New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-12-16
LEGENDS AND FAIRY TALES.
STORIES OF KNIGHTS AND ELVES AND
OTHER FINE FOLK

STORIES OF KNIGHTS AND EL'Eo A'>O
OTHER FINE FOLK
LEGENDS FROM RIVER, AND MoJ,Npp anMan hS
and Alma Strettel. With lllustratlohss ,o ny e.
u. Robinson. Octave PIP SZS' Doao' "'"'
FAIRY TALES OF THE sI.Av PEASANTS A AN
HERDsMEN. From the , French S %, E Hs
J Harding Octave PIP. s5S. Dodd Mead q 90.
THE WONDERFUL FAIRIES OF THE THE. sS ~ co sS
Earnest Vincent Wright i y pas,on Roberts
VI. Norman Quarto' PIP TO- Dos'o"
Brothers.
TOTEM TALES. INDIAN STORIES iMpiA az
Told Gathered from The Pacific Nor INV abo or
octave .T pp ss5 chsaso: Star Publishing COM
pany.
DAPpy AXE 10Th TIE FET6aAxR Dark AS By
Remus' Joel Chandler Harris. Illustrated 'c
tavo PIP 1875 The Century Company
THE STORY Of AA ToS $50 NAF Fsns rn and
aualntances by Joel Chandler Harris ,os illus bus
y oiySd sTiS oSsn, Ssa M En Co. b0s
THE ANIMAL STORY BOOK; Edited by Andr ev
Lang. Illustrations by J Ford octave pp
400. Longmans. Green q co
THE sR BY by
Octave PIP 123. Chicago Way Williams
THE COURT OF KING ARTHUR Stories s; from ="
Henry Frost illustrated by s. Burleigh
Octavo. pp 500 Charles scrbners Sons.
HousEHoLD sToIHEs TR0 GaT THE r GomEcd
by Lucy Crane. NTH Illustra tons by Walter
Crane. Duodecimo. PIP. 3i2. Thomas y Grove"
fA1H Yin Illustrations BY II r. Miiiar Octave, PIP.
1876 Frederick A. Stokes Company.
TO TELL THE KING THE Sky, IS falling I BY
Sheila f. Brane. Illustrated by Alice Woou-
ward Octave. PIP. III. Charles Scribners sons
wYYPs AND OTHER FAIRY TALES BY Evelyn
sharp With eight eolored ll9s'ra ,nS lions ny Mrs
FAIRY TALE PLAYS AND HOW TO ACT THEM
By Mrs Hugh Bell With Illustrations by Lam
cel.: Seed octaTo' PIP SSe' LonginanS' "ree"
Pc.NCE BOO HOO AND LITTLE SHUTS BY
Fer. zones Drawings by Gordon Yd BIowSe CO. &C.
sM1Tb BY REGINALD sG Birch oc'avo pp
III The Century Company.
There are people who are not supersttlous
who will walk fearlessly under ladders. VINO
never know a ghost when they see one VINO
cannot read fairy tales. They are IN pit1ui
case Life is amusing when 1t is packed with
things that are not there. fairy tale. when
II ia a good one frankly impossible is simply
the best thing in literature. Reason, con-
sistency. logic all the inconvenient elements OF
existence are at a discount The reader merely
reyels 1t Is for this reason which, approprl-
ately is no reason at ALL that we find the books
enumerated above quite the most companiona-
BILE which have appeared this winter some
of them might be criticised because their au-
thors are not masters of the art or writing Eng
lsh prose. But 1t would be uncommonly cap
tious to ask them to be artful when they are
dealing with ideas whole ages removed from
the most rudimentary conception Of art They
are most readable when they are least amoi-
tious to tell a well-made story.
The great secret of fairy lore is that 1t
evolves itself out of mystery spontaneously
as smoke drifts up from fire You may say mat
il evolves itself out of nature. but that only
r,eans that Won have chosen another term.
Take the volume in which the Queen OF Rou-
mania has collaborated with Miss Strettell COL
Alteration is numbered among the literary arts
but here 1t Is quite a different thing 1t means
that the two authors have made themselves
the mouthpieces Of the same inspiration that
is ALL Legends from River and Mountain
they call their book. and all that the reader
sees all that he realizes is the murInur OF the
river. the echoes Of the hills Long ago Rou-
manian and German dreamers imagined "ha'
the echoes were saying, and as, little by little
the imaginings found their way into words
they made such legends as the present authors
have pu. into a book. The result Is peculiarly
enchanting One is touched by the unreaity
Of the episode the transformation OF Roanda
into a shimmering cascade. the changing Vi
Dame Roxana into vevety moss Whatever IL
may be- but all the time one is convinced that
there must have been something in 1t. that
the cascade of the legend. not the cascade or
science is somehow the real thing All through
this collection of stories the same delightful
state of mind Is fostered, and the pictures only
serve to aid and abet the text.
The interesting point about this Illusion OF
fairy lore when il is found in such book as
that Of NJ. Chodsko. is that 1t springs from the
instincts Of a race with which IT never seems
quite natural to associate such things Ordi-
narjly the SIav Is expected to be prosaic indi-
vidual His life is hard. He is so uncivil-
ICED. But perhaps 1t is just because he leads 50
primitive a life that his imagination runs riot
among the fairest fields Close contact with
Nature and a happy ignorance OF her secrets
lead the Slav peasants and herdsmen whose
tales NJ Chodsko repeats TO weave the elements
into the most fantastic webs, and amid all the
books Of fairy tales recently published this Is
unrivalled for the grotesqueness OF Its fancies
the daring Of its adventures. At the same time
there is a charming simplicity about the nara
tives. How jaunty the hero accepts his bur-
den. undertakes to solve the riddle And the
manner In which he achieves his goal Is always
40 direct, so Obvious, The elements figure in
these stories. as in the tales told by the Queen
Of Roumana and Miss Strettell but they are SO
deftly personifed. they such human com
panions in spite Of their being the elusive. inde'
Unable forces Of the universe. that the reader
gets to love them old friends. There are
some inimitable oddities In NJ Chodsko's VOL
ume 1t is exquisite to have the Water-Queen
hiding a certain traveller behind the stove
One would like to know what Water-Queen
might be doing with such apparatus.
Mr. Wright. in 1.-The Wonderful Fairies Of the