WIDE AWAKE. Bound volume for 1884 Boston: D. Lathrop & Co. Price 4.00. Newspapers all parts of the country have repeatedly given the first place in American periodical literature for the young to WIDE AWAKE. Among its contributors are the very best and brightest writers in America and England, and many of its articles are the same that give reputation to Harper's and the Century. Indeed, nothing better has ever appeared in either of these periodicals than some of the full page illustrations which have found place in WIDE AWAKE within the past two or three years. The list of writers who are regularly employed include the best names in our literature. It is by the liberal outlay of money on the part of the publishers, coupled with the determination to have the best at any price, that WIDE AWAKE has reached its present high position. The present volume, which includes the twelve numbers of the present year, is, in general excellence, an improvement upon all preceding issues. It is a library in itself, and will be a source of perennial pleasure to readers of all ages.
OUR LITTLE MEN AND WOMEN. 1884. Illustrated. Boston. D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.50. This beautiful annual comprises the twelve numbers of the year just closing, and will make an admirable present for the little members of the household. Its stories are just such as they will read with delight, while the illustrations make them double attractive.
A ROMANCE IN SONG. Heine's Lyrical Interlude. Translated by Franklin Johnson, Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $3.00. The best of the modern German song-writers is unquestionably Heine, and thousands who know and sing his verses even in their translated form can testify to their exceeding sweetness and to their strange insight into the passions and emotions that stir the human heart. Especially is this true of the sixty brief poems which he published in 1823 under the somewhat singular title of "A Lyrical Interlude." What gives them special interest is the fact that they are genuine records of his own feelings and experiences. Heine was engaged to be married to his cousin, whom he loved deeply and ardently. She broke her vows and married another, and Heine carried through life an unhealed spiritual wound. In the translation of these songs Mr. Johnson has been peculiarly successful, while in all cases retaining the original measure of the songs, he has endeavored to make an exact rendering of the thought rather than to be literal. And yet in some cases he is both, as for instance in the much quoted Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne, and Nacht lag auf meinen Augen. The publishers have done their part to make the volume outwardly attractive. It is printed on heavy paper, is beautifully illustrated and handsomely bound. Coming at this season it makes an appropriate gift book.
ANNA MARIA'S HOUSEKEEPING. By Mrs. S.D. Power. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.00. Of all the books that have been written about housekeeping there have been few that have treated the subject in a practical, common sense manner, and this is decidedly one of the best of the few. The suggestions and directions contained in its pages are given in a pointed, straightforward manner, and appeal at once to the good sense of all housekeepers who will save themselves an infinity of trouble and worry and fret by giving them the consideration they deserve. The twenty-four chapters of the book deal with different subjects, the all-important one, "How to make Housework Easier," properly taking the lead. Other chapters which we especially commend to housekeepers are those headed "A Good Breakfast," "A Bill of Waste," "A Comfortable Kitchen," "Blue Mondays," "Over the Mending Basket," and "Helps that are Helps." There is not a chapter, however, but contains advice which, if heeded, would save ten times the cost of the book in a year, to say nothing of the time and trouble saved.
MATTHEW ARNOLD BIRTHDAY BOOK. Edited by his daughters, Miss L. and K. Arnold. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.00. This beautiful little volume resembles in its general plan other birthday books, the usual blanks being left for autographs. The selections have been made with great care, and under the direct supervision of Mr. Arnold himself, who contributes besides, an introductory poem, which is reproduced in fac simile.
A DOUBLE MASQUERADE. By Charles R. Talbot. Illustrated. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.25. Mr. Talbot's reputation as a writer of brilliant stories for young readers is well established. Few have been more successful in striking the popular vein. The Juvenile libraries are rare that do not contain some one or other of his books, and happy the boy or girl who possesses them all. "A Double Masquerade" is a romance of old Revolutionary times in Boston, in which historical characters take part. It is a careful study of the events of those days, and the young reader will get a clearer idea from its pages of the struggle between the colonies and Great Britain, and of the men on both sides who were leaders in the Revolutionary movement, than from mere statistical and documentary history. One of the features of the volume is a description of the battle of Bunker Hill, which a critic has pronounced to be "one of the most graphic and telling accounts ever written of that famous conflict." It is splendidly illustrated by Share, Merrill and Taylor.
YOUNG DAYS. Illustrated. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $.75. This very attractive volume is made up of instructive stories for children, entertaining rhymes and verses, and most delightful pictures.
CAMBRIDGE SERMONS.
Few publications of like character have ever been received with a greater degree of favor, than the volume of sermons by Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D.D., of Shepard Memorial Church, Cambridge, Mass., published under the above title by D. Lothrop & Co. The following expressions of opinion in letters to the publishers, are indicative of the general sentiment concerning them.
Rev. Geo. L. Prentiss, D.D., Professor of Sacred Rhetoric in Union Theological Seminary, New York City, says: