French, because he thinks that only French readers have ever really understood him. This is as good as saying that he does not wish these novels to appear in his own language. Nevertheless the first of the series, La Vergine alle Roccie,' is undoubtedly coming out in Il Convito,' a very dainty periodical, in which the school of Young Italy' displays its prowess. I cannot pretend to criticize it, as Il Convito' is at present only in its third number, and it is impossible to say how La Vergine' will turn out."

Don Juan Riaño, writing of Spain, begins with an account of the work being done by the Royal Academy of History, and the remarkable activity recently shown in historical, archæological, and topographical fields. Even the novelist, Señor Galdos, figures in this department with his "Cuarenta Leguas por Cantabria." The colonies also continue to occupy the attention of many writers. "Columbus's quatercentenary has passed away, and yet most of the periodical publications, collections of documents, reviews, and so forth, started on account of it, go on still printing papers and tracts (nay, works in three or more volumes) exclusively relating to America." Señor Dupuy de Lôme has recently published an account of the war between China and Japan. Spanish poetry is in a state of decay, and the "longwinded epic" seems" doomed to disappear altogether." In the drama, there have been two comedies by Señor Echegaray-"La Monja "La Monja Descalza" and "Mancha que Limpia." The "Teresa" of Señor Alas and the dramatization of "Torquemada y San Pedro," by Señor Galdos, have both proved failures. Some plays have been written in Catalan and produced at Barcelona, and we are told that the Catalan is "spreading more than ever in the eastern provinces of the Peninsula." In fiction, Señor Pereda's "Peñas Arriba” and Señor Valera's "La Buena Fama" have been well received, while the great success of the year has been Father Coloma's "Retratos de Antaño," which is rather more history than fiction, and might fairly be called "Memoirs of the Court of France at the End of the Eighteenth Century." The author closes with a somewhat lengthy discussion of Cervantes literature and the problems recently raised in connection with the immortal author of "Don Quijote." The most important book in this department seems to be "Cervantes Vascófilo," a vindication from the charge that Cervantes thought and wrote disparagingly of the Basques.

We do not expect much literature from modern Greece, but Professor Lambros gives us an interesting article upon the subject. Among the books which he enumerates are a treatise on "Greek Metres," by Professor Semitelos; a "History of Greek Literature," by Professor Mistriotis; some "Studies of Byzantine History from the First to the Final Conquest of Constantinople," by Mr. Paul Callegás; a "History of Athens from the Birth of Christ to A. D. 1821," by Mr. George Constantinides; a work on "Popular Cosmographic Myths,' dedicated to Professor E. Curtius by the author, Professor Nicolaus Politis; and the second volume of the "Memoirs of Alexander Rhangabé," coming down to 1856. "Most engagingly, sometimes imaginatively, written, this book helps to illuminate the history of modern Greece, more especially of its civilization, and furnishes much that is novel with regard to those incidents in which the author himself bore a part." In belles-lettres, there is little that is noteworthy. Mr. Ephtaliotis has produced a collection of dialect "Island Stories," and Mr. Passojannis, in his "First Fairy Tales," a volume of dialect popular legends. The tragedy of "Fausta," by Mr. D. Bernardakis, is the foremost poetical work of the year.

The celebration, last February, of Herr Jókai's seventieth birthday provides Herr M. L. Katscher with an appropriate introduction to his report upon Hungarian literature. Thirty volumes have appeared of the " jubilee edition of Jókai, to be followed by seventy more. Of Herr Bródy, perhaps "our second-best novelist," a twelve-volume edition has been published, besides a new novelette, "Snow-white." The following new works of fiction are noteworthy: "Occidental Tales," by Herr Herczeg; "The Destruction of Nineveh," by Herr Ambrus ; "King Midas," by the same author; "The Key of the Temple," by Herr Tábori; and "The Life of the Pöhölys," by Herr Gárdonyi. Several volumes of poetry are briefly characterized, and two or three plays, among the latter Herr Várady's iambic tragedy of "Charitas." "Its diction is splendid." "In anticipation of the millennial celebration, in 1896, of the foundation of Hungary, a grand Millennial National History of Hungary' is being issued in many volumes, three of which have already seen the light. It is being written by various eminent historians-Professor Marczali among the rest

splendidly got up, illustrated with thousands of pictures, excellently edited by Herr Sándor Szilágyi, and published by the Hungarian

Athenæum Society. The same Society issues a similar monumental work by many writers, entitled Illustrated History of Literature,' and having a biographical basis."

