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Rhoda Broughton's Dr. Cupid was published simultaneously in England, France, America, Germany and Italy, a fact not of great importance in itself, but worthy of notice as showing the enormous spread of novel reading.

Carroll's Alice in Wonderland has been arranged as a comic opera, to be produced during Christmas week. The parts will be taken by well-known professional actors and children, a combination which of itself should be amusing.

The critics, not content with acknowledging the success of E. P. Roe's novels, each new work of his must go through an analytical examination, to show that there is no special reason for their enormous sale. Josh Billings, in his proverbial philosophy, once said, "Never argue against a success."

One of the magazines of India, making a specialty of folk-lore, in reviewing John Fiske's Myths and Myth-makers, declares that Mr. Fiske treats folk-lore and folk-tales as synonymous, while they are really different, and that the etymological theory upon which the argument is based was long ago played out, and that now it has given way to others.

A German version of Bret Harte's Luck of Roaring Camp, has just appeared. Where the rich, eloquent idioms of California baffled the ingenuity of the translator, the American expressions were retained, so that the story in German is heavily peppered in spots by Californianisms, which seem more humorous than ever, by contrast.

Vernon Lee, instead of calling John Shorthouse's Sir Percival dainty, limpid, and so purely idyllic, as some of the other critics have done, characterizes it

as

figures, mere pink and white blotches, with dots for eyes and mouth, and plentiful gilding for hair, wading about in descriptions of vegetation, like apocryphal creatures among the leaves and grasses of a threadbare old tapestry."

In a Banker of Bankerville, Miss Crabbe sends her essay on Sappho, freighted with her hopes and high expectations, to the American Monthly, for publication. Mr. Thompson probably used this name, as no such magazine is in existence, and while making it specific, ran no danger of being personal. By rather a strange coincidence this is the name to be adopted by the Brooklyn Magazine commencing with its January issue,

At Christmas tide all books of the season are notable.

'Long Shore is a day-book of religious selections for each day of the month. It has an ivory cover, handpainted and tied with silk cord.

Thomas Hood's Fair Ines, is this season brought out for the first time in holiday style, in small quarto form, with original illustrations by W. St. John Harper and W. F. Freer.

Egle and the Elf, a fairy tale, by Mrs. M. B. M. Toland, is illustrated with thirty-seven graceful drawings and incidental designs reproduced by the photogravure process, and published by J. B. Lippincott Co.

Edwin A. Abbey has illustrated a selection of poems of Robert Herrick, to which Alfred Parsons supplies the decorative borders and Austin Dobson contributes the preface.

An exquisite edition of the best known essays of Elia, graphically illustrated by one hundred pen-and. ink drawings by C. O. Murray, has been published by Appleton & Co.

Tennyson's Brook has been issued in a beautiful edition with fifteen illustrations from original drawings, by W. J. Mozart. The decorations are interwoven with the words of the poem making a pretty effect.

Randolph & Co. have just published Three Kings, a Christmas ballad of the time of King Arthur, by Mary L. McLanathan and Rosina Emmet. It is printed on tinted paper with gilt top and rough edges.

Under the Mistletoe is a collection of pretty verse and prettier pictures, by Lizzie Lawson and Robert Ellis Mack. The subjects are all familiar phases of child life, treated with a sympathetic feeling and an artist's brush.

The dainty and artistic coloring, the full-page pictures in All Around the Clock, and the soft tinted marginal outlines in brown, make the book a notable one among the good things in the holiday volumes for the young folks.

The Message of the Blue Bird was a hymn of praise and glory to God in the spirit of an Easter hallelujah. The illustrations are by Miss Jerome. The holiday edition is in quarto form, beautifully bound in blue, white and gold.

The edition de luxe of Reynard the Fox, issued by Robert Bros., contains sixty designs by Kaulbach, and twelve full-page etchings after designs by Wolf, beauti fully made, and a quaint edition of the celebrated German classic.

Philip G. Hamerton, who writes so gracefully and pleasantly of etchings and etches, gives in his Unknown River thirty-seven original etchings with a descriptive text,

Forty-eight original water colors and monotone illustrations of incidents of American child-life, accompanied by as many short and entertaining poems, by Mrs. S. J. Brigham, make up Under Blue Skies, an important juvenile treasure for the holidays.

Wordsworth is the holiday addition to Marcus Ward & Co.'s "Golden Poets," which take their name from the exquisite care in which they are issued, being printed in gold with gold decoration, head-lines and borders.

