The Pink Fairy - Book. By Andrew Lang. (Longmans and Co.) —Mr.
Lang has exhausted the primary colours without coming to an end of his store of fairy-tales. This time he has gone farther afield, though without finding much that is new. Japan yields a few ; and other sources which we do not remember in the earlier books have been drawn upon. Generally, however, it is from the folk-lore of the European nations, and from that most admirable of story-tellers, Hans Christian Andersen, that we get the best things. It is true that, as Mr. Lang remarks, Andersen "wants to point a moral' as well as 'adorn a tale," whereas the true fairy-story should not have any more intelligible moral than that it is a great virtue to be the youngest son of three, and a still greater to be the youngest of seven. Not the less, however, is it true that, on the whole, these stories are on the side of good- ness and kindness. It is difficult to make a choice among these good things. But perhaps "How the Hermit Helped to Win the King's Daughter" is as good as any. Among the few outlandish stories, " Wischimataro and the Turtle" may be menticned. Tho illustrations by Mr. H. J. Ford are exceedingly good. We have praised them before, and this year we find them more than equal to themselves. The Japanese beauty in the first story," The Cat's Elopement," is the first of a long procession of delightfully pretty creatures.
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