Rip Van Winkle.- Washington Irving's quaint legend of the Kaatskill Mountains, "Rip Van Winkle," selected by S. E. Cassino, of Boston, as one of his leading holiday books, has been interpreted by Frank T. Merrill, who made a strong mark as an illustrator last season with Thackeray's "Mahogany Tree." His work on "Rip Van Winkle" is even more forcible and characteristic than were the designs made for that much admired book. Unlike many realizations of imaginary characters, his figures are not a disappointment. He carries out one's preconceived ideals of Rip and his friends, and even the dog Wolf, in place of offering new ideals with which one reluctantly becomes acquainted. Only a strong literary sympathy with his author enables an artist to do this, an essential quality which, we regret to say, is sadly lacking in many of our best illustrators. The various episodes of Irving's story are the subjects of full-page pictures reproduced in photogravure, or in outline work. The photogravures are by far the finest work, as they represent the strongest and most elaborate studies. Rip, with his gun and his dog, is the central figure of a succession of charming pictures. His retreat to the woods, routed by the Dame's broom, his meeting in the mountains with the queer little men, his long sleep, and his return after many years, to find himself forgotten and his wife and cronies dead, are depicted as graphically by the plates as they are described by the text. A fine portrait of Irving, on India paper, which opens the volume, a dainty title-page, beautiful paper and type, and a characteristic binding, make this one of the most attractive settings yet imagined for the old Dutch legend of the Hudson. (Cassino. $7; full cf. or mor., $14.)

A Bunch of Violets." This new work by Irene E. Jerome, to whose pencil are due the designs and whose literary ingenuity and industry," says the Independent, "have culled from the latter-day poets a poetic text to carry on her idyl. The art movement of the book starts with a lovely little girl bringing her basket of new-found violets to the door, and runs on with her through the fields, the vales, the woods and mossy banks, where they bloom until the season ends, and we find her disconsolate and weeping among the flowerless plants because 'Spring is gone and I can find no more violets.'" As in "One Year's Sketch-Book" and "Nature's Hallelujah" the plan of combining pictures and appropriate verses in decorative text is again resorted to. Charming as were these first efforts, "A Bunch of Violets" far excels them in grace and finish. The poetry, too, of the subject, has not escaped the young artist, investing her work with a lingering, long touch that is very enticing.

"Long as there are violets

They will have a place in story." Whether adorning the neck of the little Puritan maiden or nestling near the heart of the proud beauty, they tell an eloquent tale no other flower has power to speak. For friend or sweetheart nothing exists more sweet, dainty, or beyond all other gifts in poetry and beauty, than A Bunch of Violets." Or in sober prose none of theift books of the season possess more points o traction for so many kinds of people as this ha some volume. Exquisite paper and printing a rich binding in gold cloth are other charms "A Bunch of Violets." (Lee & S. $3.75; Eng. seal, $7; tky. mor., $9.)

"Henry IV.' just published by the Cassells in the International Shakespeare. They are photogravures from drawings by Edward Grützner, and have all the carefulness of German art with more than ordinary grace. Falstaff is the broadfaced tun-of-a-man we are accustomed to see, and the young princes have handsome faces of an English rather than a German type, as might have been expected. The least individual is the king himself. The Germans study Shakespeare with such devotion and success that it is not surprising to find one presenting very fair illustrations of the old characters." The introduction to the play is written by Edward Dowden, Professor of English Literature in the University of Dublin. (Cassell. $25.)

