From Messrs. Hildesheimer and Faulkner I have received a large collection of Christmas cards and illustrated books.  One of the latter, an edition de luxe of Sheridan’s Here’s to the Maiden of Bashful Fifteen, is very cleverly illustrated by Miss Alice Havers and Mr. Ernest Wilson.  It seems to me, however, that there is a danger of modern illustration becoming too pictorial.  What we need is good book-ornament, decorative ornament that will go with type and printing, and give to each page a harmony and unity of effect.  Merely dotting a page with reproductions of water-colour drawings will not do.  It is true that Japanese art, which is essentially decorative, is pictorial also.  But the Japanese have the most wonderful delicacy of touch, and with a science so subtle that it gives the effect of exquisite accident, they can by mere placing make an undecorated space decorative.  There is also an intimate connection between their art and their handwriting or printed characters.  They both go together, and show the same feeling for form and line.  Our aim should be to discover some mode of illustration that will harmonise with the shapes of our letters.  At present there is a discord between our pictorial illustrations and our unpictorial type.  The former are too essentially imitative in character, and often disturb a page instead of decorating it.  However, I suppose we must regard most of these Christmas books merely as books of pictures, with a running accompaniment of explanatory text.  As the text, as a rule, consists of poetry, this is putting the poet in a very subordinate position; but the poetry in the books of this kind is not, as a rule, of a very high order of excellence.

(1) Three Generations of English Women.  Memoirs and Correspondence of Susannah Taylor, Sarah Austin, and Lady Duff Gordon.  By Janet Ross, Author of Italian Sketches, Land of Manfred, etc. (Fisher Unwin.)

(2) Caroline.  By Lady Lindsay. (Bentley and Son.)

(3) Gleanings from the ‘Graphic.’  By Randolph Caldecott. (Routledge and Sons.)

(4) Meg’s Friend.  By Alice Corkran. (Blackie and Sons.)

(5) Under False Colours.  By Sarah Doudney. (Blackie and Sons.)

(6) The Fisherman’s Daughter.  By Florence Montgomery. (Hatchards.)

(7) Under a Cloud.  By the Author of The Atelier du Lys. (Hatchards.)

(8) The Third Miss St. Quentin.  By Mrs. Molesworth. (Hatchards.)

(9) A Christmas Posy.  By Mrs. Molesworth.  Illustrated by Walter Crane.  (Hatchards.)

(10) Giannetta.  A Girl’s Story of Herself.  By Rosa Mulholland. (Blackie and Sons.)

(11) Ralph Hardcastle’s Will.  By Agnes Giberne. (Hatchards.)

(12) Flora’s Feast.  A Masque of Flowers.  Penned and Pictured by Walter Crane. (Cassell and Co.)

(13) Here’s to the Maiden of Bashful Fifteen.  By Richard Brinsley Sheridan.  Illustrated by Alice Havers and Ernest Wilson. (Hildesheimer and Faulkner.)