CURRENT LITERATURE.
CHRISTMAS BOOKS.
Little Britain, and the Spectre Bridegroom, by Washington Irving, illustrated by C. 0. Murray (Sampson Low and Co.), makes a very pretty volume. The " Little Britain " of the humourist, like his Dutch New York, is, of coarse, as ho pictures it a fairy realm ; but it may be presumed to have had some reality more or less faintly resembling it. No fancy could people the prosaic street which bears the name in these days with the Lambs, and Wagstaffs, and so
forth, who live in Irving's pages, and whom Mr. Murray graphically presents to us. Fancy a " snug junketting party, where one plays at All-Fours and Pope-Joan, and sometimes has a good old English country dance to the time of Sir Roger de Coverly,"
in Little Britain now-a-days. Even the unromantic shapes of Sampson and Sally Brass, Dick Swiveller, and the Marchioness have vanished from these prosaic precincts.—The Tribulations of a Chinaman. By Jules Verne. (Sampson Low and Co.)— Kin Fo, a wealthy young Chinaman, cares for nothing in life. He is somewhat roused from his apathy by hearing of the loss of his fortune, and wants to die, first insuring his life, in order to provide for his friends. But he is disappointed to feel that the near prospect of death cannot stir his pulses ; and he seeks for excitement by putting his fate into the hands of his philosopher and friend, Wang, an old Taeping, who has instructions to kill him as he thinks best before the end of the quarter. The suspense does rouse Lim a little, and when he finds that his property is not gone, and that there is no reason why he should not live, his anxiety becomes very real. The office in which he has insured, suspecting his design of suicide, has employed two detectives toprotect him against himself, and when his purpose is changed. the two follow him to protect him against Wang. The adventures of Kin-Fo and his bodyguard are of the usual kind,—impossibilities dressed up with the garb of truth, which M. Verne has such an endless power of inventing. Chinese life, at least on its outside, has been carefully studied, though in describing the widow whom the hero is engaged to marry, the author cannot resist the temptation to transport to Pekin a genuine Parisienne, an attempt in which the artist has done his best to second him. The Tribulations of a Chinaman is scarcely equal to M. Verne's best efforts.—Dick Cheveley : his Adventures and Misadventures. By W. H. G. Kingston. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Mr. Kingston here tells the story of a " stowaway," if a young gentleman who cer- tainly had no business to be prowling about a ship, with the idea of running away to sea, bat who finds himself abut up in the hold against his will, may be so called. There is nothing to tempt any young reader to follow Dick's example. He finds himself on board a ship which is made "a hell afloat" by ruffianly officers and a villainous crew, and, after undergoing hardships which would have finished any one else, and escaping dangers enough to kill half-a-dozen boys, he finally returns, and finds that the land is much better than the sea, by rising to be the head of a great mercantile firm in Liverpool. This is a spirited story, and told in Mr. Kingston's best manner.— From the same author and publisher, we get The Heir of Kilfinnan.— Here also we have plenty of naval adventure ; but the story is of a more romantic turn, and, on the whole, perhaps, less successful. A fisherman's boy turns out to be a nobleman in disguise; but before his metamorphose, has won his way by his unaided merits to a place which makes the transition less marked, besides securing the heart of the young lady who is heiress of the younger branch of the family. We cannot conclude this notice without expressing our regret at the death of Mr. Kingston. We have now had for many years the plea- sure of reviewing at this time the books which, with an unfailing energy, he has been accustomed to supply for the benefit of boy- readers. A large public has lost a capital "spinner of yarns," who -never wrote anything which was not perfectly wholesome and sound. —The Fortunes of Hassan, being the Strange Story of a Turkish Refuge. (S.P.C.K.)—We do not think that it was a happy idea to tell the story of the Russo-Turkish war through the mouth of a pariah dog. The character is not an easy one to support. As long as we are kept to facts, and to such experiences as may be fairly supposed or even imagined to come within a dog's range of observation and feel- ing, it is all very well ; but moralising on the horrors of war, or sentimental descriptions of a couFle of lovers, are really too absurd. Good materials and some cleverness in writing have not been put to the best advantage in Hassan. And what can be the advan- tage of such an illustration as that which faces page 250 ?— Nimpo' s Troubles. By Olive Thorne Miller. (Griffith and Farran.)