Nutcracker and Mouse - King. By E. T. A. Hoffm in. Translated
by Ascott Hope. "The Children's Library." (T. Fisher Unwin,)• —The quaint conceits and fanciful imagination of the German story-teller are evident, as usual, in the story of the wonderful toys presented to the Stahlbaum children by their godfather. A curious psychological tendency is to be noticed, however, in making the little girl dream when elle has cut her arm, and when she falls off a chair. Is this accidental, or does it indicate the general fin de siecle tendency of the present generation ? It de- tracts from the ease and verisimilitude of the transition from the real to the imaginary, when a child is told that the heroine saw all these marvels in consequence of having cut her arm. The translation is made with much spirit ; and some readers will have to console themselves with this quality, for there is not much plot, and loss definiteness, in Nutcracker and Mouse-King.
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