The Portland daily press., 1894-12-19
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The American Book Company (New
York, S06-s0S Broadway publish this
year the series of Eclectic Classics, chiefly
for the use OF schools as auxiliary read
ing. Woodstoc k, by Sir Walter Scott,
L'Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, and
Lycidas, by John Milton, Macaulay's es-
say on Milton, and SiIas Mariner, by
George Eliot, are the mum bers Of this Sc
ries already at hand. The print is ex-
cellent, and the abundant explanatory
footnotes, while intended for the infor-
nation of school children, will not be
disdained by the elders. Woodstock,
which is chiefly notable for its oharac-
terization of Oliver Cromwell-a charac-
terization hardly favorable to the great
Protector-is reviewed In preface which
aims to set right Cromwell's reputation
and rescue it from the oiium which the
Puritans allowed the Cavaliers to heap
upon it.
Literary and Social Essays, by George
William Curtis (New York: Harper &
Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short &
Harmony is the title of a newly pub
lished collection of the nine essays, En-
erson 1850, Hawthorne Qs54), The
Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne Qs64),
Rachel qs55), Thackeray in America
(is53), Sir Philip Sidney (written in
1857, but hitherto unpublished,) Long
fellow uss2,) Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1S91,) and Washington Irving QSS9, }
These essays cover, in point of time
nearly the whole range Of Mr.. Curtis's
literary effort. The essay on Emerson
was written at the time when the au-
thor's experiences at Brook Farm and
his associations at Concord with Emer-
son and Hawthorne were yet wildly i'm
pressed upon his mind. The..Longfsllow,
published nearly thirty years later, when
newly literary models were engrossing
the attention Of the world, when Willis's
Saturday Afternoon, and Burial Of Ar
mold have foated away, almost out of
sight, with Pierpont's Bunker Hill, and
Spragues Fourth of July Grafton, is
an example of MIR. Curtis's style, and
pruned and tended by time and expert
ence. The Oliver Wendell Holmes, still
later in date, is a delightful tribute to
the ever-dear autocrat, written while
the subject was yet alive. The Sir Philip
Sidney, now published for the first time,
is interesting as EN- bodying the ideas OF
one of the finest young American gen.
tlemen of the nineteenth century on the
paragon of the English young gentlemen
of the sixteenth century. The collection
as a whole make most delightful and
instructive book.
Howard Pyle has discovered new
country which he calls Twilight
Land" "a wonderful, wonderful place,
where no sun shines to scorch your back
as you jog along the way, where 10 rain
falls to make the road muddy and hard
to travel, where no wind blows the dust
into your eyes, or the chill into your
marrow. Where all is sweet and quiet
and ready to so to bed" In the Inn of
the sign of Mother Goose. in this strange
place, he finds assembled many familiar
char acters from fairy tales and the
Arabian Nights, "a rag-tag lot as ever
you saw in your life. gathered from
every place and brought together in Twi-
light Land.
Each of them tells a story in which
magic and magicians hold large place.
Kings and queens, princes and princesses
demons and genii, fools and wise men,
A.. ond eaV MANY marvalJnr. 4L;...
Treasures of gold are sought in caves,
under the guidance of Talisman. and
princes are turned into dogs and ravens
by malicious sorceresses. In short, the
stories are such as the children will en-
joy, in the words of old Bidpai, nightly
much" and some older people will re-