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Page 79
There is a certain temerity in undertaking to illustrate a work like
"Childe Harold," which, if it has been read at all, has aroused its own
distinct conceptions of scenery in the mind of its reader which must
make any ordinary pictures setting off familiar lines tame and insipid.
It is the triumph of art when the artist can bring out meanings and
beauties in the text hitherto undreamed of; but we acquit the artists of
the present book of any failure in that respect, for their intention
seems never to have gone beyond amiable commonplace. The little cuts are
all pleasant, trim, and, if not suggestive, at least not sufficiently
the reverse to be displeasing. The head-pieces to the cantos are
extremely good, and the two scenes "There is a pleasure in the pathless
woods" and "There is a rapture on the lonely shore" we like sufficiently
well to exempt them from the accusation of insipidity.
Happy the poet who lives to see one of the poems he carelessly flung off
in early youth come back to him in his old age in such a setting as is
here given to Dr. Holmes's "Last Leaf." "Just when it was written," the
author says in his delightful and characteristic "_Envoi_" to the
reader, "I cannot exactly say, nor in what paper or periodical it was
first published. It must have been written before April, 1833,"--that
is, when he was in the early twenties. The poem has always been a
favorite, its sentiment suggesting Lamb's "All, all are gone, the old
familiar faces." It must henceforth be ranked as a classic, for it is
the happy destiny of the two artists who have worked together to give it
this exquisite setting forth to make its actual worth clear to every
reader. They have put nothing into the lines which was not there
already, but they have shown fine insight in their choice of subjects
and in conveying delicate and far-reaching meanings. They have
subordinated--as designers do not invariably do--their instinctive
methods and capricious inclinations to a careful study of their subject.
The result is--instead of a pretty but chaotic decorativeness
interspersed with florid and meaningless exaggerations--a complete and
beautiful whole marred by no redundancy or incongruity. Their full play
of intelligence brought to bear upon the suggestions of the poet has
developed a series of pictures which give occasionally a delightful
sense of surprise at their grace and unexpectedness. For example, the
three which illustrate
The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom
have absolutely a magical effect. Besides the full-page pictures,
etchings, and photo-gravures, the minor details of title-lines,
head- and tail-pieces, and the like, are executed in a way so pretty and
clever as to leave nothing to be desired. The rich quarto is sumptuously
bound, and, altogether, as a holiday gift-book the work has every
element of beauty and appropriateness.
"Pepper and Salt" is one of those brilliantly clever books for little
people which rouse a wonder as to whether the juvenile mind keeps pace
with the highly stimulated imaginative powers of modern artists and
finds solid entertainment in the richly-seasoned feast prepared for it.
There is plenty of humor and whim in this volume, in which many old
apologues appear in new shapes; wit, too, is to be found, and a
sprinkling of wisdom. Effective designs, droll, fantastic, and
invariably ingenious, set off the least of the poems and stories, and
make it as striking and attractive a quarto as will be found among the
young people's books this season.
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" gave a new stimulus to children's
literature, with its effective magic for youthful minds and its
brilliant success among all classes of readers. "Davy the Goblin" is one
of the many volumes which have been founded, so to say, on its idea and
been carried along by its impulse. Thus little can be said for the
actual originality of the book, although it deals in new combinations
and abounds in droll situations. It is well printed and illustrated, and
most children will be glad to have a new excursion into Wonderland.
Mrs. Burton Harrison's "Bric-�-Brac Stories," illustrated by Walter
Crane, make an attractive volume with a good deal of solid reading
within its covers. The stories are told with the _verve_ and skill of a
genuine story-teller, old themes are reset, and new material dexterously
worked in, with characters drawn from fairy- and dream-land, and, set off
by Mr. Crane's delightful drawings, the whole book is particularly
attractive.
"Rudder Grange" is one of the books which it is essential to have always
with us, and we are glad to see the stories so well illustrated,
although the subject passes the domain of the artist, Mr. Stockton's
humor being of that delicate and elusive order which strikes the inward
and not the outward sense. "Pomona reading" in the wrecked canal-boat is
a droll contribution, and many of the cuts show that the artist is in
full harmony with the spirit of the author.
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