28 JUNE 1890, Page 44

A Fairy Godfather. Edited by J. A. Goodchild. (Remington and

Co.)—We might say that these chapters are studies of human life as regarded from without. The " Fairy Godfather " has an interest in a certain child assigned to him by his superior the Fairy Queen, and he is supposed to be telling us here how he per- formed his duty. He has certain faculties of coming and going, &c., which are denied to ordinary beings, and these give him corresponding opportunities. There is fancy in the book and humour ; but the author has not been altogether successful in. making us forget the strangeness of the machinery.