An interesting study in the female face and dress, is Female Costume Pictures, being figures of female grace and beauty in costumes of various centuries, from twelve drawings in pastel, by Robert Beyschlag, and bound in a cloth portfolio.

The illustrations in Mary D. Brine's Mother's Song are delicate and soft, like the impressions of pressed leaves. The artist is Miss C. A. Northam, whose work well supplements the tender yearning love of the

verse.

Thackeray's Mahogany Tree has been superbly illustrated by the well-known artist Frank T. Merrill, and makes a most attractive gift-book. The illustrations are made by photogravure and illuminated by hand, and a fine portrait of Thackeray is given on Japan paper.

Walter Crane has condensed and converted some of the immortal wisdom of Esop into short, simple stanza for administering to the youngest children. His illustrations are old English in style, characteristic of Crane, plenty of color, and as much picture on a page as possible.

One of Cassell & Co.'s fine holiday books is Sir Walter Scott's Christmas in the Olden Time, illustrated from designs by Harry Fenn, Edmund H. Garrett, J. Stuplo Davis, George A. Teel, Henry Sandham, Childe Hassam, and H. P. Barnes, engraved and printed under the supervision of George T. Andrew.

Houghton, Mifflin & Co. issue eight author's calendars for 1887: Browning, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Mrs. Whitney, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell, Whittier. All except the Whitney calendar have portraits and other designs drawn from the authors' residences, or from characters or incidents in their writings.

The Homes and Haunts of the Poets is a collection of original etchings of places made famous by association with the names of our American poets. The writers taken are Whittier, Holmes, Hawthorne, Emerson, and Longfellow, to each of whom is devoted one volume, giving six etchings including portrait, fac-simile manuscript, and four views.

A sumptuous folio art-work is American Art, representing twenty-five of the best American paintings, selected from public and private galleries by S. R. Koehler, the art critic, who also contributes the text. The reproduction has been carefully executed by the best American etchers and wood-engravers. It is thus American, in every particular, except in publishers, the work being issued by Cassell & Co., who have been so liberal and wise in all their art productions.

Those who can enjoy an art treat, something rich and novel, will be pleased with Plastic Sketches, by J. G. and J. F. Low, the famous tile artists, being a series of designs, making forty-seven bas-relief photo-gravures, ten by twelve inches, in satin portfolio. The work has been done with such rare judgment and skill, as almost to make one believe he is looking at a real tile instead of a reproduction.

The Royal Gallery of Poetry and Art,issued by Adams, Putnam & Co., of Boston, gives selections from the best productions of some four hundred of the most eminent authors, past and present, grouped under thirteen divisions, and illustrated by nearly four hundred engravings from the works of Darley, Bensell, Hill, Heine, Hennessey, Herrick, Linton, Moran, Parsons, Sooy, Dalziel, Skill, French, and others.

In Shakespearean Scenes and Characters, by Austin Brereton, is given in a concise form an account of the stage history of each play, together with a note on the most famous representatives of the principal parts in these plays, for a period extending over two centuries, and it is illustrated by thirty steel-plates and ten woodengravings, after drawings by Dicksee, Hart, Barnard, Ralston, Selous, Watson, Green, Hopkins, Bromley, Fredericks, Edwards and others.

Irene E. Jerome, whose work on the One Year's Sketch Book, was so successful last year, has with taste and literary judgment gathered together forty poetic tributes from lovers of nature, to the glory of the sky, the woods, the trees, the running waters, and the birds' song of praise in the months before the heat of summer, These poems Miss Jerome has illustrated with charming designs taken from nature, and full of the atmosphere and spirit of the season. The shape of the volume, Nature's Hallelujah, is oblong, and the binding a gold cloth.

Mrs. Browning poured out her soul in her sonnets. They reveal the depths of love in the heart of a noble woman. Though from the nature of the sonnets, they are very difficult to illustrate, yet Mr. Ipsen, who has labored for years on the work, has succeeded in producing a series of very delicate, wonderfully conceived, and fine-finished decorations. Each of the forty-four sonnets is set in an ornamental and symbolic border, and preceded by a half-title corresponding; the whole, with a beautiful title-page and a portrait of Mrs. Browning, showing the power of the artist in preserv ing his originality so strongly throughout.

