Four neatly printed, well bound, illustrated books, edited for boys by Sidney Lanier, appear as Christmas books, and happy boys indeed will all those be who receive any or all of them as presents. The very mention of good King Arthur, although little more than his name may be known, seems to act as a charm upon boyish hearts and fascinate them with its spell. And now that they can read all about him,[E] and how he organized his famous Knights of the Round-Table, about the search for the holy cup, Sir Tristram, and all the rest, they will find the old charm working with increased power, and will be fairly surprised at the endless fascination of the story.

Froissart five hundred years ago wrote a history of the wars of his times, in which occurred the battle of Crecy, where the blind old king of Bohemia fell, the battle of Poitiers, and the Siege of Calais; an account of an expedition against the Saracens, and much about the old-time knights. And now this old book, which has lived, and grown in esteem for so long, has been condensed and rewritten[F] especially for the boys. If they read aright, the true spirit of knighthood must take possession of them as they read these knightly tales.

“The Boy’s Percy”[G] is a collection of old ballads of war, adventure, and love. We read in rhyme of Robin Hood and his amazing marksmanship. There is the “Ballad of Chevy Cace,” and the “Friars Gray,” “The legend of Sir Guy,” “St. George and the Dragon,” and many others. And as we read these all seem to emerge and stand out “like rich tapestry work, wrought large as life” upon the hangings of our living room.

And then comes a collection of twelve Welsh legends[H] of King Arthur and his knights, giving to the readers of our times the quaint old fancies of the people of Wales in years gone by. At the close of his introduction to this book Mr. Lanier says: “I can wish my young readers few pleasures of finer quality than that surprised sense of a whole new world of possession which came to me in my first reading of these old tales.”

There is a new edition of Hawthorne’s “Wonder Book.”[I] Ever since the author put into effect his idea that classical myths were capable of being rendered into very capital reading for the children, this book has been a marvel to childhood. This new edition has the additional charm of being illustrated by the able hand of Mr. F. S. Church.

“The Story of Vitean,”[J] from Frank Stockton’s lively pen, proved a great favorite in St. Nicholas, some time ago, and now that it has been gathered into a book will be a real addition to anybody’s library. It is a story of the thirteenth century, of knights of the cotereaux, of the Inquisition, and of marvelous adventures. The boy heroes and their opposites make a story of wonderful interest.

“The Wagoner of the Alleghanies”[K] is another favorite poem which appears in a new Christmas dress. The cover is not pretty, but the printing and paper are, and the illustrations are engravings of great merit.

A little time spent with Messrs. Geo. H. Boughton and Edwin A. Abbey’s delightful “Rambles”[L] quite dispels any prejudice which we may have against Holland as an uninteresting country. These gentlemen have proven in their book that she possesses picturesque people. These “sketchable” fisher-folk, these stout lasses and round Dutchmen have furnished subjects for a collection of charming pictures which, with the interesting text furnished by Mr. Boughton, make an unusually fine volume.

“Uncle Lawrence” has again furnished his young friends with a capital story[M] which has the rare merit of teaching them a great many things without boring them at all. The queer ideas and experiments of Miss Mollie, the little heroine, are very entertaining. The book is largely an adaptation from the French.

The most complete edition of Lord Tennyson’s works[N] yet issued is the collection by the Harpers. It has the merit of being complete and exact; beside, the book is enriched by good illustrations, and has as an introduction a very excellent sketch of Tennyson, reprinted from Harper’s Magazine for December 1883.

The beautiful “Artists’ Edition” of “Gray’s Elegy,” which Messrs. Lippincott & Co. gave us last holiday time is out this year in a smaller but equally choice form.[O] The engravings in these books are exceedingly fine.

A really funny book is a rarity, but it is a rarity found in “Stuff and Nonsense.”[P] Mr. Frost has surpassed himself in the grotesque pictures he has put to his nonsensical rhymes. Particularly laughable are his picture stories, “A Fatal Mistake,” and “The Balloonists.”

Among the picture-and-song books for young folks, “Stories in Rhyme for Holiday Time”[Q] is particularly desirable. The rhymes are quite good, and the pictures better than in the average book of this kind. Among the rhymes, “Bob’s Bicycle Ride” will be found most entertaining, and “Eglantine, or The Magical Gloves” is a beautiful fairy story.

