FOR FEBRUARY

contains

By

GLASSES: A complete story by Henry James. SOME MEMORIES OF HAWTHORNE. his daughter, Mrs. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop. THE PRESIDENCY AND AND MR. REED. striking presentation of the requirements of the Presidential office and Mr. Reed's fitness for it.

Other features of the issue:

A

The concluding installment of Gilbert Parker's SEATS OF THE MIGHTY; SOME TENNESSEE BIRD-NOTES, by Bradford Torrey; a second sketch of provincial France, A LITTLE DOMESTIC, by Mary Hartwell Catherwood; DON QUIXOTE, by Henry D. Sedgewick, Jr.; PIRATE GOLD, II., by F. J. Stimson; NEW FIGURES IN LITERATURE AND ART, IV., EDWARD A. MACDOWELL, by Edith Brower.

IMPORTANT FEATURES FOR 1896.

Important Political Studies, in which the issues, and some of the personalities, of the approaching presidential campaign will be discussed from an independent point of view.

Several instructive papers on American Cities, showing to what extent we are developing a beautiful and well-ordered urban life, and the tendencies of urban develop

Papers which will show the best work done in every grade of education in the Practical Teaching of English the object of this series being an effort to formulate a programme for the better teaching of the mother tongue.

The Status of Teaching as a Profession will be treated in practical articles based on an original and fresh investigation of the payment and standing of the profession in different parts of the country. Suggestions will be made by acknowledged authorities as to what may be done to elevate the profession and to give our school system a further and better development.

$4.00 a year.

January, 1896

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY'S

LITERARY BULLETIN.

A Singular Life.

ANY who have read this very powerful story will promptly respond to the remark by the critic of The Outlook: "We think most readers will agree that in A Singular Life' Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward has done her very best literary work." After outlining the story, the critic remarks: "A splendid figure is this Christ-man, as those with whom he lived called him; a few like him would leaven and better the world in a generation. The book is strong in many ways, suggestive, full of purpose, with no touch of cant.

and sweet."

The romance of the story is pure

The Interior, of Chicago, has penetrated to the inmost heart of the story, and says, among many other noteworthy things: "It is not possible for me to make any one understand what a book Mrs. Ward makes of this simple theme, how deeply and intensely interesting she has made it, how she has redeemed the tragedy of it by making it so richly worth while, how tears give way to smiles, as one reads, and then smiles melt into tears again, the while Emanuel Bayard raises one's every thought to the possibilities of life, to the glory of service and the shame of missing it. It is not possible for me to make any one understand how worldremoved Mrs. Ward has kept it all from being 'preachy,' how delicately and indelibly she has stamped it all with her art and her personality. . . . Like everything from Mrs. Ward's pen, it carries with it a gentle dignity and rare sweetness, a tender suggestiveness of what is worth while,' that leaves in its wake a train of blessedness, of re-confirmed belief in the value of this life and the hope of the life to come, of new-awakened tenderness for one's fellow-creatures, of new-born desire to distill the sweets of love and helpfulness over one's own life and all those that touch it. All these are

Houghton, Mifflin & Co.'s Literary Bulletin

part of our debt to Mrs. Ward. I hope 'A Singular Life' will be the Christmas gift of many, and I envy all their reading of it."

Miss Lilian Whiting, in a paper in the Chicago Inter-Ocean, says: "No American novel since Uncle Tom's Cabin' has approached A Singular Life.'" It is already in the fourth edition.

Mr. Stedman's "Victorian Anthology."

This important work, to which Mr. Stedman has devoted so much time and fine critical judgment, has been greeted by competent judges with emphatic favor. The scope of the work and its distinctive excellence are well indicated in the following passage from an extended review in the New York Tribune: "Mr. Stedman's Victorian Anthology' is different in character from any other collection of verse we know. It is more than a charming assemblage of poems, reflecting the personal taste of the editor. Its good qualities are chiefly due to the scientific criticism which makes Mr. Stedman's Victorian Poets' a source of authority. The book is critical and historical. It is divided into three sections, and it is in the instructive character of these sections that the book finds a large part of its value. A collection of Victorian verse might easily be made which would include everything Mr. Stedman has included, and yet not prove half so interesting; for the present volume is intended as an amplification of the author's prose survey of the period illustrated, and he aims to show in both books not merely the bulk but the organic development of English poetry in the reign of Victoria. The poets who have encircled the Parnassus of England during that reign have stood on various levels, but they have been linked together by the strain of thought which, broadly speaking, makes modern poetry modern. Mr. Stedman never loses sight of the connecting links. He begins his book on the serenely chanted note of Landor, and closes it on the tunings and tinklings of the minor poets of yesterday and to-day, English and Colonial. The march is long, but it is unbroken, and this latter fact becomes intensely interesting as the editorial scheme of the anthology is apprehended."

The Independent, of New York, remarks: "No collection has been made which compares with this in scientific completeness or arrangement, whether for the purpose of study or to be used as an illustrative anthology. It will be most generally useful in connection with the author's critical edition of the Victorian Poets,' to which it supplies an altogether admirable series of illustrations. For the studious reader, who reads with serious purpose and wishes the very best critical aids and suggestions as he goes, nothing is so much to be recommended as this Anthology. Not least among its attractions are the admirable condensed biographic notes, some of them prepared by Mr. Stedman himself and signed, the analytic table of contents, and the three indexes of first lines, of titles, and of poets."

An Advance in Book-Making.

The new Riverside Edition of the Complete Works of John Burroughs is recognized as one of the most satisfactory products yet achieved in Ameri

can book-making art. The Boston Herald expresses the general verdict as follows: "This is an edition in which every detail is considered with an eye to artistic perfection. The books are worthy of their treatment. Though not intended for the holidays, but to give a worthy setting to the writings of one of our most individual authors, it may be added that no books will appear during the present season that are likely to surpass them in a simple, rich, and chaste style of book-making. . . . We have had a great many fine books, in which an effort has been made to do the best kind of work, but here the result is faultless. In size, in paper, in the selection of type, in the adjustment of the matter to the page, in the inking, in the binding, in the lettering of the backs, and in the selection of the cloth for the binding, there is a display of care and good taste which has never before been accorded to the art of book-making in this country with the same results. Here are books, published at a reasonable price, which are attractive to read and in themselves works of art. They will be welcome to any library, and the pride and the glory of any collection to which they may belong."

The Cambridge Browning.

The success of this one-volume edition of the Complete Works of Robert Browning was instantaneous from the day of its publication. Two large editions have been exhausted, and the demand constantly increases. The reasons for this success can be gathered from the following statements and comments. The Outlook observes: "The Riverside Press, which has rendered so much genuine service to American literature, has done nothing better in its way than the publication of one-volume standard editions of the poets. The latest body of verse which has appeared in the Cambridge edition is that of Robert Browning. At first thought it would seem impossible to include in a single volume the entire work of Browning without imposing upon the hand of the reader too heavy a burden; but, without any sacrifice of clearness of type, the publishers have succeeded in making an octavo of over a thousand pages of very comfortable weight. It is true the paper is thin, but it is also opaque, and the text stands out on the double-column page with entire distinctness. Like its predecessors, this volume is notable for intelligence and completeness of editorial treatment. It not only contains the entire poetical work of Browning, but also reproduces his essay on Shelley, and it furnishes a biographical sketch, a series of notes, and complete indexes of titles and first lines."

The Methodist Review remarks: "An unsurpassed triumph in bookmaking; the apparently impossible has been done. In some editions the works of Browning fill twenty volumes; here we have them all in one wellmade and manageable volume. . . . With this one volume, and George Willis Cooke's Guide Book to Browning, published by the same house, the student is completely equipped for the study of the most profound and powerful of modern poets; though, if one chooses, he may add the authorized life of the poet by Mrs. Orr, issued also by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. We say again, this volume is every way a marvel of book-making. In one tenth the compass, for one tenth the price, it gives us the whole of Browning in hand

some, durable, and portable form. It is a great service to the public and a great achievement by the firm who publish it."

Mr. Hopkinson Smith's Irresistible Stories."

Those who have read A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others w... not be surprised to learn of the great popularity of the handsome book. The Boston Advertiser terms the hero of the initial story "one of the most de lightful creations in fiction;" the Beacon calls him "a character quite as much of a discovery in his way as Colonel Carter, and his fascinating qualities are set forth with a humorous appreciation that is quite irresistible." The Brooklyn Eagle says of all the stories: "Delightful reading they are, full of artistic studies of odd and quaint characters from all quarters. reader will find them very engaging, for the stories are in Mr. Smith's best style; and the book is a handsome one, that holds the eye." The Boston Gazette remarks: "F. Hopkinson Smith is always picturesque, and he brings out the humorous side of character with remarkable grace and dexterity. He is suggestive rather than analytic, and is, therefore, infinitely more amusing than many writers who attempt to delineate too closely from within."

Standish of Standish.

The fine and historically accurate illustrations which Mr. Merrill has made for Mrs. Austin's most popular story of the Pilgrim Colony will be quite as well appreciated years hence as now when they lend a special attraction to the handsome volumes for holiday gifts. This edition has beer. heartily welcomed by the press and the public. The Portland Transcript remarks: "The publishers have shown excellent taste and judgment in lavishing special holiday honors upon this volume of Mrs. Austin's. It is in all respects worthy the selection. It is accurate in the historic facts upon which it is built, quaint and exquisite in expression and literary style, as sturdy in tone as its subject rightfully demands, and is developed along personal and romantic lines with rare skill and a sustained interest. . . . The drawings are wonderfully good in a simplicity and grace difficult of achievement."

The Worcester Spy says: "It is a pity that Mrs. Austin did not live to see the beautiful new Holiday Edition of her first Pilgrim story. To the ever-fascinating narrative is now added the charm of twenty photogravure illustrations."

The New Edition of Mrs. Jameson.

The five volumes by Mrs. Jameson, on "Sacred and Legendary Art" (two volumes), "Legends of the Monastic Orders," "Legends of the Madonna," and "Memoirs of the Early Italian Painters," have been brought out in a style worthy of the excellence of their contents. As the New York Mail and Express says: "Mrs. Anna Jameson is one of the few Englishwomen of our time who has written so well in various directions that her old books are worth reprinting, and so much more than well in the direction of art