8 NOVEMBER 1902, Page 27

NEW EDITIONS. — In the series of "The World's Classics" (Grant Richards,

2s. and is. net) Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, and The Natural History of Selborne, by Gilbert White. These are numbered respectively XX. and XXII. ; XXI. is to be Tales by Edgar Allan Poe.—Our Village. By Mary Russell Mitford. With Introduction by Anne Mackeray Ritchie. Illustrated by Hugh Thomson. (Macmillan and Co. 2s. net.)—A delightful book, shown off to the best advantage by introducer and illustrator.— In the "Hampshire Edition of Jane Austen's Works' (R. Brimley Johnson, 2s. 6d. net per vol.) we have Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility ; other volumes have already been published. Our readers may be reminded that the edition is so named after Jane Austen's native county, that the decorations have a special reference to this fact, and that the title-page is adorned with a graceful little vignette of the authoress. Another novel and pleasant feature of this delightful edition is the map of the scene of the novel printed on the inside of the cover of each volume.—We have received from Messrs. Macmillan (2s. net) Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, illustrated— we need hardly say, most pleasingly illustrated—by Charles E. Brock. Mr. Austin Dobson has furnished an introduction in which he describes in his usual pleasant and tactful fashion Jane Austen's personal and literary characteristics.—In the series of "Red Letter Poets" (Blackie and Son, 2s. 6d. and 18. 6d. net) Poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. We do not think that the volumes are enriched by the brief intro- ductions with which they have been furnished by Mrs. Alice Meynell. Why the disparaging remark that E. B. Browning became "rashly and sentimentally 'patriotic' on behalf of Italy"? The criticism on Tennyson, too, is of little value. It would have been better to keep strictly to bibliographical facts. To say nothing of other qualifications, there is not room enough in five or six hundred words to attempt criticism. E. B. Browning,'s poems are, we believe, all out of copyright, and the selection, therefore, whether by publisher or editor, was free. In the case of Tennyson it would have been better to state on the title-page the time limit of the poems. There are plenty of people so ignorant of literary matters that they might buy this volume under the impression that it was a complete edition. They would get, probably, their money's worth, for this is a pretty little book and very cheap, but they would not get what they supposed.

A cordial welcome is due to the "People's Edition" of the Rev. A. J. Church's Story of the Iliad and Story of the Odyssey (Seeley and Co., 6d. net each). The print is good though small, and the excellent reproductions of Flaxman's beautiful designs notably enhance the attractions of these charming volumes, which are among the very best of the many efforts in discipleship suggested by Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare."