There is no present that is more acceptable to a girl than a nice book; yet how difficult it is to find exactly the right thing! There are, of course, dozens of books published every autumn that are harmless enough, and will, very possibly, afford a certain amount of pleasure for the moment to the average young lady—but the perfect book for girls must have so many qualities, mostly negative, no doubt, but some positive as well. The perfect girl’s book should not contain any mention of “things” (as Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer would say). Well, there are plenty that do not, but where such books fall short of perfection is that “grown-ups” find them dreadfully tedious to read aloud in the family circle. That is what is wanted; a book that will interest and amuse everybody; if it comes up to that requirement it is certain to interest and amuse girls.
Here are two books that everybody will like: “Sarah the Valiant,” by Theodora Wilson Wilson, is full of entertainment; the characters all live, and though pathos is never obtruded, the story is full of the tenderness of which the author has already shown herself to be possessed in “The Magic Jujubes.” Raymond Jacberns’s “The Truant Five” is equally certain to please. So graphically are the young people’s wanderings described, that the staidest of aunts must feel the vagabond spirit thrill within her, though the common-sense denouement of the story can be relied on as an infallible moral antidote. Both books are beautifully illustrated, and the titles are worth remembering: “Sarah the Valiant” and “The Truant Five.”
General Literature.
The Book of Living Poets. Edited by Walter Jerrold. Crown 8vo.
7s. 6d. net.
It has been the fashion in literary circles of late to aver that modern poetry suffers neglect at the hand of the publisher. That contemporary verse is not altogether unpatronised, however, Mr. Alston Rivers has already proved by the series of little volumes, all the work of living authors, that he has issued recently with success. That effort is now being followed up by a charming volume of upwards of 400 pages, beautifully bound and printed, entitled, “The Book of Living Poets.” Every contemporary poet of distinction, from whose pen verse has been recently published, is represented; to name only a few, Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, and Alfred Noyes.
The Spirit of the People. By Ford Madox Hueffer.
5s. net.
Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer has been aptly described by a well-known critic as one of the most interesting figures among present-day writers. Whether as a poet or as a writer of historical romance, he has always commanded respect, and the appearance of a new work in either direction is regarded as a literary event. It was, however, with “The Soul of London” and its companion volume, “The Heart of the Country,” that the critics’ pens were at their busiest, and in his advertisement to the latter book the author made it known that a third “small projection of a view of modern life” might shortly be expected. This promise is now to be redeemed by the imminent publication of “The Spirit of the People.”