CURRENT LITERATURE.
Children's Stories in English Literature : from Shakespeare to Tennyson. By Henrietta C. Wright. (Fisher Unwin.)—If these
brightly written pages give youthful readers some taste for good literature, they will, we do not doubt, fulfil the purpose of the author. Her estimate of books and their writers must not be
judged too critically ; but the praise Miss Wright awards to many distinguished men would carry greater weight if it were more dis- criminating. Great as Dryden was, it cannot be saii that he "possessed one of the finest minds in the whole range of English literature," and the most ardent admirer of Landor might well hesitate to pronounce him "one of the greatest of English poets," a title given with more justice to Wordsworth on the same page Then again, whatever may be the merit of "Count Robert of Paris "—and it has more merit than is generally admitted— no sane critic would place it, as Miss Wright does, "among the most famous" of Scott's historical romances. The eulogistic comments on such writers as Gibbon, Byron, and Shelley ought, one would think, in a book written for children, to have been accompanied with some warning against the moral defects which are to be found in their pages. A youthful reader, for aught that is said to the contrary, might suppose that the works of these famous men can be read throughout with entire profit and delight. Miss Wright is chiefly successful in the happy art of condensing some famous works of imagination, such as " Gulliver's Travels," "The Vicar of Wakefield," "The Pilgrim's Progress," and " Robinson Crusoe," a work of fiction which, in her judgment, has never yet been excelled. Apart from what we must regard as critical errors, we have found no mistakes in this pleasantly written volume beyond a misprint upon page 342, where "The Lady of the Lake" is said to be founded upon the romantic adventures of "Henry V. of Scotland."
Previous page