American Wood-Engraving.-This work is in many respects the most important art-work ever issued by the American press. It is the production of a society whose membership includes nearly all the most distinguished engravers of this country; and it not only illustrates in the most striking manner the marvellous progress which has been made in wood-engraving in the United States, but it represents the highest excellence ever reached in that art, in which America is universally acknowledged to hold the foremost place. The work is published in two editions. an édition de luxe and a popular edition, the latter being in the shape of a folio volume. It is in almost every detail an American production. The letter-press is written by Mr. William Mackay Laffan, who does full justice, but no more than justice, to the enterprise, the encouragement and the liberality of American publishers in contributing to the development of this art in the United States. The artistic and mechanical finish of the American magazines is admired throughout modern Europe. The édition de luxe is printed from a new font of type on the finest hand-made paper manufactured in the United States, in which the imprimatur of the Society of American Wood-Engravers is worked as a water-mark. The engravings, twenty-five in number, with one exception, are from paintings in America, the exception being occasioned by the residence abroad of Mr. T. Cole, which led to his choice of a subject by one of the old masters. It represents "The Entombment," from a fresco by Giotto. Engravings of several well-known paintings are in this entrancing book, and it would be difficult to find a more inexpensive way of coming into possession of many pictures that from intrinsic merit, endearing associations, or individual preference have become favorites. John Lafarge's "The Three Marys," and A. H. Thayer's "The Lady and the Horse," engraved by C. A. Powell; Elihu Vedder's "Identity," engraved by S. G. Putnam; E. A. Abbey's "Miles Standish's Challenge," engraved by F. H. Wellington; A. Swain Gifford's "The Roadside," engraved by Henry Wolf; Gilbert Gaul's "In the Enemy's Country," engraved by Frank French, are all there, and many more. Each artist has presented what he feels to be his own most important and most ambitious work, and that which, in his own particular fashion, gives most emphatic expression to his own particular bent, and the result is a collection of the best wood-engravings of the best wood-engravers of the present day, presented in the highest form of mechanical finish. A friend with taste for art would be made perfectly happy with this beautiful volume, which even in its popular shape seems an édition de luxe, (Harper. $100; pop. ed., $25.)

The Land of Sleepy Hollow.-"Nearly seventy years have passed since the first publication of the 'Sketch-Book,' and half that time since Henry T. Tuckerman pictured the home life of the author and the scenes at Sunnyside. In the volume before us, 'The Land of Sleepy Hollow,'" says the New York Tribune, "the publishing firm so closely associated with Washington Irving in his lifetime confidently appeal to the third generation which has cherished not only admiration for the writer but also an affectionate interest in a beautiful personality. The persistence of this interest in Irving's home and haunts is as gratifying as the perfect preservation of that home since his death twenty-eight years ago this month. The house in which Diedrich Knickerbocker was born, which stood on William Street, between John and Fulton, disappeared nearly half a century ago and there is not even a tablet to mark its site. But Sunnyside remains to us an often visited shrine and 'The Land of Sleepy Hollow' is an appropriate offering. includes the classic legend of Ichabod Crane's discomfiture by the Headless Horseman and the tale of Wolfert's Roost, together with some pleasantly written passages, historical, descriptive, and personal, by Mr. J. L. Williams, which are accom panied by a series of photogravures and some of the outline drawings of the veteran illustrator, F. O. C. Darley. The photogravures, which reproduce recent photographs, represent scenes at Tarrytown associated with Irving's life and tales as they are at present, and the actuality of these illustrations in a way defrauds the reader. The text is printed from type on heavy paper with wide margins, and three small photogravures, including a portrait of Irving, are inserted in the cover. (Putnam. $15.)

The text

Representative Etchings.-This is an art-work of special importance and interest, and a new link in American art history. As an evidence of the progress of etching in this country, and as a specimen of individual efforts, it is worthy of the most careful examination and study. The plates have been etched especially for the collection, the list of etchers including several important artists whose plates have not appeared in former collections. The names of the etchers and the title of the plates will give some idea of the wide range of subjects and the many opposite styles which the volume comprises. Opening with "The Return of the Wanderer," by Frederick S. Church, an ethereal female figure welcoming a carrier pigeon, we have in rapid succession "A Macaroni of the Eighteenth Century," by Robert F. Blum; "Ideal Head," by James S. King; "A Winter's Day, Windsor, N. S.," by Stephen Parrish; "Desdemona," by Herman N. Hyneman; "Honeysuckle," by Frederick W. Freer; "Madison Square, New York," by Frank M. Gregory; "A Good Story," by Stephen J. Ferris; "Souvenir of Cairo," by James J. Calahan; and "Old Mill near Newport, R. I.," by C. F. W. Mielatz. The text, including an important new essay on etching by Ripley Hitchcock, is a feature not to be overlooked. A few copies of artist-proofs on vellum and satin and about one hundred copies on Japan paper have been issued, the regular impressions being on etching-paper and bound in olive-green cloth, with a rich cover ornamentation representing Mr. Parrish's etching of "A Winter's Day," which every one who has passed that season in Nova Scotia, Canada, pronounce accurate in smallest detail. (Stokes. $10.)