The Garden Behind the Moon. Written and illustrated by Howard
Pyle. (Lawrence and Bullen.)—It is somewhat to be regretted that the author of this clever book indulges too frequently in outbreaks of this kind :—" Though a world-wise scientist with two pair of short-sighted spectacles on his nose may write a great book upon the differentiation of Human Reason, or another with far-sighted glasses may write a learned disquisition concerning how many microbes there are in a cubical inch of butter-milk, they know no more about what a moon-calf is than my grandfather's bed-post." Such protests are ineffectual and irritating at the best, and they rather interfere with the progress of a story which, though ingenious, does not run very smoothly. For it deals with a certain Princess A.urelia and a cobbler called Hans Kraut, and a boy David, all of whom are rather "weak in the upper story," and tells how David gets into the garden behind the moon, and, after various adventures, returns in the character of a hero, and figures as the saviour (from idiocy) and lover of the Princess Aurelia. Perhaps there is a trifle too mach of cloudland in the story, but there is no doubt as to its extreme cleverness. Some of the adventures, too—such as the fight with the Iron Man—are spirited in the extreane.- The illustrations are very much above the cornmon, in being extraordinarily lifelike. A village scene, in which Hans Kraut and David are seen passing through their village with its inhabitanta jeering at them for their want of wits, is photo- graphic in its reality.
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