Perhaps the Reviewer might accept this counsel were he sure that in the present fluctuations of the grain-market he could secure his proper value. For, to tell the truth, he has read the book without tears, though not without laughter. Humor, indeed, he finds to be a far more prominent characteristic in this author than pathos, though pathos is not wanting, as it never is in the case of a true humorist. It is the humor of genuine insight, of patient artistic fidelity to detail, but it is the humor of observation rather than of sympathy. The artist gives us sketches of a primitive lot of people, shut out by the mountains from contact with the outer world, in whose quaint dialect, uncouth ways, strange customs, creeds, and superstitions she has found infinite delight, and she makes us sharers of her delight. Her style is still as witty, as full of epigrammatic surprises, as when we first made her acquaintance in "On Both Sides."
From the French publishers of L'Art (J. Rouam, Paris) a number of handsome illustrated books have just been received. The handsomest of these is entitled "Fantaisies décoratives," and consists of a portfolio containing forty-eight large engravings, printed in colors from designs by Habert-Dys, which can be used in the decoration of fans, parasols, baskets, and all manner of bric-à-brac, thus furnishing an agreeable diversion from the stereotyped designs now in current use, that are simply variations on the inventions of the old masters. M. Habert-Dys has a graceful fancy, a ready pencil, and an astonishing fertility of resource. The work, it appears, may be obtained in parts, with four engravings to every part, or the engravings will be sold separately. A large octavo, "Les Styles," by Paul Rouaix, is remarkable rather for the number of its illustrations (seven hundred in all) than for their excellence, but it affords a good résumé of the various styles, of architecture, painting, household decoration, jewelry, etc., which have in various ages prevailed among civilized nations. "L'Orfèvrerie française," by Germain Babst, is a handsomely-illustrated history of the goldsmith's art in the eighteenth century, as represented by the productions of the Germain family; and "Le Meuble en France au seizième Siècle," by Edmond Bonnaffé, is an interesting treatise on mediæval French furniture. Besides these works, the Reviewer must record his acknowledgments for a series of biographies, "Les Artistes célèbres," under the general editorship of M. Eugène Müntz, in which competent critics consider the lives and works of such artists as Donatello, Fortuny, Bernard Palissy, Jacques Callot, Prud'hon, Rembrandt, Boucher, Edelinck, Decamps, Phidias, Regnault, Fra Bartolommeo, etc. The series will be indefinitely extended. The illustrations that accompany these volumes are well engraved, and the selection of subjects is such as to do justice to the artist under discussion
Of all the works that owe their origin to the Jubilee celebration, the most satisfactory—the only one, indeed, that has any permanent value—is "The Reign of Queen Victoria: A Survey of Fifty Years of Progress." It is in two large octavo volumes, illustrated with maps and diagrams, is edited by T. Humphrey Ward, and contains contributions on "The Army," by General Viscount Wolseley, "The Navy," by Lord Brassey, "The Administration of the Law," by Lord Justice Bowen, "Religion and the Churches," by the Rev. Edwin Hatch, D.D., "Schools," by Matthew Arnold, "Science," by T. H. Huxley, "The Drama," by William Archer, etc. The papers are all thoughtful and well written, and some of them are of unusual interest.
