In the series of " The King's Classics " (Alexander
Moring, ls. net) we have The Gull's Horn Book, by John Dekker, Edited by R. B. McKerrow. Mr. McKerrow gives in his introduction a biographical sketch of Dekker, of whom little beyond the titles of his books is known—the chief incidents are his quarrel with Ben Jenson and his share in the production of " The Virgin Martyr "—an account of the genesis of the Horn Book, which had its inspiration in the " Grobianus " of Frederick Dedekind, very popular work in Dekker's youth ; and a' bibliography. The Horn Book was not republished during the author's lifetime; it came out in 1609, and he died after 1637. The second edition appeared in 1674, and the third in 1812. There have been six between this time and the present, a fact quite in accord with the literary tendencies of the day.—In "The King's Novels" (same publisher, 2s. 6d. net) we have Silas Marner, by George Eliot. Dr. Richard Garnett prefixes an admirable appreciation of the tale. It is, he thinks, "the longest short story in our language, from which the most austere critic can find nothing to retrench."
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