Probably the best volume of the season as a popular art-work that wins our approval, both by its subject and beauty of illustration, is She Stoops to Conquer, illustrated, with ten full-page, photogravure reproductions, printed on separate plates, many process reproductions and wood-engravings, from drawings by Edwin A. Abbey. The correctness and minuteness of detail in costume and in furniture, for which he is so justly famous, are particularly noticeable in Mr. Abbey's mountings of this play.

White, Stokes & Allen have introduced for their gift books A Child's Dream of a Star, Golden Words of Holy Men, Silver Thoughts of Great Minds, Birthday Flowers, and Bird-Songs, a new "ivorine" binding. A fine engraving of perfect finish is printed by a secret process upon the " ivorine," a material which closely resembles ivory in every particular. This then has a tile embossed upon it, and is mounted upon rough white drawing paper, or heavy antique paper, in colors. The whole, with a "ragged edge" and a knot of silk-and-metal cord,forms a daintycover of great novelty.

A noteworthy holiday work in The Book of the Tile Club. The text, written by F. Hopkinson Smith, is illustrated with fourteen phototypes and seventy-three black and white drawings, made especially for this book, by various members of the Club; and there are also portraits of many members in pen-and-ink, crayon, and from bas-reliefs. Twenty-seven of the full page pictures are reproduced in various tints by the photo. type process, from the works of Boughton, Bunce, Chase, Dielman, Frost, Gifford, Maynard, Millet, Parsons, Quartley, Reinhart, Sarony, F. Hopkinson Smith, St. Gaudens, Vedder, Weir, and Stanford White.

Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith, artist, traveller and author, gives us the result of his days of careless rambling in Spain, Holland, and Italy, in out-of-the-way nooks, odd places, and along old roads of travel in his new volume, Well Worn Roads, this he has illustrated with sixteen water-color drawings, printed in different tints of ink, which have been admirably reproduced (by the process used so successfully with Mr. Vedder's remarkable illustrations to Omar Khayyam's Rubáiyát), and with head and tail pieces for each chapter, and many additional pen-and-ink sketches scattered through the text.

The magnificent Book of American Figure Painters, gives one example from each of forty of the best known American artists in figure-painting work. The plates are printed by the photogravure process, which has shown itself capable of reproducing the minutest detail of the artist's touch; the negatives from all works in color having been prepared by a process which preserves the true color values in a single tint. The volume is richly bound, with full gilt side and back, designed by Mr. La Farge; the lining-paper by Mr. Maynard. St. Gauden's “Angel with Scroll" has been incorporated in a bas-relief title page by Mr. Babb; and all the interior decoration has been done by Mr. Lathrop, and every artistic resource has been drawn up to make the work a great success. The price has been set at the low figure of $25.00,

MAGAZINE BRIEFS.

The Astronomical Register, which has occupied for years a high position among students of this subject, will be discontinued with its December issue.

The Cosmopolitan for December will contain the opening chapters of Senor Jo, by Salvatore Farine, the famous Italian novelist.

With the January Andover Review, will be begun a series of articles on eminent names in literature, whose writings are of peculiar moral and spiritual significance. The initial essay will be on Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The mystery of the war panoramas that have lately made so many feel that they could not even believe their own eyes, is explained in detail by Theodore R. Davis, in St. Nicholas. The ingenious methods used by the artists to annihilate distance, and to produce so perfect an optical delusion, are carefully described in this excellent and novel paper.

In order to encourage archæological research in India, the Indian Antiquary offers a premium of fifty rupees for every original transcription of a date not later than the twelfth century. A pencil rubbing on paper from the inscription on the stone, seals, or other monument must first be sent for inspection, which, if satisfactory, will be transferred to copper-plate.

Chancellor J. H. Vincent will write a series of letters from Europe for the Chautauquan on popular education in England. He trusts that we may be saved from undue devotion to Mammon and to that dusty god we call Practical Education, and train our children to appreciate the joy and strength of true intellectuality and of high literary taste.

John Duncan writes for the Southern Bivouac a study of noted varieties of live stock in their best types bred in Kentucky. A full genealogy of the Hambletonian family, with their records, that made them famous, is given with data interesting to lovers of trotting horses. The following articles will be on "Trotters" and "Thoroughbred Racers."

The English Illustrated Magazine has done good work during the past year in its sketches of travel or descriptive studies of highways and byways of Europe. Venice, a subject so tempting to the artist keenly alive to the beautiful, makes a brilliant article in the holiday number, and the illustrations thereto are pleasing and real, and make the scene seem present to our eyes.

