The Feather. By Ford H. Madox Hueffer. (T. Fisher Unwin.)
—We cannot profess to have found much pleasure in reading this volume of the "Children's Library." In a way, but with a very serious difference, it reminds us of "The Rose and the Ring." It is, in fact, a fairy story, with a vein of ironical humour running through it. But one is not charmed with the fancy, nor amused by the humour. The fun is not refined, nor is effective. A creature which is like an Afreet, if it is like anything in the world of fancy, should not be made to exclaim : "This is extraordinary ! Shiver my old lee-scuppers if it isn't !" Nor does this fanciful picture of the creature in question strike us as a really happy creation of the fancy : "He was big enough for any giant, and then his hair was of a purple hue, and his eyes of a delicate sea-green, that flashed in the shade like a cat's ; and then his nose was awfully red, and shaped like a mangold-wurzel ; and his teeth, which were long, and bright green, shone in the sun like danger-signals."
Previous page
