A Smile Within a Tear, and other Fairy Stories. By
the Lady Gwendolen Ramsden. (Hutchinson and Co.)—A Houseful of Rebels. By Walter C. Rhoades. (A. Constable and Co.)—It is not too much to say that neither of these books would have been written but for "Alice in Wonderland." "Lewis Carroll "was a Homer in his way ; he founded a cycle, not of epics, but of a peculiar kind of fairy-story. Our old friends Jack of the Beanstalk, Cinderella, the White Cat, and their companions, were of another world. In this new fairy-book the children are such as we see every day— we may observe, however, that Mr. Rhoades's "rebels" are little monsters ; what will a girl who tortures her dolls grow to ?—ancl their marvellous experiences are dovetailed, so to speak, into common life. That is a difficult condition of things to manage, and we must own that it is seldom managed to our satisfaction. Both of these books have some pretty writing in them, and both,, have some pleasing illustrations.
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