Fair Ines.-Thomas Hood's well-known "Fair Ines" has been illustrated by W. St. John Harper and W. F. Freer, under the supervision of George T. Andrew, and is now for the first time brought out in holiday style in cloth, full gilt, in alligator of assorted colors and styles, and in full American seal, gilt edges. The six verses which compose the poem describe the beautiful flirt so accurately that the artists could almost paint from the words, and they have produced a series of charming sketches showing "Fair Ines' during her season of conquest, and also picturing the ways in which she made the hearts of others ache. The type is large and distributed around the pictures with originality and taste. The shape is the small quarto that this house has used to such advantage in former Christmas volumes. All the former volumes have been put into patented bindings of Burmese plush, wild rose, and peach-blow, and make ornamental holiday gift-books. (Estes & L. $1.50; $2.50.)

The "Bells" Series.-This series was undertaken by the publishers with the view of issuing original illustrated poems of a high character at a price within the reach of all classes. It has proved successful beyond expectation, and now includes eight volumes, every one of which is issued in four styles of binding, varying in price from $1.50 to $6. 'The Beauties of Tennyson" and "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" are illustrated by Frederic B. Schell; for "Lady Claire' this artist has received co-operation from Church, Fenn, Garrett, Fredericks, and Granville Perkins. "The Night Before Christmas" is illustrated by most of these artists, with the addition of W. T. Smedley; "The Bells" has several artists named above, and also F. O. C. Darley. "The Deserted Village has thirty-five engravings by Hammatt Billings; and the "Cotter's Saturday Night" has the same number, by Chapman. (Porter & C. ea. cl. and alligator, $1.50; tr. cf., $5; plush, $6.)

Dora.-The story of Alfred Tennyson's "Dora " is one of the best known of any of his compositions. In

his collected poems it was a favorite before it was dramatized, and became in that way more popular. The Boston Globe describes it as "a pathetic illustration of mercy and charity taken from humble English life in manner to appeal strongly to the conscience. It is this poem, which in literary and moral respects has so much to recommend it, that Messrs. Lee & Shepard have chosen for illustration as a holiday volume. The twenty illustrations are all by W. L. Taylor, and are engraved by George T. Andrew. They are figurepieces, with the exception of one or two landscapes and decorations. The figure-work is very perfect at times, as on pages 11 and 20, but elsewhere it is superior to what is considered good in a book of its price. It is printed on thick paper and beautifully bound. Nothing better in the line of a low-cost illustrated book will be offered this season." (Lee & S. $1.50; royal plush, $2.50.)

Hymns, Ballads, Poems, and Songs.-Lee & Shepard have put in one volume, under the title of "The Three Gems of the Bible," the "Lord's Prayer," the "Lord is My Shepherd," and the "Beatitudes," as versified by Prof. W. C. Richards, which were published in the three years past in various editions, and which in this shape make a handsome and appropriate gift-book. This house will issue this season their line of hymns, ballads, poems, and songs in novel and attractive styles, comprising sixteen favorites in the following bindings: Imperial Antique, uniform with "The Message of the Bluebird;" The Petite Alligator, a flexible binding; The Royal Plush, of the finest material and best workmanship; and the Embroidered Silk, for which it is claimed that it excels most handpainting in richness and beauty. They have also reduced Curfew Must not Ring To-night," "Abide with Me," "Rock of Ages, "Home, Sweet Home," Nearer, My God, to Thee," and "My Faith Looks Up to Thee," to vest-pocket size, but with all the original illustrations, and these are issued in a series called the Golden Miniatures. (Lee & S. 50c. to $3.)

Song of the Brook.-Tennyson's pretty song, which has so many times been put to music and has been illustrated in so many editions, has once more found an artist to picture its rippling syllables, and he has done his work with taste. Wm. J. Mozart has drawn fifteen pictures, which have been reproduced by the Photogravure Co. and printed in various shades of brown and gray. The publishers are Nims & Knight, of Troy, N. Y. The book is handsomely gotten up. The various little landscape scenes along the course of the brook are exquisitely pretty. "I chatter over stony ways in little sharps and trebles;" "I make the netted sunbeam dance, against my sandy shallows;" and "I come from haunts of coot and hern, I make a sudden sally," have all very good work in light and shade, and in the drawing of trees the artist is specially successful. The title-page is a pretty arrangement of palette and brushes on a tinted ground. The binding is a new arrangement of cloths with very attractive stamp on the front cover. (Nims & Knight. $5.)

