Journeys Through Bookland Volume X Part 61

ENOCH ARDEN, by _Alfred Tennyson_.

IDYLS OF THE KING, by _Alfred Tennyson_.

THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS of _Oliver Wendell Holmes_.

Cambridge edition of Houghton, Mifflin Co. _The Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill_, _A Ballad of the Boston Tea Party_, _Ode for Was.h.i.+ngton's Birthday_, _Old Ironsides_, _Lexington_ and others have historical value. The humorous poems like _The One-Hoss Shay_, _How the Old Horse Won the Bet_, and such beautiful poems as _The Chambered Nautilus_ and _The Last Leaf_ always appeal to young folks.

THE SPY, by _James Fenimore Cooper_.

This is a thrilling story of the Revolution.

THE PILOT, by _James Fenimore Cooper_.

This also is a story of the Revolution, and it has Paul Jones as its hero.

MEN OF IRON, by _Howard Pyle_.

Harper and Bros. The "men of iron" are Henry IV of England and the men of his court.

THE STORY OF A BAD BOY, by _Thomas Bailey Aldrich_.

Houghton, Mifflin Co. An amusing and frank story of New England boy life.

_Volume VII_

THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, by _Charles d.i.c.kens_.

This is one of the Christmas stories, and is written in the best vein of the fascinating author.

DAVID COPPERFIELD, by _Charles d.i.c.kens_.

This is usually considered the masterpiece of the author.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES, by _Charles d.i.c.kens_.

A thrilling story of the French Revolution, rather full of terrible happenings, and rather mature.

THE LADY OF THE LAKE, and MARMION, by _Sir Walter Scott_, the two best of his longer poems, rarely fail to interest young people.

TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE, by _Charles and Mary Lamb_.

THE TEMPEST, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, and THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, are the three Shakespearean plays that first interest children.

Care should be taken in the selection of the edition, as none of the plays in their original form are suitable for children.

School editions with notes are excellent. _The Tempest_ is printed in Volume VIII of this set, and is deferred to that point on account of the very full notes and comments that accompany it. The play itself may be read quite early, and children should be encouraged to try their skill on Shakespeare as soon as they show signs of interest.

UNDINE, by _Baron de la Motte Fouque_, is a beautiful fairy tale from the German, with interest for older children than those who read Andersen and Grimm.

PLUTARCH'S LIVES.

White's _Boys' and Girls' Plutarch_ is recommended. The lives of Brutus, Julius Caesar, Themistocles, Pericles and Alexander are among the more interesting.

THE BURNING OF ROME, by _A. J. Church_, is a thrilling story of that event.

CUORE, by _Edmondo De Amicis_.

The journal of an Italian schoolboy. Useful and moral, but not always interesting to American boys.

IN HIS NAME, by _Edward Everett Hale_.

A tale of religious persecution.

THE PEASANT AND THE PRINCE, by _Harriet Martineau_.

An intensely interesting picture of France just before the Revolution.

PICCIOLA, by _X. B. Santine_.

A touching story whose scene is laid in France in the time of Napoleon.

LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE, by _J. and J. C. Abbott_.

THE ILIAD, _Bryant's_ translation.

_Cla.s.sified Lists_

When boys and girls can read the first seven volumes of this set intelligently and with pleasure they are thinking for themselves. Their tastes are forming rapidly, and they have learned how to read nearly everything that comes to them. They know how to use reference books, and can "make out the meaning" of difficult pa.s.sages. They are reading for information and culture. What they lack is experience in life, and so they are unable to interpret what they read as fully as can those who have lived longer, seen more of the world, enjoyed more, suffered more.

Where they are liable to fail and go astray is in the lack of judgment.

They know right and wrong, but they cannot always see the difference.

They are apt to be misled by their feelings and to be ruled by their emotions.

The studies and selections of the last three volumes are varied and highly suggestive. They will open new lines of thought and prompt to wider reading in many directions. The contents vary in difficulty as in character, but are not graded in a strict sense of the term. They are meant for independent readers, readers who are governed by mood or purpose and no longer rely upon outside guidance.

Accordingly, lists of books suitable for readers of these volumes will cover every department of literature and lead into the reading favored by adults. The majority of these lists deal with literature. They contain the names of those books which are distinctly helpful, and from which young readers may derive nothing to corrupt taste or give false impressions of life. They are the standard books of the language. The lists might have been longer; they do contain, however, the names of those best books that every cultured person should know. For convenience in reference the arrangement is the alphabetical order of authors'

names.

Fiction

AINSWORTH, WILLIAM HARRISON: _The Tower of London_, the story of Lady Jane Grey, and the plots and intrigues that centered about her.

ALCOTT, LOUISA M.: _Little Men_ and _Little Women_, two interesting and thoroughly wholesome books for boys and girls.

AUSTEN, JANE: _Pride and Prejudice_, an old-fas.h.i.+oned story, interesting, but liable to be called dull by those who read only the lively stories of the day.

BLACKMORE, R. D.: _Lorna Doone_, a delightful romance, the scene of which is laid in Exmoor, England, in the beginning of the eighteenth century.

BULWER-LYTTON, SIR EDWARD: _The Last Days of Pompeii_, the author's greatest novel; _The Last of the Barons_, the story of the Earl of Warwick; _Harold, The Last of the Saxons_, a tale of the Norman Conquest of England.

DOYLE, A. CONAN: _The White Company_, an exciting fourteenth century story.

ELIOT, GEORGE: _Silas Marner_, an intensely human story, a heart history; _Romola_, a thrilling story of Florence in the days of Savonarola, a study in the degeneration of character that comes from doing only the agreeable things in life.

GOLDSMITH, OLIVER: _The Vicar of Wakefield_, an amusing and at times pathetic picture of English country life in the eighteenth century.

HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL: _The Scarlet Letter_, a tale of sin and its punishment in Puritan New England; _The Marble Faun_, an Italian story full of the art and culture of Rome.

HUGO, VICTOR: _Les Miserables_, one of the greatest novels of the world, but its digressions and its philosophy make it difficult reading for the young. Interesting abridgements of it may be had from the schoolbook houses.

SAINT PIERRE, BERNARDIN DE: _Paul and Virginia_, a pretty love story from the French.