GIFT -BOOKS.
ILLUSTRATED BOOKS.
UNDER the. title 0 The Springtide of Life. (W. Heinemann. 10s. 6d. net) Mr. Goose has colleoted and arranged Swinburne's delightful poems of childhood. Swinburne, it seems, had intended to do this for himself, but abandoned the scheme because he could not find a suitable illustrator. He would have been pleased, we are sure, with Mr. Arthur Rackham's able and graceful drawings—eight of them in colour—which decorate this very well-printed volume. Few English poets except Blake can rival Swinburne's exquisite verses on young, children, which make a far stronger impression now that they are brought together.—Mr. Willy Pogany's illus- trated edition of the Bubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. (Harrap, 15s. net), in FitzGerald'a first version, is a very elaborate imitation of a Persian manuscript, even in the type ; the numerous coloured plates suggest the strangeness of the East and reflect the mysticism of the poein.—A good .reprint of Hawthorn's Tanglewood Tales (Hodder and Stoughton, 15s. net) is illustrated in riotous colour by Mr. Edmund Dulac, who has• been inspired by the wall-paintings of Knosaoa and by Greek vases as well as by the stage-designs of M. Bakst. The pictures will not amuse every one, but it is good to have Hawthorn's admirable versions of the Greek legends printed in bold and clear type.—Mr. Max Beerbohin's whimsical little story of the sinner turned saint, The Happy Hypocrite (j. Lane, 21s. net), has been reprinted with a number of equally whimsical illustrations, after the manner of Pietro Longhi, by Mr. George Sheringham. The thesis that the rake, by assuming the mask of virtue, unconsciously becomes virtuous, is open to doubt, but Mr. Beerbohm's fantasy is very cleverly written.
There is always room for such a collection of the old nursery stories as Mrs Flora Annie Steel has retold in a simple and vivacious style in English Fairy Tales (Macmillan and Co., 10s. 6d. net). delightfully illustrated in colour and in black-and-white by Mr. Arthur Beckham. This handsome and amusing book will make an excellent Christmas gift for young children.—Mr. Cyrus Mac- millan's Canadian Wonder Tales (J. Lane, 15s. net) is a novel and highly interesting volume of folk-tales current among the French- Canadians and the Indians, with many attractive illustrations by Mr. George Sheringham. The author, who completed his book while serving with the Canadian Corps in France, has brought together many humorous animal stories, such as " How Rabbit Lost his Tail," as well as some strange, tales of magic, which will please the many young admirers of " Hiawatha."—Another attractive book which will enlarge the legendary stores of the nursery is M. Jean de Bosachere's Beasts and Men (W. Heinemann, 12s. Od. net), which is a collection of Flemish tales about Reynard the. Fox and other animals, amusingly told and illustrated with great spirit by the author. A people familiar from childhood with the cunning devices of Reynard must, we should think, have been fortified against the wiles of the enemy during the occupation.
Young people—and many of their elders--who are interested in natural history will be delighted with Mr. R. Lydekker's Wild Life of the World (F. Warne, 84s.), a descriptive survey of the geographical distribution of animals in three large volumes with an abundance of good illustrations. Mr. Lydekker was a man of science of high repute, and his book is a trustworthy and readable compendium of a large subject. The chapters on the birds in the first volume may be particularly commended; the drawings In line and colour deserve high praise.—Flower-Name Fancier, written and designed by M. G. P. Fauconnet, with English rhymes by Mr. H. Gordon (J. Lane, 6s. net), is a witty French artist's attempt to show how familiar flowers have come by their names, such as larkspur, Solomon's seal, mare's-tail, and so on. The French as well as the English names are given. M. Fauconnet does not know why the foxglove is so called ; the French have the prettier term, " Gents de Notre Dame."
Soldiers above all will be interested in Captain Martin Hardie's Boulogne : a Base in France (A. and C. Black, 6s. net), a set of thirty-two wash drawings which have been reproduced with care, Captain Hardie was known as a promising etcher before the war. and his views of the harbour and some of his street-scenes show the etcher's instinct for fine effects of light and shade. Old Boulogne, as every one knows, abounds in the picturesque. Captain Hardie has not exhausted its possibilities,
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