sonal Recollections of the Tai-Ping Rebellion," by Gen. Edward Forester.

Godey's has an especial Christmas-time flavor, the frontispiece being a reproduction of a painting by Gherardo della Notte, "The Adoration of the Shepherds"; following is an illustrated series, "The First Christmas," by C. F. Lester. There are also two Christmas stories by Clarence Herbert New and Rupert Hughes.

In Leslie's Popular Monthly under title of "A Magic Island" Beatriz B. de Luna writes entertainingly of the picturesque Catalinas of California; "American Universities and Colleges" has Cornell for its subject, contributed by Herbert Crombie Howe; O. O. Howard tells something of the "Character and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee," and the last portrait of the Confederate leader is among the illustrations.

Peterson's opens with an illustrated article on the stories of Wagner's operas by Beatrice Sturges. James Fenimore Cooper is the subject of the Pioneers of American Literature' series, and is written by Rupert Hughes. The varied experiences of Bishop William Taylor are graphically written of by Alpha G. KyThere are several short stories.

nett.

ENGLISH.

66

In the Strand, illustrated articles of particular interest are on Ostrich Farming in South Africa,' "A Carpet of Flowers," on the occasion of the feast of Corpus Christi in Teneriffe, and "A View of New York." In "Great Men's Shadows," which is grotesquely illustrated from silhouettes of prominent men, S. J. Housley tells how the silhouettist has been superseded by the photographer.

Cosmopolis for November contains a short biographical sketch of Gaius Cornelius Gallus by Theodor Mommsen; "La Visite du Tsar à Paris," by Vicomte Emile Melchoir de Vogüe; and "Contemporary Scandinavian Belles-Lettres," by R. Nisbet Bain. A. Holden Byles and Theodor Barth each contribute articles on the late political question in America.

"England, Russia and France," by T. H. S. Escott, is a leading feature of the November Fortnightly Review. A sketch of "William Morris" is contributed by Mackenzie Bell. A readable article is H. D. Traill's parallel between Mrs. Humphry Ward and Lord Beaconsfield as political novelists in an article entitled "Sir George Tressady' and the Political Novel."

In the November Nineteenth Century a paper by Francis de Pressensé, on "England and the Continental Alliances," has for its theme the consequences of the late visit of the Czar to France. Professor Mahaffy, in "The Modern Babel," argues strongly that English

James T. Fields and Her Friends," by M. A. De Wolfe Howe. William Crary Brownwell is the subject of "Living Critics" series, a paper written by George Merriam Hyde. Some Notes on Political Oratory" is contributed by Harry Thurston Peck, which include notes about Mr. Roscoe Conkling, Mr. Hill, President Cleveland, Mr. Chauncey M. Depew and General Garfield.

MUSICAL.

Articles of special interest in the Looker-On are: "Paul Bourget's Novels," by Joakim Reinhard; "The Sublime and the Sentimental in Piano Playing," by Alexander McArthur; "A Paragraph in the Paper," by Imogen Clark.

JUVENILE.

The spirit of Christmas-time pervades stories, poems, and pictures of St. Nicholas. The frontispiece is accompanied by a poem by Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, "As They Danced Them a Measure on Christmas Night."

"Christmas in Bethlehem," is a contribution from Edwin S. Wallace; "A Snow-bound Christmas," by Frances Cole Burr.

SPORTS.

An experience of a night in the snow, as related by Frithjof Nansen, is the subject of the opening article in November Badminton. Besides there are articles on yachting on the shores of Southern Tasmania, shooting as taught at a "shooting school," "Rugby Football,' "Sport in Eastern Canada, and others. FAMILY.

An attractive feature of the Ladies' Home Journal is a drawing, by Charles Dana Gibson, of

Scrooge, one of Dickens' characters. Droch writes about "Choice in Reading for Pleasure." Other articles of interest are by Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, Lady Jeune, Ruth McEnery Stuart, Mrs. Robert P. Porter, Rosa Bonheur, Benjamin Harrison, and others.

"The Road to Christmas," by Lucy Elliot Keeler, the leading article of Table Talk, is full of yule-tide spirit and reminiscences of all countries and their representative people. Another timely article is The New Bill of Fare," by Mrs. M. C. Myer.