Shakspere’s Seven Ages of Man furnishes the text for an elegant holiday volume[R] of full page photogravures. These illustrations are from well known paintings, notable among them being Church’s “Infant” and Harper’s “School Boy.” It is a very choice book.

Mr. Shepard in simplifying Josephus has met a want of the times. These old masterpieces of literature which it used to be thought only mature minds could comprehend, rewritten into simpler language for young readers can not fail of bringing about grand results. The “Young Folks’ Josephus”[S] is written in language that any scholar in the fourth reader class can readily understand and enjoy.

The story of two fun-loving, manly boys who lived in Compton,[T] is full of rich humor, and many a hearty laugh is enjoyed over its pages. The scrapes they got into, and some of their original methods of trying to get out again are set forth in such a vivid manner that one feels almost as if he had been through them himself. And the fact that one of these boys was white and the other black only heightens the interest of the book.

“Country Cousins,”[U] although it does not belong to the older people, seems to be especially interesting to them. The New York Tribune says, in answer to one of its correspondents; “Mrs. ? will find ‘Country Cousins’ pleasant reading in natural history.” It might have said, too: If any boy or girl wants to know about birds, or toads, or elks, or tree-chopping, or all kinds of shells, and ever so many other things, they can all be found illustrated and fully described in “Country Cousins.”

The last of the entertaining Bodley books[V] opens by presenting to the reader a group of six persons sitting on the deck of a steamer which was just casting off from Hull for a voyage to Scandinavia. They go as far north as any one can go, and see the sun at midnight; they visit the fiords, and the principal mountains, and all leading places of interest; they seek out the home of Hans Christian Andersen and Thorwaldsen; and after spending several months in this way return to their home in the United States.

“The Voyage of the Vivian”[W] is an account of an expedition to the North Pole. It presents an array of facts upon a groundwork of fiction. The facts have been taken from accounts made by explorers from the earliest time down to the present. As these explorers pass into those far-away frozen regions they recall and relate the experiences of the real characters who had been there before them. The author indulges in a little that is purely imaginary. He allows his crew to reach the open Polar Sea, “and explore islands and waters which are as yet concealed from mortal vision.” The book is designed for young readers, but those of mature minds will find it very entertaining. It is finely illustrated, many whole page pictures being given.

“My Aunt Jeanette”[X] is a very readable book; albeit some passages do bring a certain moisture to the eyes and a mist over the page that, for a time, interrupts the reading. It is the plainest kind of a narrative, without special literary merit, and the farthest remove from anything sensational. The reader is without ceremony introduced to a rural New England community, with the characteristics of New England of eighty years ago. He meets the settled pastor, and members of his flock, and finds them mostly worthy people, and decidedly religious. The principal character is so well drawn that, having laid the book aside, the image has the distinctness of a real presence.

“Wall Street in History”[Y] is a book well written and beautifully illustrated. It gives a concise, but clear, reliable history of that famous locality, and some events that have given it a world-wide celebrity. The maps, sketches, and numerous portraits add interest to the history, and give the varying aspects of the place from its primitive to its present condition. The site, at first a picturesque tangle of underbrush and wild vines, was partially reclaimed from its wilderness state by constructing there a wooden wall, which, for half a century, fenced in the city, and subsequently gave its name to a street where business is now transacted on a larger scale, and with more tremendous results than at any other place on the continent.

A collection of some thirty of Dr. O. W. Holmes’s poems[Z] has just been made by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., which for illustrations, typography and binding is a marvel of beauty. The frontispiece, a portrait of Dr. Holmes, is a real treasure. It is an etching by S. A. Schoff, and far surpasses anything of the kind we have ever seen of the genial doctor.

The Adventures of Robin Hood could not be better told than they have been by Howard Pyle.[AA] From the time he starts Merry Robin to the shooting match at Nottingham Town up to the sad hour of his death there is not a dull page in the book. The publishers have chosen a delightful make-up, with Old English style of illustrations, with numerous head and tail-pieces, and a sprinkling of red ink and queer devices.