C U RRE NT LITERATURE.
Tales from the Isles of Greece : being Sketches of Modern Greek Peasant Life. Translated from the Greek of Argyris Ephtaliotis by W. H. D. Rouse. (J. M. Dent and Co.)—These tales and sketches,—more of them probably sketches than tales,—are very interesting to the English reader who wishes to frame some con- ception of the rural life of the people who are now playing so important a part in the South-East corner of Europe. English- men know a great deal too little of that rural life, and too often gather their conceptions of the Greeks from the crafty traders of the principal ports in the Mediterranean, who are no more of the type of the people at large than the salesmen of Wapping are of the type of Englishmen at large. Mr. Rouse's translation appears to us to be very good. It is both pleasant and has a flavour of vernacular speech about it which gives a good con- ception of popular thought and feeling. Any one who will read either " Marinos Kontaros " or "Angelica," or "Uncle Tannis and his Donkey," will understand the rural Greek life better, and appreciate it more heartily, for what he has read. Some of the sketches are extraordinarily slight, but all of them seem to con- tribute something to our knowledge of the true peasant life of the Greek islands.
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