66

BEST SELLING BOOKS.

A book's popularity does not always come quickly, but when the bookstore sales of a work are large it follows that the book is not only being read but discussed. And who would pose as well-read must naturally keep in touch with such books. So monthly, Book NEWS gives quick notice of the six, eight or ten books that have led in point of sales in three Philadelphia bookstores.

At Wanamaker's, City Hall Square: "Sentimental Tommy," by J. M. Barrie,

$1.10.

'Kate Carnegie," by Ian MacLaren, $1.10. "Taquisara," by F. Marion Crawford, 2 vols., $1.35.

"Sir George Tressady," by Mrs. Humphry Ward, 2 vols., $1.40.

"The Gray Man," by S. R. Crockett, $1.10. "The Damnation of Theron Ware," by Harold Frederic, $1.10.

"Quo Vadis," by Henryk Sienkiewicz, $1.50.

"The Mind of the Master." by Ian MacLaren, $1.10.

"The Heart of Princess Osra," by Anthony Hope, $1.10.

"The Violet," by Julia Magruder, 90 cents.

At J. B. Lippincott Company's, 715, 717 Market Street:

"Mistress of Brae Farm," by Rosa Nouchette Carey, 90 cents.

"A Singular Life," by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, 90 cents.

"The Seats of the Mighty," by Gilbert Parker, $1.10.

"Mrs. Cliff's Yacht," by Frank R. Stockton, $1.10.

"Taquisara," by F. Marion Crawford, $1.50. "Kate Carnegie," by Ian MacLaren, $1.10. "The Gray Man," by S. R. Crockett, $1.10. "Bill Nye's History of England," 90 cents. "The Little Minister," by J. M. Barrie, 75

cents.

"The Red Badge of Courage," by Stephen Crane, 75 cents.

Fame's Temple.

Three men set forth, long, long ago,
To seek Fame's stately shrine,
Though never map the road might show
To where its portals shine.

In strength and speed and manly pride,
With never thought of fear,
The first, a brave man, gayly cried :
"I'll find it in a year!"

The cautious second said: "I know
The task is hard and long;
I'll make haste slowly; better so
Than perish in the throng-

For many by Ambition's goad

Are urged upon the way,
And bleaching bones along the road
Tell where the stragglers lay."

"I'd dearly love," the third man said,
Fame's lofty walls to see;

The Brook's Good-Night.

Did you not hear the whisper,
In the hollow by the mill?

For Nature is talking to the brook
That prattles beneath the hill:
"Child, will you not be still?

Will you not sleep? Little one, pretty one, look,
It is warm to-day, but the grim north wind will come
back;

He is only skulking to-day,

Treading and trampling the tumbled leaves in the wood,

And his brows are bad and black.

Peace, little one, be good,

Be good and be quiet, sleep in your cradle of ice,
And I will throw

Safe over you my coverlet of snow,

My coverlet, to keep

You sheltered in your sleep,

To keep you sheltered safe from all keen-winds
that blow.

Sleep, darling, have no fear,
For I am with you, dear!

From "Songs of Exile," by Herbert Bates.

Inspiration.

Toy now hath reached her utmost goal And sunrise bursts upon the soul When some immortal thought or plan Runs riot in the mind of man.

From "Poems,"

by Robert Loveman.

best vein; and he has printed a certain number of fresh letters from Charlotte to Miss Ellen Nussey, the "E." of Mrs. Gaskell's book. But at the same time, he has reprinted enough material which was already accessible in Mrs. Gaskell's "Life" to bewilder the reader, while yet his volume makes no claim to the place of a final and exhaustive biography-which, indeed, considering the rival already in the field, one cannot but count to him for wisdom. A more serious fault is that a certain number of the letters now printed for the first time do not deserve publicity.

one or two misstatements that have been persistently made at one time or another about the Brontë sisters. He has given us large selections from Miss Brontë's correspondence with Mr. Williams, of the firm of Messrs. Smith and Elder, and most of the letters from this source are not only new, but in Charlotte's

Yet, when all is said, nothing can make it other than a delight to read fresh letters from and about the Brontës. This volume owes its chief interest to the fact that it allows us to see at least two stages in the process of presentation; the final stage, no doubt, is to be looked for in the published works of Currer Bell. Charlotte's first word and first thought were always for the constant friend of all her life, Miss Ellen Nussey. But here, in the correspondence of Mr. Williamsby far the most valuable portion of Mr. Shorter's book-we get another version of the same thoughts and experiences, more restrained, because the person addressed is a comparative stranger, but hardly less fine and moving.

