CURRENT LITERATURE.
ILLUSTRATED AND OTHER GIFT-BOOXS.—IL
Quality of paper and type, a superabundance of illustrations, and substantial proofs of the truly 1:esthetic uses to which wooden boards may be put, entitle The History of Wood Engraving in America, by W. J. Linton (Bell and Sons), to a first place among the gift-books of the season. With the exception of the last chapter, the book originally appeared, hi instalments, in the American Art Review, and many portions have even yet a sketchy and magaziniah look. Indeed, Mr. Linton, who is an expert in the art of which he writes, hints that it may yet be only a preliminary " study " to a fuller history. Besides, the writer is a critic and partisan, upholding the old school of wood engraving in America against the new or " photographic " school, and Speaks with great plainness of the work of several of its representa- tives, and .particularly of Juengling. The ordinary reader had, per- haps, better not take much interest in the controversial portion of the book, but confine himself to the purely historical letter-press and the illustrations, which are sufficiently attractive in themselves. From the examples given of the work of J. A. Adams, especially his "Meeting of Jacob and Joseph," we can quite believe that Mr. Linton is correct in giving him the first place among American wood engravers, although there is a quaintness, as of old illustrated Bibles, and old editions of Quarles's "Emblems," in thespeeimens given of Dr. Anderson, the " father " of this branch of American art, which is, per- haps, even more enjoyable. Of the full-page illustrations given here, 4' The Boar-hunt" by Anderson," The Pboroydes " by Kruell (to whom his art is evidently not of the "doll, mechanic" sort), and "The Sleeping Girl," by Mr. Linton himself, seem to us especially worthy of commendation, for vigour and carefulness of execution, and for freedom from any affectation, such as giving to certain unessentials in detail an artificial superiority over essentials. Of the minor illus- trations, those from Knickerbocker'a "History of New York" strike sts especially, by their thoroughly Dutch humour.---Mr, Motioune D. Conway's Travels in South Kensington, with Notes on Decorative Art and Architecture in England (Trtibuer and Co.), belongs, like the book just noticed, to the more solid order of illustrated gift- books. Mr. Conway has so many likeable points as a writer— there is so much moral " go " about him—that one regrets to say that this new book of his is somewhat disappointing, and looks S8 if it had been too hurriedly written. The " prolegomena " about two sisters, "Homely" and "Comely," are thin, and have the appear- ance of a rather ambitions boarding-school essay. That portion of the volume which is really a guide to South Kensington would have been perfectly satisfactory, had it been more abundantly illustrated, and had there been a little less of Mr. Conway's rather gushing letter. Press. The best parts of the whole are the "Notes on Decorative Art and Architecture," which are readable and interesting for the facts they contain, although even they are interspersed with " sesthotio Chatter." Finally, Mr. Conway makes rather too much of the little artistic colony at Bedford Park, even although M. Demon, when he was here delivering his Hibbert Lectures, pronounced it une mSritable tRopte. At the same time, there is much information in the book, and the writer, if occasionally provoking, is never dull.
In a class by itself, although suggestive of Mr. Caldeeott and Kate Greenaway, stands Monthly Maxims, by Robert Dudley (De la Rue), consisting of " Rhymes and reasons to fit the seasons, and pictures new to suit them, too." With its rich white-and-gold boards, and its deli- cate illustrations, it strikes one, indeed, as being too bright and good for ordinary human handling. Mr. Dudley, who dedicates hia "Maxims" to Mr. Dirket Foster, has thrown a great deal of art and humour into his illustrations of the progress of the months and seasons. While the conventional is not forgotten, it is treated in anything but an unconventional way. Thus Aquarius is represented as a eolded paterfamilias being cured of his ailment in the common way, by a hot drink, a hot-water foot-bath, and mustard ; while the Gemini appear as a theatrical sandwich-man, belabonring an Exeter-Hall brother-in.boards. The larger coloured illustrations, of which there is one to each month,:do great credit to Mr. Dudley, and to his power of catching the humours and inflictions of different periods of the year. They are all admirable, unless we except a rather farci- cal representation of November and Guy Fawkes. Two in parti- cular, representing the effects of a March blast, and a wearied- out sportsman being served with refreshment in the form of " October " ale, are worthy of a better place than they find here. The verses which accompany the illustrations are, on the whole, above the average. Some, on the dog-days, coma up almost to Mr. H, j. Byron's level of punning.
