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in two volumes, and Vasari's "Lives of the Painters," in eight volumes. The excellence of paper and press work in these little books, apart from their handy size, is the secret of their popularity; they are the epitome of convenience for pocket volumes, and always legible.

Among collective editions this year, perhaps the Scribners' "Shenandoah Edition" of Mr. Stockton's writings is the handsomest. Mr. Howells has already expressed, in these pages, the general appreciation of Mr. Stockton's work, and the reasons for being grateful for it; the new edition is certainly all that could be desired in every detail of manufacture, and if Mr. Stockton continues to shed his beams around, as at present, the row of tall green volumes will grow as long as the collected wisdom of the Chinese sages. Another collection of excellent fiction is the edition of Gaboriau, just issued by the same publishers. "File No.113," "The Widow Lerouge,"" Other People's Money," "Monsieur Lecocq," "The Honor of the Name," and "The Mystery of Orcival," are the six volumes selected for the edition, and so long as fire burns and water runs, good detective stories are sure of their eager audience. The volumes are well printed, and each has six or eight illustrations drawn especially for this edition. The library edition of the works of Edward Everett Hale (Little, Brown & Co.) is now completed in ten volumes, issued under the supervision of the author, and containing new matter. Those who only know Dr. Hale as the author of the wonderful parable of "The Man Without a Country "and there may be such, even after all these years-will find much of wisdom, forbearance, philosophy, and optimism in this compact row of volumes. The books are well printed and bound, and each has a frontispiece.

The handsome edition of the translated writings of Alphonse Daudet, which

Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. have now completed in twenty duodecimo volumes, with frontispieces in photogravure, is as generally satisfactory as could be asked. The books are not heavy, and are of convenient size; type, ink and paper are good, and the binding of dark blue cloth, with brightly gilded back, is in excellent taste. And as to the literature, good Daudet needs no bush.

Three new volumes appear in the alluring "Thumb-Nail Series" of the Century Co. "Rab and His Friends," the "Discourses" of Epictetus and a little collection of "Motifs," by E. Scott O'Connor (with a foreword by Agnes Repplier); in their tiny pages and stamped leather bindings, are exactly suited to the needs of the seeker of exquisite gifts at a nominal price. A series of little volumes in cloth covers, from Mr. John Lane, are evidently made for the same market, though "The Love Poems of Browning," "The Love Poems of Shelley" and "The Silence of Love" (forming "The Lover's Library ") may appeal more especially to persons whose tender emotions chance to be in good working order when they choose gifts for their friends. In another series, called "Flowers of Parnassus," from the same publisher, are issued Browning's poem of "The Statue and the Bust," and "Marpessa," by Stephen Phillips; Rossetti's "Blessed Damozel," and other short poems which are never unwelcome, in whatever dress. Mr. Lane also sends us the "Works of George Borrow," in five pocket volumes, which are convenient enough in size, but whose type is rather too small for reading in such bad light as one is apt to have in a railway train or a trolley car. We must add a word of commendation for the quaint little reprint of Stevenson's "Christmas Sermon," which the Scribners issue in gray board covers, printed with the good taste for which Mr. Updike's Merrymount Press

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has been noted. There is no sweeter, better, healthfuller word of greeting and encouragement for the holiday time or all the days in the year than this friendly preachment; it has never been issued separately before, we think, and the present little volume is one of the happiest thoughts of the season.

Six personable volumes are the initial issues in the "Century Classics." Fine presswork and tasteful binding have been given to these selections among the world's best books, and a distinguished writer contributes an introduction to each volume. "Bacon's Essays" is introduced by Professor Woodberry; Bishop Potter writes the foreword for "The Pilgrim's Progress"; Defoe's "Journal of the Plague in London" has an introduction by Sir Walter Besant, and "The Vicar of Wakefield" is introduced most gracefully by Mr. Henry James; Mr. T. B. Aldrich contributes a critical study to a selection from

"Herrick's Poems," Poems," and Kinglake's "Eothen" has an introduction by the Rt. Hon. James Bryce, M. P. The series commends itself at sight. (The Century Co.)

The same publishers issue a magnificent edition, in large quarto, of Hans Christian Andersen's" Fairy Tales," which was undertaken with the support of the Danish government, and contains 250 illustrations by the Danish artist, Hans Tegner, with a new translation of the tales. It is issued simultaneously in five countries, and 18 intended as a fitting memorial to the great story-teller.

A new "Cambridge edition" is always something to be thankful for in a time when there are more books than shelves; Mrs. Browning's "Complete Works" are included in the new volumes, which has umes, which has a portrait of the authoress in photogravure, and an engraved title-page with a vignette of Casa

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Guidi (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). The 'Complete Works" of Chaucer, and of Robert Burns are also issued this year, and in two tall, handsome volumes, by Messrs. T. Y. Crowell & Co. The Chaucer has Professor Lounsbury's "Introduction," and the four volumes are illustrated with photogravure plates. Mention may be made here, also, of the elaborate edition of the "Psalms" of King David, which form a handsome volume issued by the Fleming H. Revell Co. with a series of decorative illustrations, initials and page borders by Mr. Louis Rhead, and an introductory"Study" by the Rev. Newton Dwight Hillis. The volume is bandsomely printed and deserves the appreciation which it is sure to gain.

