CURRENT LITERATURE.
ILLUSTRATED AND OTHER GIFT.BOOKS.—III.
The History of Fashion in Prance (5. Low and Co.) from the French of M. Augustin Challemel, by Mrs. Cashel Iloey and Mr. John Lillie, may be thought, especially by heads of families, somewhat too fas- cinating a book. With its handsome wooden boards, its corresponding typo and paper, and, above all, its richly-coloured illustrations of the dress of French women, from the Gallo-Roman period to the present time, it looks like a positive incitement to luxury and frivolity. The story of feminine caprice and extravagance is told very thoroughly, however, and the somewhat spasmodic French descriptions of M. Challamel certainly do not suffer at the hands of his translators, who have done their work with their wonted oare. The book is, indeed, a cyclopedia of the mysteries of fashion, in which even male readers may find instruction and amusement, if not edification. Some of these discoveries, indeed, may be found rather disappoint- ing,—as, for example, that the "white samite, mystic, wonderful," which has an effect upon the lover of the "Idylls of the King" akin to that of the word "Mesopotamia" on the devout old Scotch lady, is, after all, only "a thick silk of six strands." The book, although devoted mainly to descriptions of articles of dress, furniture, and the like, contains also an abundance of sprightly and enjoyable anec- dotes. Opinion on the comparative goodness, or badness, of fashion counts, of course, for very little, but we cannot help thinking that French women were dressed with much ,less grace in the Napoleonic than in the Merovingian period, when, to some extent, they imitated Hellenic costume. There is a faint possibility that this book may do. one public service. By its reproduction, in the most startling way, of such horrors as the hoops and crinoline of former days, it may aid in preventing or minimising the threatened revival of them in our own time. At all events, let us fervently hope so.
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