The King's Story - Book. Edited, with Introduction, by George Laurence Gomme.
(A. Constable and Co.)—It is scarcely correct for Mr. Gomme to say that while fairy-tales have been used to exhaustion to provide reading for the young, "English history and English romantic literature have not been appealed to." Mr. Gomme has, we are aware, a wide acquaintance with certain kinds of literature, but of the gift-book kind he must know little or nothing. The writer of this notice has been reviewing stories of the historical or historico-romantic kind for many years, and could name scores of them. Mr. Henty and Mrs. E. Everett-Green, to mention two names only, have produced no inconsiderable number. As a matter of fact, Mr. Gomme's book is constructed on somewhat different lines. He gives between thirty and forty passages from English writers in which great historical events are described, with more or lees of a setting-off. The first is Lord Lytton's magnificent description of the battle of Hastings; further on William of Malmesbury is laid under contribution for the drowning of Henry I.'a son; Sir Walter Scott furnishes " The Return of the Lion Heart," from " Ivanhoe ; " and Shakespeare. in Henry V., tells the story of Agincourt; " The Trial and Execution of Sir Thomas More" is taken from Miss Manning's admirable little book. Coming down to later times, we have
Dickens's marvellous description of the George Gordon riots. There are illustrations, somewhat conventional in character, but with plenty of spirit.
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