Peter Parley's Annual for 1870. (Bon. George.)—There was once a
real "Peter Parley," who has, we believe, been dead for some years. The commercial value of the name is, we suppose, not exhausted, but from a literary point of view we cannot approve of its use. The author thinks, though he modestly puts the words into the mouth of Old Christmas, that a copy of his Annual should be hung on every Christ- mas tree. It might, we dare say, boar more useless fruit. Putting the adverse prepossession which the name creates aside, we have no objection to make to the contents of the volume, and the outside is unquestionably bright. It has anyhow the merit of being a real "annual," not a magazine bound up.—The author of Christmas Eve with the Spirits (Bull, Simmons, and Co.) makes free with the literary property of others in writing what he calls "Further Tidings of the Lives of Scrooge and Tiny Tim." Elsewhere he sets himself up as a severe judge of his fellow-men, and makes us therefore the more disposed to bid him mind his own ways.
Previous page
