr. Jungman is a charming artist, as many people know ; and he has done nothing more attractive than these portraits of Norwegian girls and children, in the costumes which are not, it appears, in any immediate danger of disappearing. His sketches of Norwegian landscape are also most characteristic. Their colouring seems to suffer a little from reproduction, which is not so successful in the case of atmosphere as with the clear, hard, brilliant tints of the portraits.
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