PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2387, 30 November 1899, Page 44

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Pall Mall Magazine for November is heralded by an exquisite- photogravure of j Botrcelli's "Holy Family,'' a really exquisite ' specimen of the art to which modern processes j have attained. Fiction, headed "by the second ' instalment of Mrs Steele's Indian serial, I "Hosts of the Lord," is excellent; the arti- . cles are interesting- and varied, while it goes ' without saying that the illustrations are exquisite. The near advent of Christmas is shown by the appearance of the Christmas numbers. The first of these to come to hand is Pears' Annual, sent us by Messrs W. J. Prictor and Co. Pears' usually leaves its contemporaries behind, and judging by the number before us we should say this year it will be no exception to its predecessors in this respect. I The Annual iteelf is comprised of one tale only, "I Crown Thee King," by Max Pemberton, whose motif is explained by this lengthy sub-heading: — "Being a story about a story, and some account of what they did [ in Merry England when Mary was Queen, and of those that played at "being Robin Hood, together with the narrative of Master Miles, the bailiff of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, and the true history of Roy. sometimes called King of Calveston." With such material to work upon the lively imagination and fertile pen of Max Pemberton could not help telling I an interesting tale, and, this is set off by 21 j exquisitely carried out illustrations by Frank j Dadd, R.1., so that nothing is left to bo j desired in the Annual itself. The main at- | traction, however, is three handsome presen- | tation plates, the principal of which is a reproduction of Sir Edwin Landseer's beautiful picture " Shoeing the Bay Mare." Such a 6mithy as Landseer depicts would be worth a day's journey to see, and such a bay mare, .mild-eyed donkey, and sleepy hound disclose the master hand at each turn. The other two plates are "Summer Glory." from the original of Miss Murtrie, a collection of two or three well-known cottage garden flowers which show how effective a picture can be j made out of slight material; and "A, Daughter of Eve," from a painting by Ed- [ ward Patry, this modern Eve, like her prototype, having the forbidden fruit in her hand. I These plates are all printed in England, evidencing the advance made in the old country in colour-printing of late years.