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Bohemia, too, has had its literary centennial during the year, according to Dr. J. Krejci, this honor having been bestowed upon the memory of Paul Joseph Safarik, historian, archæologist, and philologist. As for the literature of the twelvemonth, it is rich in belletristic work. "Two volumes of verse, Here Roses ought to Blow' and 'Magdalena,' by Mr. J. S. Machar, are the most conspicuous productions of last year. The former contains a series of beautiful lyrics, passages from the lives of suffering women; the latter, scenes from the romance of a girl who, without any fault of her own, had been thrown into the gutter." Mr. Svatopluk Cech's "Songs of a Slave" is a volume that has gone through twenty-three editions in three or four months. "Freedom and liberty are the writer's themes, and therefore the interest his verses have awakened is easily explained, considering our peculiar political circumstances. His lyrics have an eminently political tendency the author has himself acknowledged this—and they have struck the right chord." Many other books of poetry are named, but those we have mentioned seem the most important. Bohemian writers of fiction have been "especially diligent in writing stories of family and country life." "Mr. A. E. Muzík's Ruins of Life' contains some simple but touching pictures of human misery. Mr. K. V. Rais describes in Forgotten Patriots' some of the best and noblest, though unacknowledged workers in the national cause. The same author's pictures of highland life, under the title of Toil,' are marked by the warm-hearted feeling which characterizes him. Mr. Klostermann's story From the World of Forest Solitudes' introduces the reader to the depths of the Bohemian Forest, while another of his tales, perhaps the best of them, In Search of Good Fortune,' treats of the life of Bohemians who reside in Vienna, which is to many of them a foreign soil." The works of the savants are mostly continuations or new editions, and Bohemian scholarship is also represented by new historical and geographical reviews.

·

Dr. Belcikowski tells us, what we might have been shrewd enough to guess, that "The Polaniecki Family," by Mr. Sienkiewicz, is the most important contribution to the Polish literature of the year. Under the title "Children

of the Soil," this work was reviewed by us some weeks ago. The following paragraph embodies the most important remaining news of Polish fiction: "Mr. J. Zacharyasiewicz, who has just celebrated his fortieth year of literary work, is still, in spite of his years, busy, maintaining his well-merited reputation by new efforts, and has in the last twelve months brought out three new volumes: Under the Three Governments,' Orion and Chrysanthema,' a cutting satire on the naturalistic school of the present day, and above all, the novel Bread,' to which the political condition in recent years of Prussian Poland forms a background that is depicted with much skill. In a similar manner, but with a considerable infusion of satire, the celebrated Mr. T. T. Jez has in his romance Elizabeth' portrayed the condition of Galicia." Besides these novels, mention is made of "Begun in the Morning," a "combination of realistic truth with a cheerful optimism," by Mr. Gawalewicz; "Cotton," a story of an industrial town, by Mr. Kosiakiewicz; and "The Golden Chains" of Mr. Gomulicki, "the highly esteemed lyrical poet and writer of short stories." The drama has not flourished of late in Poland, only a few second-rate plays being named; on the other hand, Mr. Kaszewski has made a new translation, "which meets all artistic and literary requirements," of the tragedies of Eschylus. Mr. K. Tetmajer has come to the front with a new volume of poems. "He possesses a powerful fancy and integrity of feeling, yet most of his poems express an inner doubt and skepticism or an intoxication of the senses. "Sobieski before Vienna" is a noteworthy poem by "Deotyma," a lady of the later Romantic School. Finally, we must not fail to record the completion of the four-volume life of Mickiewicz, by his son.

The last country upon our list is Russia, and Professor Paul Milyoukov is the correspondent from the great Empire of the North. Fully half of his article is devoted to an account of economic and social discussion, the general tendency of which, in Russia, appears to be rather toward collectivism in one form or another. In belles-lettres "the past year has produced nothing of capital importance." A novel by Mr. Boburikin (not named), one by Mr. Mamin-Sibiriak, entitled "Bread," and Count Tolstoy's "Master and Man," are the chief representatives of the year's fiction. Mr. Korolenko, who recently made a trip to England and America, has published "A Free Fight in the House,' a semi-literary commentary on a well-known

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