Mr. Blackmore's Lorna Doone (S. Low), and Sir Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake (Chat° and Windus), are two well-known works that naturally lend themselves to the craze fords luxe editions. We are not quite sure, in spite of Mr. Blackrnore's preface to the twentieth edition of his "Romance of Exmoor,"—a preface, by the way, which strikes us as rather strained, and not written with Mr. Blachnoro's usual good taste,—if it is his "favourite child," as "David Copperfield" was Dickens's. But there are no two opinions as to the devotion of the public to John Ridd and Tom Faggus and Lorna herself, or their appreciation of the historioal painting in which Jeffries figures for once as making jokes that are not stained with blood. This is, indeed, a very beautiful issue of the work, and the publishers have, in Mr. F. Armstrong, Mr. W. Small, and Mr. W. B. Boot, secured the aid of most capable artists. The minor incidents of the story are well illustrated; and we have some good bits of Devonshire scenery, yet we should have liked to see the leading events of the story presented with more force and fire. Why should not the two attempts to storm the stronghold of the Domes have been better brought out P Nor can we say that we particularly admire the illustration of the victory gained over Carver Doone in his last match with Sohn Ridcl. The real tragedy of tho fight—Carver sinking in the black bog, which nearly engulfed John hitnself—is missed altogether. Messrs. Cheap and Winclns have dono their best to make their illustrated edition of the Lady of the Lake true to life, and, above all, to Scottish scenery by sending its illustrator, Mr. A. V. S. Anthony, to visit the Scotch Highlands, and make sketches on the spot. Mr. Anthony's Highlanders are rather of the wooden, sbagey, and traditional snuff- shop character. FitzJames appears too much as if he were posing as a Scotch Henri Quatro ; and there is singularly little life in the representation of the different stages in the combat between him and Roderick Dhu. But the landseapes are correct, almost to a painful and photographic degroo; and altogether, this is the best illustrated edition of Scott's work that has yet been given to the public.
A Salad of Stray Leaves (Loagmans), which is the title Mr. George Heise, the sculptor, gives to his new excursion into the realm of light literature, would have a claim to be ranked among the literature specially devoted to this season, even had it not had for its frontis- piece the last design executed by the late Mr. Hablot X. Browne, and which, as it is, perhaps, quite unnecessary to say, is of a comic and Christmas character. The stories that form the bulk and the best of the " Salad " are of the kind the late Charles Dickens made so popular at this time of the year, and which introduce us to a good deal of domestic difficulty, relieved suddenly, and as a rule, on Christmas Day, by some good fairy or other. Of this type in particu- lar are The Riddle of Ivy Green" and "Lot 94s" in which the methods by which the troubles of certain good people are happily and unexpectedly got rid of are told with a lightsome humour. The method, indeed, of Mr. Halso in working out the plot of the larger of these stories, "The Riddle of Ivy Green," suggests the idea that he would be very competent to write a corned ietta for the Stage, of a morally healthy and enjoyable kind that is now found but too rarely there, "Jeremiah Lillyboy " is an account of the misadventures that befall one of those half-idiotic but not unhappy simpletons whom Dickens.used to love to sketch, and is full of fun and vigour. Mr. Halse's humour has, indeed, a tendency to run into a vein of farci- cality, as in the first of his stories, "My Friend the Major," a story of Edinburgh thimblerigging and other swindling, which, however, has but little of Edinburgh in it ; and still more in "how I Slew Bluebeard, and Escaped Capital Punishment." Of the verses Mr. Halms here gives us, tho less said the better. Some of them suggest unfavourable comparison with Mr. Austin Dobson's, others with those of the late Lord Neaves. Nor, indeed, are they quite worthy of the author of "Sir Guy de Guy." But for the conditions of space, Winners in Life's Race ; or, the Great-Backboneel Family (Edward Stanford), by Arabella B. Buckley, would have from us a much ampler notice than it is at present in our power to give. At the same time, and in these days when natural science is being taught to boys and girls in their teens, and in an increasingly faeci- nesting manner—and nowhere more so than in those ex:301101st middle-class schools now springing up all over London—we can conceive no better gift-book than this new volume, by the author of "The Fairy Laud of Science." As the name would imply, it deals with the vertebrate animals, and is, therefore, a continua- tion of Miss Buckley's previous volume, "Life and Her Children," which treated of the invertebrates. But it is a quite independent work, Miss Buckley's intention being, as she herself says, "to follow the tido of life, and sketch in broad outline how structure and habit have gone hand-in-hand in filling every available space with living beings." It is, in fact, the Development doctrine—" the ever con- tinuous action of the great Creator in the development of living beings "—brought to the level of the school-room, if not of the nursery ; and the best course for children who are capable of under- standing it would be to master it, and then to proceed, armed with it, for purposes of investigation and verification, to the British Museum and the Zoological Gardens. Miss Buckley has spared no pains to incorporate ia her book the latest results of scien- tific research, so far as these concern the vertebrate, The illustra- tions in the book deserve the highest praise. They are numerous, acourate, and striking.—To the "Science for Children" order of gift-books belongs also The S'ory of a Shell a Romance of the Sea (Nisbet and Co.), by j. R. Macduff, D.D. It is, in brief, an attempt to bring marine zoology within the comprehension of very young minds. Although Dr. Maoduff has not Miss Buckley's scientific pre- cision, he has produced a pleasant book. It must be said, however, that many of his moralisings and sentimentalisings are most uncon- scionably long drawn out.
