24 APRIL 1897, Page 8

The Pocket Volume of Selections from Browning (Smith, Elder, and

Co.) has only one serious objection. It is too fat and heavy to go into the pocket, and it has notes which are not wanted in a volume intended to be always at hand. But in reality the phrase " pocket " is not meant in this ease to be taken literally. The present volume is the old pocket edition, with a mass of notes added by various hands for the benefit of the Home Reading Union. Let us hope the "homes" will not be embittered by the controversies which are sure to arise directly any attempt is made to explain the obscurer parts of Mr. Browning's verse.