CURRENT LITERATURE.
GIFT-BOOKS.
Prince Prigio. By Andrew Lang. (J. W. Arrowsmith, Bristol.) —No one can read Mr. Lang's fairy-story without being reminded of " The Rose and the Ring." There is the little trick, for instance, of emphasising, so to speak, a piece of humour by italics. The fairies come to the Prince's christening "each with a most interesting-looking parcel in her hand." But Mr. Lang, it is scarcely necessary to say, has plenty of his own to give his readers, and has no need to copy or borrow. The Prince has the misfortune of having a mother who does not believe in fairies, and when they throng to his christening, shows her true scientific spirit by disbelieving the evidence of her senses. They are good-natured, in spite of this want of welcome, all but one, who endows the Prince with the malignant gift of being " too clever." Hence all his troubles, which have, however, an undoubted compensation in the ingenuity with which he encounters and overcomes perilous adventures. A clever and amusing story, though not on as high a level as last year's book, " The Gold of Fairnilee."
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