Pierre Lorillard proposes in the North American Review that many of the difficulties between labor and capital could be remedied by a Labor Congress, whose representatives should nominate two senators to represent their State in a National Labor Senate to hold meetings for one month in the year and discuss labor questions and take action thereon,

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Taking his text from O. B. Frothingham's article on interviewing, in the April Forum, P. A. Hubert, Jr., gives in the current issue his views on the question, and throws the entire blame and responsibility for interviews on the public, who demand them. He admits that much of it is in the style of the enterprising reporter who expanded his interview with Wagner, who only said "Get out," into a column of musical bon mots and nuggets of golden opinions. His idea seems rather to change the abuse by working the reform from the public back to the papers, that is by making the public demand less small talk and more

sense.

NEW SERIALS.

The following comprises the serials begun in the magazines for America and England for the month. Unless otherwise specined the following are novels.

NOVEMBER, 1886.

Au Pays de L'Or, (Descriptive).........(Nov. 1) Revue Illust. Christianity and Civilization. By M. Dodds. (Religious).... ...Good Words. Faithful Heart, A. By th: author of Vi.tor's Betrothed"... Quiver .Century.

Hundredth Man, The. Frank R. Stockton... In the Sleepy Hollow Country. By S. N. Sheridan, Jr..... .....Overland.

Juan and Juanita. By Frances C. Baylor........St. Nicholas. Lite's Seventy Times Seven. E. Searchfield....Sunday Mag. Lincoln, Abraham. By J. G. N.colay and John Hay.. (Biography).... ......Century Magazine. Marrying and Giving in Marriage. By Mrs. Molesworth.... ..Longmin's.

.Quiver.

Miss Willowburn's Offer. By Sarah Doudney.
Old Chelsea. By B. C. Martin, (Descriptive).. ..Century.
Progressive Housekeeping. By Catherine Owen, (Domestic
Economy).....
..(Nov. 13) Good Housekeeping.
Two Marksmen of Ruff's Mountain. By O. B. Mayer.......
.South Biv.

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"Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple, true judgment?"-MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

Correspondents are invited to make full use of this column on all literary questions, which will be most cheerfully answered as far as we may be able. The name and address must in all cases accompany the query.

40. What author was known as The Chartist Clergyman?

MORRISTOWN, N. J.

MURABIL.

Charles Kingsley, after the publication of Alton Locke, in about 1850.

41. Who is the author of the following line, and where can it be found?

"The light that never was, on sea or land,
The consecration, and the poet's dream."

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TO THE READER.

The books given under this heading comprise the principal books published during November. In the note, the idea has been to tell what the book is about, and the style in which it is written, rather than to give any criticism upon its merits. These brief, chatty outlines are in every instance the result of a careful reading and examination of each book by the editors of Book CHAT, and are not copied from other papers or reprinted from publishers' notices.

See also "Some Notable Books," on page 162, and "Without Comment," on page 171.

AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1607-1885. By Charles F. Richardson, Professor of literature in Dartmouth College.The development of American thought as shown in its literature analytically criticized and discussed. The history and character of the people as far as necessary in forming the germ of American literature is referred to, the individual books and authors weighed and critically conside.ed, in order to determine justly the position of each among the literary writers of the world, and his effect on his fellow-men as well as the reasons of his success or failure.-Putnam's, 3.00

AMONG THE LAW MAKERS. By Edmund Alton.-A presentation in a popular manner of the routine of congressional work with specimens of legislative action, and the scope and power of the respective houses giving an excellent idea of how laws are manufactured and disseminated. The social life of the congressmen, the fun of the pages, and the humorous goings-on at the Capitol, lend the zest of amusement to an instructive volume for young and old.-Scribner's, 2.55

A BACHELOR'S BLUNDER. A Novel. By W. E. Norris.-Capt. Cunningham, a handsome young officer of the Guards, meets Miss Hope Lefroy, the heiress, at her debut in London society. Reverses in the financial world rob Hope of her fortune when her life becomes one of care and struggle. Dick Herbert, a wealthy bachelor, though not deeply in love offers himself to the poor heiress and is accepted. Capt. Cunningham has not entirely recovered from his love and meets Hope frequently in society. The complications thus arising make a smooth, pleasant, entertaining story with just a spice of good-natured satire.-Holt, paper, .50