The Closing Scene.-The text of this really artistic book is Buchanan Read's well-known poem. It is illustrated by Hamilton Gibson, Bruce Crane, Edmund H. Garrett, Will H. Low, J. Francis Murphy, H. Bolton Jones, D. W. Tryon, W. L. Taylor, Howard Pyle, and James B. Sword. The theme is sad but gives a chance for the landscape drawing in which many of these artists excel. The size is quarto. The margins are wide and the paper and print the best that can be had. The cover of the book has a handsome ornamentation of gilt scroll-work. (Lippincott. $3:$3.50; mor., $4.50: tr. cf., $7.50.)

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Lucile.-White, Stokes & Allen have ready a Family Edition of Owen Meredith's celebrated poem, which is fully illustrated by H. N. Cady, with a border for the pages designed by W. St. John Harper. The book contains the author's dedication to his celebrated father, which appeared in the original English edition, and is a touching tribute of respect and affection. this poem Owen Meredith abandoned those forms of verse with which he was most familiar and endeavored to follow a path on which he says he "could discover no footprints before him either to guide or to warn." The borders are in several shades. The paper is good and the binding odd enough to attract attention. (White, S. & A. $2.50.)

The Favorite Hymn Series.-This series has justified its name. It now contains "Just as I am," " Jesus. Lover of My Soul," "Nearer, My God, to Thee," "Rock of Ages," "Jerusalem, the Golden,” “The Lord's Prayer," and the "Ten Commandments." They are handsomely bound in cloth, with bevelled boards and gilt edges, and make very much-prized presents. (Nelson. ea. 75 c.)

The Blessed Damozel.-The leading holiday work of Dodd, Mead & Co. is an illustrated edition of Gabriel Dante Rossetti's poem, "The Blessed Damozel." Mr. Kenyon Cox is the artist. The designs are all studies of the human figure, depicting with equal power virile force and womanly grace. The paper, binding, and printing are as unique as the artistic part of the work. Appropriately, the volume bears a dedication to Mr. Will H. Low. (Dodd, M. & Co. $15; ed. de luxe, $25.)

Nature's Hallelujah" Miss Irene Jerome is distinguished by a peculiar talent for originating artistic compositions. The marvellous beauty of her 'One Year's Sketch-Book,' and the loveliness of the 'Song of the Bluebird,' are remembered, but these are rivalled, if not surpassed, by the 'Nature's Hallelujah,' says the Boston Traveller, "which now appears as this year's gift-book," and from which the cut on opposite page is selected. "Miss Jerome is the daughter of Rev. Charles Jerome, a Presbyterian clergyman, who died several years ago in New York State, where she was born and grew to young womanhood. She received her education under the teachers of Clinton and Cazenovia seminaries, largely supplemented by home influence, a good library, and intelligent friends. In 1875 she came fresh from school to Chicago, where she still resides. Three months of her first year in that city were given to drawing from casts in the Academy of Design. With the exception of these three months and perhaps half a dozen lessons from a teacher outside of the Academy, she is self-taught in her art. Nature's Hallelujah' opens with a few pages of poetic prose describing the reign of the Ice King among the White Hills, and we catch glimpses of a loving, happy, beautiful home in the little rectory, where the artist's brother and sister (to whom the book is dedicated) live-Theo. C. Jerome and his wife, Annie A. Jerome, and their four little ones, Paul, Birdie, little Bernard, and baby Irene. This little domestic touch makes the work more than a beautiful artistic compilation; it makes it an idyl of the home, peculiarly adapted to the great home festival, the Christmas day. Another element, too, that of the deep spirituality of the book, the quiet peace and serene, beautiful faith, pervades it, and makes it an unconscious power to elevate and spiritualize life. Miss Jerome's plan is to give on each page a selection from the poets whose sentiments she carries out in illustration. For instance, on one page we find these lines from Whittier :

The mists above the morning rills
Rise white as wings of prayer;
The altar curtains of the hills

Are sunset's purple air.

The blue sky is the temple's arch,
Its transept earth and air;
The music of its starry march
The chorus of a prayer.'

This is carried out in illustration by two bars of music with the lettering, The Lord is in His Holy Temple,' and beneath a landscape sketch of Vesper Service in Hillside Chapel,' with the spire of the country church seen over the hills. Miss Jerome is very fortunate in having so fine an engraver as George T. Andrew, and the sumptuous manner in which Messrs. Lee & Shepard have brought out this book in its cover of old gold and its fine heavy paper, goldedged, is worthy of all praise." (Lee & S. $6; Spanish cf., $12.)