— -"Nirnpo " is a foolish young person of about thirteen, who is dis- satisfied with her home, and thinks that it would be a fine thing to " board out ;" and so, accordingly, her father and mother going away for a time, does board out, and finds that it is not so agreeable as she had hoped, getting into the endless troubles which, if they crowded one after another as thick in real life as they do in story- books, would drive the most strong-minded child to suicide. English children will, of course, open their eyes at the idea of "boarding out," which will hardly seem more attractive an idea to them than going to school ; but the novel circumstances of the story will amuse them, while they will recognise in the troublesome but affectionate young heroine some one not wholly unlike, as the author puts it, the young persons whom they see in their looking-glasses.- Andrew Harvey's Wife. By L. T. Meade. (Isbister.)—We expect from Miss Meade a careful study of character, and are not dis- appointed. Andrew Harvey, a baronet's only son, marries the daughter of a not very reputable clerk. She is a noble woman and worthy of his love, and part of her nobility lies in her affectionate devotion to her family. It is his aim to separate her from them ; hers, to use her new position to raise them. The conflict of purposes and feeling, and the alienation which this conflict brings about, are finely portrayed. But Miss Meade must forgive us, if we tell her quite plainly that she spoils her story by the sensational conclusion. Rupert's malicious revenge on the father through the child, the incident of the fever, and the escape from the flowing tide (a thing which occurs at least twelve times every year in the stories that come within our range), are all of them drawbacks from the great and genuine merits of the book. —Caught in a Trap : a Tale of Prance in 1802. By Esmb Stuart. (Marcus Ward.)—Mr. Deere, an English clergyman, takes his two daughters, one of whom is in weak health, to winter in the south of France, after the peace of Amiens. The party is detained, with the rest of the English visitors, by order of the Emperor. How they bear their imprisonment, what alleviations they find for it, and how they finally escape, is told very well by Miss Stuart. The flight is a par- ticularly good piece of narrative. Miss Stuart has lit upon a fairly fresh subject, and makes good use of it.—We hope that it is not too late to notice a very pretty little book, The Children's Journey, and other Stories, by the Author of "Our Children's Story," &c. (Strahan and Co.)—There are ten stories and sketches in all, and it is difficult to say which is the most pleasing. Perhaps " Oranges and Lemons," with its touches of not altogether familiar colour (for the scene is laid in the neighbourhood of Mentone), is as attractive as any. It has' too, the merit (for where things are so good, it is a merit) of being the longest, and of having the best defined interest. " On the High Meadows" is a slighter sketch of the same kind. "Little Elsie's Christmas" is a very sweet, pathetic, little story.— The Necklace of the Princess Fiorimonde, and other Stories. By Mary de Morgan. (Macmillan.)—The story which gives its name to this little volume is a very successful effort. The prince whom the cruel beauty turns into beads is a novelty, as far as we know, in the world of fancy fiction. "The Wanderings of Arasmon " is a rather doubtful story, which children will scarcely appreciate, unless they have a not common gift of catching the meaning and moral of an allegory. " The Heart of the Princess Joan" is a return to a happier style, and the three following stories may be put in the same class, and after them we cannot complain of the didactic epitome of "The Wise Princess."—Of annual volumes of magazines, &c., we have received the following :—The Girl's Own Annual (the " Leisure Hour " Office) presents on its first page a goodly list of contributors, both literary and artistic. Tales, sketches of places and persons, pictures of animal life, domestic recipes, and a variety of other information, both useful and entertaining, which quite defies classification, combine to make up an excellent volume. Young England : an Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls (" Young England " Office) has a some- what similar, though naturally a more general character. We notice among the contributors the names of Miss Sarah Doudney and Ascott Hope, and might add many more which are a guarantee of something worth reading. The Cottager and Artisan (Religious Tract Society) has a humbler, but not less useful aim. Published by the same Society and intended for younger readers, we have also The Child's Com- panion and Juvenile Instructor. — Aunt Judy's Christmas Volume. (Bell and Sons.) —This volume (some readers may not know. that the volume of the magazine begins with Novem- ber) is quite equal to its predecessors in merit. It contains the usual stories, one or two historical sketches, among which may be mentioned " A Soldier of the Seventeenth Century," giving us a well-told life of the Lord Craven who was the faithful friend of Elizabeth of Bohemia, eight of Mr. A. S. Gatty's songs, poems, &c. Mr. C. S. Calverley contributes " The Poet and the Fly," which, if not quite equal to his best efforts, deserves special mention. "I wish," in " I wish he had not long to wait," is, we presume, a misprint for "I wis."
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