26 DECEMBER 1885, Page 23

Eric and Ethel, by Francis Francis (Sampson Low and Co.),

deserves its title of an "Old-fashioned Fairy Tale." It is a story of imps, and trolls, and so forth, and carries the reader with it in a

pleasant fashion, without in the least worrying him with the question what it is all about. It has no second intention, but performs its first—i.e., to amuse—with undoubted success.