Happy Hunting Grounds.-This volume is uniform with Pastoral Days" and "Highways and Byways," which in itself says that it has fascinating material clothed in handsome dress. Hamilton Gibson, who understands the vernacular of Nature, whether spoken in storm and wind, or written in the finest type of lights and shades, listens to her communications in a humble back-yard and also on the sweep of a mountainside, and translates them to our unskilled eyes and untrained ears in his unrivalled manner. The work consists of seven studies of natural history, and is embellished with nearly a hundred illustrations, of which

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about forty are specially designed for the book. this volume are included Mr. Gibson's "Back-Yard Studies," which in a condensed form orginally appeared in Harper's Magazine. In one of these "studies" the author-artist finds sixty-five different species of plants and grasses in a grass-plot measuring 12x20 feet in the back-yard of his Brooklyn home. More than half of the book is original matter, heretofore unpublished. Those articles which have appeared in Harper's have been elaborated so that the magazine readers will scarcely recognize them, while many of the illustrations accompanying them are entirely new. The volume is somewhat larger than any of the artist's previous works, making a book of over two hundred pages. (Harper. $7.50.)

Well-Worn Roads of Spain, Holland, ana Italy.— The handsome volume on "Well-Worn Roads" contains reproductions of various water-colors and drawings made by Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith during foreign tours in search of the picturesque. These are accom

panied by stories of sketching experiences and adventures told with ease and humor. If you will draw another easy-chair up to my fire," says Mr. Smith, “ I will bring you out my portfolio and hand you the sketches. They will be shown you haphazard, and while you criticise their shortcomings, I will tell you as simply as I can under what circumstances and conditions they were painted, narrowing my descriptions to the groups who looked over my shoulder while I worked, and who daily formed my circle of acquaintance." "It is in this spirit," says the N. Y. Tribune, 'that Mr. Smith has written, and the element of human interest in his narration, with the presence of the writer's personality, gives them an attractiveness of their own. They contain no information of any value to anybody,' says the genial author. Information is out of season after dinner, and these well-told stories come in aptly with the coffee and cigarette. The water-colors and drawings, some already familiar, represent bits of Holland, Spain, Venice, and Bavaria, gateways and church interiors, canal scenes, glimpses of Venetian quays, and many well-chosen architectural fragments. They are sixteen in number, and have been reproduced as full-page phototypes by the process used so successfully with Mr. Vedder's remarkable illustrations to Omar Khayyám's 'Rubáiyat.' They are printed in different tints of ink, with head and tail pieces for each chapter, and many additional pen-and-ink sketches scattered through the text. Altogether it forms an unusually artistic and attractive holiday volume. In addition to the phototypes of this volume there is a generous supply of illustrations in the text, which, unlike most marginal notes, are interesting." (Houghton, M. & Co. $15.)

Persia and the Persians.-The author, the Hon. S. G. W. Benjamin, was our late Minister to the court of Persia, and he has produced one of the most authentic works on this little known country that has probably ever been written. Mr. Benjamin has not confined himself to descriptions of places and scenery, and historical research and narrative, but goes into the modern literature and ancient poetry and legends of the country, also embodying his own amusing experiences as a government official. The attractive dress of the volume and its many interesting designs point to it as worthy of a place even among holiday gift-books. The real literary and historical merits of the work would make it a most valuable and delightful addition to the library shelves. (Ticknor. $5; hf. cf.. $9.)

Australian Pictures. Drawn with Pen and Pencil. -"This island continent, 1700 miles from north to south, and running from east to west 2400, has a total area greater than our own, and a large and constantly increasing population. In Australian Pictures,' by Howard Willoughby," says the N. Y. Times, "is given in extenso a description of the country, its principal cities and towns, the occupations of the people, and the natural history of the country, the whole made more understandable by a complete series of excellent illustrations. Bird's-eye views are given of Melbourne and Sidney, with street scenes, and many traits of resemblance may be found between Australia and the United States. An interesting chapter is devoted to the explorations made in Australia, for there still remain wide open spaces in this country untrodden by the foot of the white man. A Glance at the Aborigines' tells of the blacks, their habits and ways. They are not all insignificant in physique, as is generally supposed. The Victoria race has good-looking males, but very hideous female representatives. In describing the aboriginal weapons the method of throwing the boomerang is explained. 'It can be thrown so as to hit an object behind the thrower, but this cannot be done with certainty.' The range of the boomerang is from 100 to 150 yards, and in throwing it particular attention is paid to the direction of the wind. Among the birds the great kingfisher, or laughing jackass, is the most remarkable, for it has a head and beak quite as large as the rest of its body. It is never shot, being a universal favorite. The author tells of a dog show in Melbourne where 500 dogs were barking at once, but the laugh of a single giant kingfisher was heard above the whole uproar. Australian Pictures' is written in a very clear and intelligible manner, and the country is so novel that the desire to know more about it ought to make this handsome volume find numerous readers." (Nelson. $3.50.)

