Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

from Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. The "Yesterdays" is lavishly illustrated with photogravure portraits, autograph letters, etc., including the interesting picture of Fields, Hawthorne and Ticknor, all in silk hats of enormous size, and that matchless picture of the young Dickens with a great shock of dark hair falling in masses over his temples, like Mrs. Browning's curls. The portraits of Thackeray, of Lowell, of Mrs. Jameson and Miss Mitford are as beautifully reproduced as though with the etcher's tool. The story of the "Little Tour in France" is as delicate reading now as it was twenty years ago, and if Mr. Pennell's pictures are not

From "Twelve Great Actresses."

all just in his present manner-why, perhaps it is the present manner which suffers in some instances. The cathedral at Tours, the château of Amboise against the great pile of woolly clouds, and the splendid stretch of the river at Blois-nobody need ask anything better than those-and nobody does.

Another pilgrimage-a pious one and a literary-has been made by Marion Harland in her series of "Literary Hearthstones." Hannah More and John Knox are the saints at whose shrines she has worshipped, and she has retold their stories with her accustomed skill. The volumes are illustrated with photographs. (Putnams.)

G. P. Putnam's Sons.

SARAH SIDDONS AS LADY MACBETH

[From the painting by G. H. Harlow.]

Mr. Edward Robins has written two entertaining books upon "Twelve Great Actors" and "Twelve_Great Actresses" (Putnams). The first begins with the name of David Garrick and ends with that of Lester Wallack; the second has Anne Bracegirdle at the beginning, and the curtain falls on Ristori. The sketches are pleasantly written and the portraits are, in the main, very good. In the mass of literature of the stage these handsomely printed volumes should find and hold a place in popular regard.

The modern picture book, pure and simple, for adult readers, has come to its favor within a comparatively few years. We have already seen several portfolio-volumes of Mr. Gibson's drawings, and this year he gives us, through Mr. R. H. Russell, another collection called "Americans" which is fully up to his own standard of distinction. Several of the scraps of literature attached to these drawings are as good as the drawings themselves, which is saying a good deal; for instance, the moral reflections of the oldish husband who catches his wife's big boy cousin kissing her; and again, the reply of the

[graphic]
[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

cynical gentleman to the charming widow who asked him how long she ought to wear mourning: "I'm sure I can't say-I hadn't the pleasure of your late husband's acquaintance." Mr. A. B. Wenzell also contributed a similar volume of his carefully elaborated drawings, from which, as from the Gibson book, we are glad to make an extract. Another sort of picture book is the volume of fine photographs, such as "Down South," which is a collection of photographs of the colored man and brother and sister-in the southern states, with no text save a preface by Mr. Joel Chandler Harris. These pictures were made by Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr., who has also made a book of photographs of children called "In and Out of the Nursery," to which Eva Eickemeyer Rowland

contributes many pretty verses, some of them set to music.

An amusing book is Mr. Guy Wetmore Carryl's "Mother Goose for Grown Ups," illustrated by Mr. Peter Newell (Harpers). To choose among these gems is difficult, when space is limited; perhaps the stanza detailing the catastrophe of "The Harmonious Heedlessness of Little Boy Blue," who played popular airs upon his horn while the cows did what they chose and then:

"Most idle ass of all your class,'
The farmer said with scorn:
'Just see, my son, what you have done!
The cows are in the corn!'
'Oh drat,' he said, the brat,' he said.
The cowherd seemed to rouse.
'My friend, it's worse than that,' he said,
The corn is in the cows.

[ocr errors]

Among the season's new editions, one

[graphic][subsumed]

From "The American Slave Trade." Copyright, 1900, by Charles Scribner's Sons. "" BRINGING ONE THAT WAS BOUND AND GAGGED

"

of the biggest books is a "Knickerbocker History of New York," with illustrations by Mr. Maxfield Parrish (R. H. Russell). It is a well-proportioned folio, with large, black type on broad sheets of good rag

paper, and Mr. Parrish's pictures are characteristic, if not specially illuminating. The same publisher sends an edition of" Robinson Crusoe," and another edition of the same spirited work comes from

Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co. The Scribners issue a new edition of what is still "the best pirate story "-"Treasure Island "-with many new illustrations by Wal Paget. From the first appearance of Captain Billy Bones, with his rune of the "Dead Man's Chest" through the exploits and machinations of Captain John Silver-save Mr. Silas Wegg, the finest wooden-legged hero in fiction-to the marooning of the three pirates, and the the sailing away home with the heaps of golden coins, the story is forever fresh and absorbing, and we have, besides, plenty of pictures, and well done.

"Lorna Doone" comes from the Harpers in a well-printed volume, having a photogravure portrait of Blackmore for frontispiece, and illustrated with many photographs of Exmoor scenery, identified with the background of the novel. These photographs were made by Mr. Clifton Johnson, and Mr. W. Small has made several drawings, further to illustrate the action of this famous romance.

The stout, handsome volumes in the Macmillan Co.'s "Library of English Classics," edited by Mr. A. W. Pollard, stand in no danger of getting lost-they fill up a library shelf all too quickly. The tall octavo form, with the light, thick paper, and generosity of type and spacing,

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

From "Dames and Daughters of Colonial Days."

T. Y. Crowell & Co.

"THE NEXT INSTANT THE GIRL DREW QUICKLY AWAY FROM THE WINDOW

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »