Life — December 29, 1887 — page 9: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

NEW WAGGINGS OF OLD TALES. HE charm of a book like “New Waggings of Old Tales" (Ticknor) is the intelligent good-humor, tipped with satire, which makes bright and entertaining every page of it. The reader is treated as every man of fair capacity wants to be—he is supposed to know a good hit when it is made, and to have had some acquaintance with contemporary books as well as with fairy tales. ‘Most editors underrate the intelligence of their audience,” said one of the former; certainly most humorists do. The prose of the book—for which J. K. Bangs must be held responsible—is clear, rapid, flexible—qualities which carry wit and satire gracefully. The happiest of his fancies is the interview between Barclay Williams and Hop O' My Thumd after the manner of “Silas Lapham.” This is a satire in such genial good taste that the Eminent Realist himself may heartily enjoy it. To mingle an old fairy tale and a modern novel makes a grotesque and amusing com- bination; and there is a great deal more fun in it than mere burlesque. The * Five Commissioners from the State of Michigan” who go on a journey to solve the riddle of “death or a post- mastership,” after the manner of Frank R. Stockton, are headed off with the tale of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and are quietly requested to guess the nature of the bean. Stevenson and Haggard are also humorously parodied. . . . RANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN treats the poets to a similar transformation. His skill in versifying is so well-known that excellent workmanship was to be anticipated. He has a liggt hand and a sprightly fancy. “Cinderella,” in the metre of “ Locksley Hall,” is the best of his work, though the following from his variation of “ Mary's Lamb” is clever ‘Then all up the spine of the rafter There ran a most risible shock, And sorrow was sweetened with laughter At this little lamb of the flock ; And out spoke the schoolmistress Yankee, With rather a New Hampshire whine, “Dear pupils, sing Moody and Sankey, Hymn ‘ Ninety and Nine." Swinburne, Browning and Tennyson are the three poets who are called on to recite. The illustrations by Oliver Herford are full of fun, and add substantially to the entertaining qualities of a book which is not pretentious, but gives more than it promises. N Cassell's Yude- Tide and in a syndicate of American papers there has recently been published a Christmas story by Robert Louis Stevenson, entitled “The Misad- ventures of John Nicholson,” which is certainly among the best stories written by that versatile man. The conception of it is most original, and is full of surprises at every turn, The reader follows John Nicholson {rom Edinburgh to California and back with intense interest, and, notwithstanding the gloom of the story, is amply satisfied by the sunshine at the end. The purpose of the story is as serious as that of “ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Drock, + NEW BOOKS - NEW WAGGINGS OF OLD TALES. By Two Wags (Frank Dempster ‘Sherman and Joho Kendrick Bangs). [flustrated by Oliver Herlord. Boston: Ticknor & Co, Rondah ; or, Thirty-three Years in a Star. By Florence Carpenter Dieudonné. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers. Roger Camerden. A Strange Story. By John Kendrick Bangs. Second Edition. New Vork: Geo. J. Coombes. Benjamin Franklin as a Mam of Letters. By John Bach McMaster. American Man of Letters Series, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. The Book of British Ballads. Edited by S. C. Hall. With illustrations, Knickerbocker Nuggets Series. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, Life of George Washington Studied Anew. By Edward Everett Hae. New Vork: GP. Putnam's Soas. y The St of Ireland. By Mrs, Arthur Brocson nam’s Sons, The Essentials of Perspective, By 1, W. Miller. the Author. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. the Hoa. Emil Lawless, With additions by ‘The Story of Nations ries, New York: G, P, Put- With illustrations by comicbooks.com