25 OCTOBER 1890, Page 23

Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tsar. Translated

by Edith folk-tales. There is, indeed, a certain difficulty in identifying them sometimes ; the Russian tale-teller is not happy unless he can put plenty of meaningless padding of his own into them. We miss, by-the-way, certain representative typical friends. This, however, is doubtless a book for the children ; at least, the style and the treatment, which are somewhat wanting in art, lead us to that conclusion. Still, literally translated, Russian stories are doubtless childish, and we ought not to complain. There are one or two amusing stories in the collection, for which, of course, we must be thankful.