The Wind Fairies, and other Tales. By Mary de Morgan.
(Seeley and Co. 5s.)—There is a businesslike air in the telling of these stories which is decidedly attractive. There is no fine writing, no ornaments of speech ; the tales are told as if they were true, and there could not be a better way of telling them. We hardly know bow to express a preference for any one of these nine stories ; perhaps "Dumb Othmar " is the best. The illustrations by Olive Cockerell have no small amount of graceful fancy.— Fairy Tales from Afar. Translated from the Danish Popular Tales of Svend Grundtvig by Jane Mulley. (Hutchinson and Co. 3s. 6d.) —Here we have the genuine old folk-lore stories, gathered together by one who is an expert in these matters, and put into easy English of a suitable kind. We never tire of these things. They are curiously alike, but the likeness does not seem monotonous.—The Ruby Fairy Book. (Samepublishers. Os.)— Whether these are old or new it would be hard to say; probably there are some of both kinds. The first, "Cinderella's Daughter," is surely new, and we are inclined to resent it. It is quite enough to be told of the Prince and his bride that they lived happily ever after. We do not want to hear anything more about them. But there are pretty stories here, whatever they are and whencesoever they Caine. No little pains have been spent in collecting them, and the illustrations have much merit.—Glimpses from Wonderland, by John Ingold (John Lane), is unquestionably modern, with its touches of satire against the arrangements of life. There is some cleverness in it, but it is not wholly to our taste. —Granny's Wonderful Chair, by Frances Browne (Griffith, Ferran, and Co., 3s. 6d.), is the reprint of a book which first appeared in 1856. Seven new editions appeared between 1881. 1889. And then, as we read in the publishers' note, "a very curious circumstance" occurred. In a popular American maga- zine appeared a series of "Stories from the Lost Fairy Book," which were, in fact, the stories of Granny's Wonderful Chair. A "Lost Fairy Book" is pretty good, considering that it had been republished four times in the six years before. I tried repeatedly," wrote the popular author, who contributes to the American magazine, "both in England and America to find a copy." A friend "whose knowledge of books was almost unlimited" tried also in vain. Had they ever heard, we wonder, of the "Publishers' Circular" ?—Gunpowder Treason and Plot, by H. Avery, F. Whishaw, and R. B. Townshend (T. Nelson and Sons, 2s.), is a collection of short stories, that which gives a title to the book being one of school life, and a good specimen of the kind.—The Angel and the Demon, and other Stories, by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler (S. W. Partridge and Co., Is. 0.1.), is a collection, Mies Fowler tells us, of her earliest efforts at, fiction, published originally in the British Worman. Naturally they are of the didactic kind, but why should they be the less liked for that ? Certainly they were worth preserving.
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