Of other things new and interesting, we note a number of fresh details as to the writing and publishing of the novels, contained in the letters to Mr. Williams or in the additional letters to "E."; various new and racy letters of Charlotte's as to her critics in general, and her Quarterly reviewer in particular; besides a good deal of welcome information as to Charlotte's friend, Miss Nussey, and Miss Mary Taylor, an early friend of the Brontës, and possessed herself of a certain fresh and vigorous talent, as her letters show.

London Times.

Since Mrs. Gaskell's "Life' there has been nothing more interesting or accurate than "Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle." The world has been waiting impatiently for this book of Mr. Shorter's, and no one will be disappointed in it. Mr. Shorter has had the good taste to keep himself in the background and let Charlotte's letters tell her story. Miss Nussey, the "dear Ellen," or

"dear Nell," to whom Charlotte Brontë addressed so many of her letters, is still living, and so is the Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls, the husband of Charlotte. From these two Mr. Shorter has been fortunate enough to get hundreds of letters written by the author of "Jane Eyre" to her friends. He has used the more important of these and grouped them in his book so that they cover certain events in her life, and we should think that he had used every scrap worth publishing. N. Y. World.

This work possesses a literary flavor eminently pleasing to students of New England life and letters. In a word, it is distinguished alike for the value of its contents and the richness and abundance of its illustrative material. The author writes of her early life in beautiful and historic Andover, and of the professors and students of the famous theological seminary. Of her distinguished father, Professor Phelps, we have a graphic picture, and she tells us that Professor Park was one of the "historic figures of my day in Andover." She refers to Mrs. Stowe as the greatest of American women," and says that " my personal remembrances of Mrs. Stowe are those of a young girl whom she entertained at intervals, always delightfully, in the long parlor running the width of the stone house, whose deep embrasured window-seats seemed to me only less wonderful than the soft and brightlycolored, rather worldly-looking pillows, with which these attractive nooks were generously filled. It was an open, hospitable house, human and hearty and happy, and I have always remembered it affectionately."

The author has some delightful "chapters on her entrance into the world of literature, and she writes modestly and entertainingly of her powerful story, The Gates Ajar. Equally interesting are her sympathetic portraits of Whittier, Phillips Brooks, Holmes, Longfellow, Fields, Emerson, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, Mrs. Thaxter, Lucy Larcom and others. Of Longfellow she writes: "I think the first time that I saw him was at Mr. Fields's; my impressions are that he was ill that day, and a little under the reflection of physical suffering; and that I thought at the time that this fact accounted for the peculiar gentleness of his personality. Afterward, when I saw him in happier conditions, I learned that this was no pathological incident, but that his atmosphere was like that of the mystic lands where it is always afternoon."

Philadelphia Bulletin.

The Letters of Victor Hugo.

To His Family, to Sainte-Beuve and Others. Edited by Paul Meurice. Illustrated. 277 pp. 8vo, $2.25; by mail, $2.44.

Doubtless it is flattering to the intelligence of the ordinary reader to assume that he is familiar with all the life and literary career of Victor Hugo. Yet we are sure that it was injudicious from every point of view to publish these letters without introduction or biographical sketch, and, we might add, without a note. To those who know little of the man they necessarily lose much of their interest, and in the literary letters, especially in those addressed to Sainte-Beuve, there are enigmatical references which we almost doubt whether the

In a

editor was in a position to elucidate. few sentences we shall endeavor to give the key, as it is to be found in Hugo's character, circumstances, and literary standpoint. In some respects he was the Goethe of France; like Goethe, he had almost the complete equipment of a great poet, but, unlike Goethe, he was absolutely destitute of the philosophical faculty. He had emphatically the morbid literary temperament, sensitive to criticism, and greedy of praise. In his friendships he was staunch, but wayward and exacting, and his passionate ardor was apt to change to