Mrs. Molesworth has incontestably proved that she possesses the key to the mysteries of infancy and girlhood, and her Rosy (Macmillan and Co.), which is an account of the trials, objective, and still more subjeotive, of a "dear little girl" on the road to "goodness," is worthy of her reputation. Rosy's tempers and tantrums are well drawn, and Mrs. Molesworth has again shown her wonderful ability to reduce the infantile dialect to spelling. The illustrations, by Mr. Walter Crane, are marked by all his usual care, and by none of his occasional fancifulness.—The Wrong No and the Right No (James Hogg), by the Author of "Chapters about Every-day Things," and Heidi's Early Experiences (W. Swan Sonnenschein), by Johanna Spyri, are excellent stories of much the same kind as Rosy.—Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Ste. (W. Swan Sonnenschein), is a second series of dramatised, fairy- tales for children, by Kate Freiligrath-Kroeker. The first is, as the name would indicate, a new version of Mr. Lewis Carroll's "Alice." The others are not leas sprightly, however, and the last and longest, King Thrushbill, contains much quiet humour, which girls of eleven or so could enter into, and even reproduce on the stage of the domestic play-room.---The Cruise of the Snowbird' (Hodder and Stoughton), by Gordon Stables, and Winning his Spurs (S. Low), by G. A. Hanby, are two excellent books for boys, by masters of their craft. Dr. Stables has to strain probabilities a little to bring American trappers, Scandinavian pilots, Red Indians, Highland lads, and English students all within the frozen zone at once, but his book is none the less enjoyable on that account. Mr. Henty'e new book is a vigorous story of the Crusades, recalling in many of its incidents Sir Walter Scott's " Ivanhoe " and Talisman."—Belt and Spur, Stories of the Middle Ages, front the Old Chronicles (Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday), is a very high-class gift-book of the "spirit-stirring" kind; the illustrations, or rather "illuminations," are very beautiful indeed, and many of them are marked by a humour which may be uncon- scious, but which may also be intentional.—Gustavus Vasa, and his Stirring Times, by Albert Alborg; Hiawatha, and other Legends of the Wigwam, by Cornelius Matthews ; and The Heroes of African Die- covery and Adventure (2 vols.), by C. E. Bourne (all published by W. Swan Sonnensohein), appeal in different ways to different classes of young readers. The purpose of all three is excellent, and the execu- tion is at least above the average.—A word of commendation is also due to The Life of John Wiclif, by William Chapman ; True to Himself, a brief biography of Savonarola, by Frances E. Cooke ; and Stories from Olden Times, by Ella Baker (" Richard in Prison," "The Geese of Rome," and "Peter the Czar," may be mentioned as specimens), which have been sent us by the same publishers.
Welcome among annuals are Good Words and The Sunday Maga- zine (Isbister), The Union Jack (S. Low), Every Boy's Annual and Every Girl's Annual (Routledge), Our Little Ones (Griffith and Ferran), Little Wideawake (Routledge), and My Sunday Friend (A. R. Mowbray). Dr. Donald Macleod is evidently sparing no effort to make his magazine (Good Words) worthy of the reputation it obtained in the days of his brother ; it has decidedly
improved within the last two years. We cannot say, however, that we particularly admire the story by Mr. Charles Gibbon which has run its course this year ; the plot has been hastily constructed. Mr. G. A. Henty (he has now a colleague in his work, Mr. Heldmann) has obtained a success pf the "leaps and bounds" character with his Union Jack, and in it a large number of the most popular of the season's stories for boys and girls make their first appearances. Messrs. Routledge's annuals are full of information and (in the case of that- devoted to boys) of adventure. The colour of the illustrations in them, however, is often deep even to coarseness.—We have also received a variety of smaller picture-books for children. Of these, we note Troublesome Children (Triibner), an American work, full of American humour; Old-Fashioned Fairy Tales (S.P.C.K.), by Juliana Horatia Ewing ; Flyaway Fairies, and Baby Blossoms (Griffith and Ferran); Elfle under the Sea, and other Stories (bassell), by E. L. P. (in this, adults as well as children will find SOD10 things worth reflecting on), Rumpelstiltskin and The Maypole (De la Rue) (the humour of many of the illustrations in these is nothing short of exquisite), and Pussy Cat Purr, Foolish Little Gnomes, and Cat and Dog Stories (W. Swan Sonnensohein).
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