Land of Greece.-This latest addition to the long list of works on Greece is by Charles Henry Hanson, and is an endeavor to combine, with a description of the country and of its principal sites and ancient remains, a sketch of the events which made those places memorable-to localize, as it were, something of the vast mass of traditions and historic records associated with Hellas from a period long anterior to the birth of Christ down to the present day. The statements of historical facts are based chiefly on Grote and Thirlwall. "It cannot be doubted," says Mr. Hanson, "that familiarity with Hellenic story has never been a wide-spread or popular possession in this country. It is with the hope of helping to make it so-perhaps an ambitious hope-that the present work has been compiled. There are three excellent maps, one of modern Greece and two of ancient Greece, giving the old Hellenic names. Besides these, forty-four full-page il

lustrations bring vividly to the mind

of the reader the sites, landmarks, and buildings the author is describing. The publishers have made a handsome book. It is bound in cloth, with title in gilt and designs of ancient sculptures, vases, and friezes in black on terra-cotta background. The book is a large octavo, printed in clear type on excellent paper. It is full gilt and makes a showy Christmas gift, that can be given indiscriminately to a boy, a girl, or a lover of history of any age. The style is clear and within the comprehension of youth, but the author treats his vast subject in a way to interest even welltrained readers. (Nelson. $4.)

The English Empire and the Queen. It seems strange at first glance to see a Frenchman's name on a description of " England, Scotland, and Ireland," but M. P. Villars has given a fair and picturesque survey of the United Kingdom and its institutions, and Henry Frith, the translator, has done his work well. This superbly illustrated work is full of information regarding the countries, their people, polity, and pursuits. It will make a magnificent gift-book ($10). The Jubilee Edition of "The Life and Times of Queen Victoria," by Geo. Barnett Smith, published in commemoration of the fiftieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria, is an interesting volume ($3). To a student of politics, or a man of cosmopolitan interests, a most acceptable gift would be "The Prime Ministers of Queen Victoria," by the same author, giving sketches of Melbourne, Peel, Russell, Derby, Aberdeen, Palmerston, Beaconsfield, Gladstone, and Salisbury ($3). (Routledge.)

Mexico of To-aay.--" Mexico of To-day," by Solomon Bulkley Griffin, contains in book-form a series of letters published originally in the Springfield Republican. "No attempt has been made by the writer," says the Philadelphia North American, "to aspire to either a history or an exhaustive treatise. He has simply written an interesting account of his travels in Mexico, dwelling upon his personal views respecting the country, the climate, the people, their politics, and the national outlook as presented to his observation. Mr. Griffin's work illustrates throughout the impressions of an earnest thinker, and the freedom from prejudice expressed therein enhances the interest, which is fully sustained. 'A Bull Fight at Toluca' is one of the most attractive chapters, as is also 'Glimpses of Society at Home' and Mexico's Religious Outlook.' In his concluding chapter the author commands special attention in the opinions he advances respecting the past and present aspect of the United States towards Mexico and its share in her future. Illustrations and maps lend additional attraction to the book." (Harper. $1.50.)

Flowers from Dell and Bower.-Fifty-six poems redolent with the flowers which they commemorate, and written by nearly as many poets, from Shakespeare down to Dora Greenwell, appear on square sheets of thick paper in handsome covers. Autograph verses by Helen Jackson (H. H.) and Lucy Larcom are included. The selection is pleasing and is issued in attractive form, but the greater value of the book lies in a dozen colored full-page illustrations by Susie Barstow Skelding. Jacqueminot roses, trailing arbutus, white daisies and grasses, wild roses, Easter lilies, sweet-peas, violets, moss-roses, jonquils and crocuses, pink and white azaleas, white lilies and pale yellow roses have each an entire page. The drawing is faithful and the coloring is exquisite, bringing leaf and flowers near to the form and hues of nature. The