13 OCTOBER 1883, Page 25

Specimens of French Literature, from Villon to Hugo. Selected and

edited by George Saintsbary. (The Clarendon Press.)—This volume is published as a companion to the editor's "Short History of French Literature," which, indeed, it is intended to illustrate. Hence it is not primarily a collection of the finest things in the French literature, whether verse or prose. Were it that, some of the names that are found in it would probably disappear, and others would be differently represented. Bat then we should not get the help which we do here actually receive towards getting a comprehensive view of what the literature of the last four centuries has been in France. Some of these writers will be :strange to many English readers. Of Villon, for instance, most of as have heard, possibly heard too much,

but Roger de Collerye and Antoine de Baif will be new acquaintances to most. This is a volume of the greatest interest.