BETWEEN TWO LOVES. A Tale of the West Rideing. By Amelia E. Barr.-Sarah Benson, a patient, faithful and true woman, was employed at the looms of Jonathan Burley, a wealthy mill owner, who loves her and wishes to make her his wife. This means to her rest, a wealthy home and power to do great good. Her handsome, careless, shiftless brother is a charge upon her affection, and defendent upon her kindness for keeping him straight. Between these two loves she must decide.-Harper's, .25

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. By Thos. W. Knox, copiously illustrated.-Accompanied by their tutor, Dr. Bronson, who proves a most charming companion, Frank Bassett and Fred. Bronson take a trip through European and Asiatic Russia, across Siberia, on the waters of the Amoor, Volga and other rivers, and through Central Asia. On their way they visit the principal cities, see strange people and listen to the wonderful tales and legends of the Muscovites.-Harper's, 3.00

THE BOW OF ORANGE RIBBON. By Amelia E. Barr. -In the old Knickerbocker days of 1760, Katherine Van Heemskirk, a fair, rosy beauty, daughter of a rich burgomaster, was beloved by Capt. Hyde, a young Englishman. Stolid Dutch pride resented her union with one who was not a Hollander. As a token of affection, Katherine sent to her lover, a bow of orange ribbon from her head-dress. Times of reverse and doubt follow and the loving message of the ribbon does good service-Dodd, Mead & Co,, 1.00

THE BUCHHOLZ FAMILY. By Julius Stinde.-In the form of letters supposed to be contributed to a Berlin journal, Frau Buchholz giving local sketches of iife in a middle class Berlin family. The separate members of the family and the neighbors and acquaintances are brought before us by a process of verbal photograph that is exact, and reproduces cleverly the humor and human nature of the characters and their experience.-Scribner's, Sons, 1.25

THE BUDDHIST DIET-BOOK. Prepared by Laura C. Holloway -The first commandment of the Buddhist regimen is a most rigid call to total abstinence from meat and allied articles of diet that enable sin to obtain a strong hold on the human heart. Vegetables, nuts and fruit are permissable, and the recipes for the preparation of these articles in true Hindoo style is given. The author gives her approval of the diet after a trial of it in London. But we, meat-eaters, shake our heads doubtfully at it, and in our hungry moments look longingly at sin-provoking meat.-Funk & Wagnalls, .50.

BYE-O-BYE BALLADS. By Chas. S. Pratt.-Ten songs and ballads for the little ones, printed on heavy paper, with full page illustrations in tasteful water-colors and tinted prints with dainty borders and marginal pictures. The art work is from the brush of J. Childs Hassam. The selections have been carefully made, and there is a flavor about them attractive to the youngest readers.-Lothrop & Co., 2.00

CANNIBALS AND CONVICTS. By Julian Thomas.Notes of personal experiences in the Western Pacific, among islands of which little has b.en written. Fiji, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, are discuss. d, and strong pictures given of the manners and customs of the people. The book has the merit of being written on the spot, with the scenes narrated fresh and real before the mind of the author.-Cassell, 2.00

THE CHAPLAIN'S CRAZE. Being the Mystery of Findon Friars. By Geo. Manville Fenn.-The Rev. Parker Lee, chaplain of Darkley Model i rison, had a mild craze for reforming humanity in general and dis.harged prisoners in particular. In pursuance of this v rtuous intent he introduces as cook in the Stapleton family, Joseph Morgan, who was just liberated from the county jail. The result of the parson's experiment, and the mystery incident thereto, make up the story. -Harper & Bros., .25

CHARLIE LUCKEN AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. By the Rev. H. C. Adams, M.A.-School life in England a generation or so ago. No fault can be found with lack of interest, as all possible excitements are concentrated in the history of the days spent at school. Insurrections, fights, brave deeds, games of skill and chance, school boy tricks and disappearances, kept up the succession of incidents.-Lippincott Co., 1.50

CHILDREN OF GIBEON. By Walter Besant.-Under the title "Children of Gibeon," Mr. Besant typifies the people of London, and describes the sorrows and cares of the poor of that city, and the efforts made by Valentine and Claude to relive them by practical philantrophy among the working girls of Hoxton. The sacrifices for love of humanity as a whole, and then for one of that human whole as an individual, are strongly presented, and the plot is quite a curious and original one.-Harper's, .20

THE CHILDREN OF THE COLD. By Frederick Schwatka.-Child life of the Esquimaux in their home in the frozen north. The playthings of the children, their sports, athletics, games, feeding their dogs, the seal-fishing, coasting, and other items of interest, are given in a pleasing narration, adapted to the needs of the young folks.-Cassell & Co.

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