Three stout volumes of tales by Alexandre Dumas are reprinted by Messrs. 1. Y. Crowell & Co. "The Forty-five Guardsmen," "Marguerite de Valois" and "Dame de Monsoreau." Though all, or nearly all, have got the seed, now, not every literary truck-gardener can grow flowers of this kind; the shoots of the parent plant please best in many ways. These books are presentably made, and contain good drawings by Mr. Frank T. Merrill.

A new and enlarged edition of Austin Dobson's critical and painstaking monograph upon "William Hogarth" is sent us by the J. B. Lippincott Co. First published nearly ten years ago, this work has remained the standard biography of the great artist whom other artists praised so little and the great world so much. As an engraver and a "pictorial moralist" Hogarth's place is not now assailed; and while we have different manners in satire,

his own still persists as a standard to which we are apt to refer anything particularly striking among the cartoons of the day. In this edition the bibliography has been enlarged, the "memoir" and notes have been amplified, four new illustrations and a fuller index have been provided. The same publishers import a reprint of Ireland and Nichols's edition of Hogarth's "Works," in three volumes. The text of the volumes is well printed, but the plates are very bad, besides being so small as to have little value except as memoranda. In their series of "Illustrated Romances" the Lippincotts issue "John Halifax, Gentleman" and "Ivanhoe," each containing twelve colored reproductions of drawings by Charles E. Brock.

Several favorite novels of the last few years appear in handsome illustrated editions. "Hugh Wynne" comes from the Century Co. in a single volume, in large, clear type, with Mr. Pyle's fine illustrations; Mrs. Goodwin's "Head of a Hundred" has a colored frontispiece and several pictures in the text (Little, Brown & Co.); and Parkman's "The Oregon Trail,” with Remington's spirited drawings, comes from the same publishers. Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons send us an elaborate edition, in two volumes, of the deathless "Christmas Carol" and the "Cricket on the Hearth," in white covers, sprigged with holly and containing many excellent illustrations and marginal drawings. The same publishers issue a handsome edition in five volumes of the works of George Borrow, with photogravure frontispiece and reproductions of the original titlepages.

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THE

BY WILLIAM HENRY FROST

HE task of reviewing in a small space the books of the year which aim especially to make the children's Christmas merry is nothing less than bewildering. If the reviewer be a man of conscience he must experience something of the feeling of Mr. Sergeant Buzfuz. Never, said that ornament of the bar, never, in the whole course of his professional experience, had he approached a case with feelings of such deep emotion or with such a heavy sense of the responsibility imposed upon him. If there are inaccuracies in the quotation they must be overlooked. With the array of children's books before him the reviewer has no time to refer back to "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" for verification.

For here are the books-nobody dare count them-the earliest of them are ready scarcely three months before Christmas and the review must be in the Christmas number of a magazine, and there are parents and grown-up brothers and sisters and here or there an aunt who want guidance in selecting gifts. The books must be read and written about while they are almost too hot from the press to be held in the hand. "A man may, if he were of a fearful heart, stagger in this attempt." When the generation which is now writing children's books was reading them purely for fun, the two previous generations used to say: generations used to say: "We had no such books as these when we were children. We had The Pilgrim's Progress' and 'Robinson Crusoe ' and that was about all.

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Children have a great deal done for them nowadays that we never had done for us." And this used to be said with a sort of air of reproach, as if it were the children's fault. If it were, what a guilty lot are the children of to-day. Where there were books for children sixty years ago, and shelves of books thirty years ago, there are libraries now. And by the same token, if we don't begin on them, we shall never get through.

And the fairy books are to come first. The children whom I love are the children who love fairies. They belong to the imagination of children, and the stories of them gently and rightly foster and cultivate and strengthen the childish imagination. The later they outgrow the love

of them the better. Right-minded children believe in fairies. If they tell you that they do not, they do it to save argument, and the little falsehood serves you right; you ought not to have asked them.

Many a pleasant hour may be spent, by those who are good judges of such things, with "The Grey Fairy Book," the addition which Andrew Lang makes this year to the series which already contains the Blue, Red, Green, Yellow and Pink Fairy Books. All such persons have occasion to be grateful that Mr. Lang himself is so good a judge of such things. He knows a story when he sees one, and he seems to have inexhaustible mines where he finds them. These particular ones have nothing of the appearance of being remnants rejected in the making of former collections. They are as fresh and as charming as if they were the choice gleanings of all. The book is illustrated with many beautiful drawings by H. J. Ford. (Longmans, Green & Co.)

There are not many books this year more beautiful, outside or in, in substance or in make-up, than "The True Annals of Fairyland," by William Canton (Macmillans). It has as a second title, "The Reign of King Herla." It contains some of the stories that are most dear and familiar to the right sort of children, and which remain most dear to them after they grow up, along with many others which are less familiar but scarcely less

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While Mr. Frost has expressed appreciation of many books of fairy tales, he has, of course, omitted to mention his own volume of charming tales, drawn from Irish legends, which appears this year under the title "Fairies and Folk of Ireland" (Scribners). The shorter stories with which his narrative is interspersed, are all genuine Irish folk-tales, but though Mr. Frost has used some thread spun by others, as he says, he has woven the fabric himself. From beginning to end the book is filled with the genuine essence of the old-fashioned fairy story, and he tells the tales with the simplicity and quaintness of the ancient chronicler. From the story of Earl Gerald and his men at arms as eep in the great hall beneath the castle, waiting for the miller's son to come and blow the trumpet to rouse them, we take a picture by Mr. S. R. Burleigh.-Ed. BOOK BUYER.

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