New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-17

things that children love. and his drawings
are perfect in their way They are. to begin
with most sympathetically conceived. what
| could be happier than the picture for "WynKeh'
Blynken and Nod" in which the children sail
ing in their wooden shoe are painted against
a background of the most romantic character,
! all hills and castles, with the moon beyond?
Even more poetic is the illustration TO THE
Dinkey-Bird." in which fantastic towers gleam
on the other side of the tree from which a happy
child's swing is suspended We might go on
to comment upon each one of the Illustrations
not forgetting the title-page the droll end pa
pers and the beautiful cover Throughout Mr.
Parrish has been very much at home. all the
qualities of his style fitting rnagically what
he has to do. He reached a high level in his
drawings for Kenneth Grahames books but he
has surpassed himself in illustrating Field.
For characteristic poem by Mr.. James Whit
comb Riley. "A Defective Santa Claus CThe
Bobbs-M Merrill Company a rollicking bit Of
| homespun sentiment, Mr.. c. NJ. Relyea and Mr..
VIII Vawter have made a number of appro-
pirate sketches The poem is straightforward
tribute to the JOY of domesticity. and the pict-
ures have the same unassumiug realistic quail
ity. LII Gal" (Dodd, Mead & Coz. by Paul
Laurence Dunbar. is collection Of negro
rhymes which have been published before. The
authors denurely humorous pages are now
adorned with clean cut half tones from planta-
ton photographs, the decorative borders around
the latter being printed in tint.
In The Canterbury Tales Of Godfrey
Chaucer'' FOX Dufield & Coz. Mr.. Percy
Mackaye has undertaken TO give "a modern rem
dering into prose of the prologue and ten tales.
In preface he speaks of the numerous readers
whose impressions OF the poet are all received
'at second hand. from literary hearsay or the
epitomizing essays OF critics" He mentions
those other writers who lave before him, as we
all know, gone out Of their way TO make
Chaucer clearer to the ordinary reader. Their
names have sancttded in a measure, a kind OF
literary rehandling which never, in truth.
wholly commend itself to those having a true
feeling for Chaucer. No doubt he is difficult, but
there is glamor upon his style which disap-
pears the moment you begin to NEEDLE with it
Mr.. Mackaye has shown. a previous occasion.
that he is himself something of poet, and he
has put poetic quality into this book. fact
which reconciles US TO the absence of what is
most enchanting in Chaucer He tells the old
tales in a beguiling manner. and if the reader
takes the text as it is offered. not so much for
its own sake but as Introduction to the orig
inal. he will not go far wrong. The iIustra-
tons in color by Mr.. Walter Appleton Clark are
artistic and properly suggestive. Paper anu
presswork are good, and the cover is in excel
lent taste Altogether this Is merfLorlouS
Christmas book Mr.. Richard LIE GaIliennes
method IN 'Old Love Stories Retold' CThe Baker
& Taylor Company, is one of complete freedom.
He rests his work not on the creative produc
tons OF any master, but on recorded facts save
In the case of AUcassin and Nicolette. He tells
the romantic stories of Dante and Beatrice, Sir
Philip Sidney and Lady Penelope Devereux.
John Keats and Fanny Brawne. and two or
three other historic couples. An adept in liter
airy scntimentaltty he has the Iiveliest feeling
for this of thing. and turns his little narra-
tives with a clever though somewhat precious
air. The Illustrations from portraits and
paintings and from graceful drawings printed
in sepia on the margins here and there. The
book is daintily manufactured
Mr.. Hamilton Wright fable has four Christ
mas books in the f1eld, all reprints of compost
tions which have contributed largely to the
vogue of this graceful essayist. His Back
grounds of Literature CThe Macmillan Com
panys,-f1 CORRECTION OF papers in which
Wordsworth. Emerson. Washington Irwin,
Goethe. Blackmore, Whitman. Scott and Haw-
thorne are treated with reference to the scenes
in which they labored and by which they were in
duenced There is some Illuminating work in this
book, sagacious Interpretation OF literary per-
sonalities. The Illustrations are half tones from
photographs Of landscape and architecture Mr.
Mabies WILLIAM Shakespeare: Poet Dramatist
and Man CThe Macmillan Company, was orig
inally published four years ago with many illus
trations The present edition contains no pct-
ures. but is no less welcome for that reason.
1t IS we'll printed in a convenient octave. The
same authors Mature and Culture" Oodd,
Mead & Coz is another book OF essays dealing
with life rather than with literature. though the