The Republican journal., 1885-12-10
Holiday Books. :.
CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE

monday BOOKS.
CHILDE HAROLD's PILGRIMAGE.
Messrs. Tlcknor Co. start off finely In the line
OF Illustrated books with a beautiful edition OF
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, upon which nine Of
our most accomplished draughtsmen and seven of
our most skilful wood -engravers have expended
the resources OF their art. Comparisons are obi.
ous' as we all know, and shall not indulge in
them by comparing this illustrated edition of IA
Vorlte poet with any other illustrated edition of any
other favorite poet. What we will saw however,
| that given our choice between this poem and anv
other poem or poems, that have been, or are likely
to be, published during the present season, we
should give the others the go by and select this,
not merely as the most to special TASTE but as
one OF the noblest and greatest poems in the whole
range OF English poetry. 1t is not the fashion to
admire Byron now, and 1t is the fashion to pretend
to admire Wordsworth One may admire both
without instituting comparisons between them, and
for Wordsworth's sake they never should be in
STUFFED, for the author Of Peter Bell was poet of
one order and the author of Childe Harold was
poet of another and much higher order, as every
reader OF Byron feels in spite of all that Mr. Swim
burne, and Mr.. Arnold, and the rest Of the Words
worthians may say to the contrary. He is the
greatest elemental force in English song since
MhIIoWe, anu not 10 Know tnlS Is TO nave read all
the poets that come between the two in vain.
There Is wild, fiery, passionate life in his work
even when it is most careless which no other Eng
fish poet except Shakespeare attained, and It
is refreshing to turn from the inickin, elaborate
rocco, make-believe of the present period to
his manly and magnificent poetry. He is at his
greatest we think in the third and fourth cantos of
Childe Harold, who as an ideal creation was fifty
described by Shelley as the Pilgrim Of Eternity.
How nobly he wrote let couple of stanzas show:
Q Rome! my country! city of the SOUL
| The orphans of the heart must turn to thee,
| Lone mother Of dead empires and control
In their shut breasts their petty misery.
What are our woes and sufferance? Come and see
Inc cypress, near the owl, and plod your way
Ger steps of broken thrones and temples, vel
| Whose agonies are evils of a day
world Is at our feet as fragile clay.
| The Niobe of nations, there she stands
| Childless and crowness in her voceess woe;
An empty urn within her withered hands,
Whose holy dust WAS scattered long ago;
The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now
The very sepulchres lie tenantless
| or their heroic jewellers; dost thou flow
Old Tiber through marble wilderness?
Rise with thy yellow waves, and mantle her dis
tress!
The Illustrations in thi. beautiful edition of
Childc Harold are not in the fantastic art manner
of the period, but are conceived and executed in
the good oldfashioned, manly style that character
lied the best days Of drawing and engraving.
They are for the most part beautiful, and when
| they do not reach that ideal excellence they are in
all cases picturesque and intelligent. There are no
| crotchets in Them for the artists who made them
were content to Illustrate the text in the direct
method in which 1t was written. From the nature
OF the poem they are largely landscapes, the
special features of each verse being happily caught
with artistic gradations Of light and shade Taken
AS whole, the effect they have upon the mind Is
| one of simple, serene loneliness And they have a
quality which we miss in much OF the black and
white work of to-day-they will bear looking at
more than once. They should be studied as Childe
Harold should be read, over and over again TR.
| H. Stoddard.
A CHARMING "JUVENILE."
"Dayy and the Goblin is one of those examples
of juvenile literature that make middleaged people
wish they had not been born-until twenty years
later AS sequel to "Alice's Adventures in Won
derland," (and where is the child who has not
grown round-eyed over that delightful work p Mr..
Charles f. Carryl has given to his young admirers
perfectly charming story In "Davy and the Cob
lin" Welded to language suited to the comprehcn-
sion of young readers is found subtle, brightest wit
OF an order TO be enjoyed by children of larger
growth. There are bit. of delicious play upon
words, such "Butter.cotchmen," the "Giant
Badorful," &c. And the verses which are scattered
through this fascinating narrative are such as cast
/ Mother Goose's nane jingles far into the shade.
/ Take, for instance, Mother Hubbsrti's song:
81 had an educated pug,
His name Tommy Jones;
lie lived upon the parlor rug,
Exclusively on bones.
"And when ventured out one lav,
To order him coat,
found him, in his artless way,
Careering on goat"
/ The book is fun of the most engaging conceits,
the most entertaining episodes the very refinement
| of spontaneous and hubbling fun, and the most
/ fascinating absurdities Imaginable. There are
! glimnses Of the Arabian Nights, Of Robinson
Crusoe, of pirates and of strange people and beasts
all treated in such fresh and bewitchne way as
| to make "Davy and the Goblin" mine of delight
! to every intelligent child fortunate enough to open
Its pages. To say that the copious illustrations
| fully carry out the authors ideas f.. pretty high
| praise, but not more than is merited The book is
most attraclively printed and bound,
| In the New York Mail, r. II. stoddard commends
it as "a remarkable story, which in fits way is the
perfection Of what childish fantastic writing should
be-" 1t is sold at sl.5O, by Tcknor & Co., of Bos-
| ton.
THE TRIANGULAR SOCIETY.
Hoyt, Fogg & Donham, Portland, will publish
| to-day Maine book for the holidays under the
/ above title A descriptive circular says
| The unique title of this volume suitably intro
| duces a unique and original book. The plot is at
simple as the plan of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,
or of Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn. But
the scene is not at an inn, but in Maine house.
| hold; nor are the characters travellers and
chance companions, but a mother and her two
children,-a daughter who finds employment in
a newspaper Office, and son still in school.
These three people relate their variuos adven-
lures at home and abroad, and sometimes
cheat the long evenings by reading to one another
articles in prose and This little reading club
is the Triangular Society, but its proceedings
cupy only about fourth of the volume. The topics
of the other chapters are as simple those which
Alphonse karr found in the famous tour around
his garden, and they handled with equal deli
cacy and skill. Perhaps the most marked charac-
teristic of the work is subtle sympathy with the
! dependents of the family-the cat. the dog, the
flies, even the mice and the caterpars-a sym
pathy which shows itself in minute and accurate
observation of their drol habits and interpreta ton
of their obscure motives. The book is witty with
out malice and humorous without coarseness-a
| delightful holiday present for young or old-and
every page has some local touch which proclaims
| it especially Maine book.