... MRS. COMYNS CARR is gradually obtaining a monopoly in the peasant life about Genoa as material for fiction. Fortunina (3 vols.: Sampson Low and Co.), is so far her most successful study in a field o ...

... N. \N Nwyy/'/v jKusic) MADAME SCHUMANN.-- It seems strange that a work like Schumann's early Piano Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 11, should not have been heard at the Popular Concerts before Monday las ...

... . DUFF AND STEWART, 2, Hanover-street, W.--Mariette, 4s., by L. Gautier: a suite de valses, tuneful, easy, and about as original as most waltzes recently composed.--A Dream of the Future, 4s; words by H. Jaxone, music by A. Briscoe. The words of this song are better than Mr Jaxone (?Jackson) usually writes, although the last verse is barely intelligible. It is not his fault that the ...

... . Modem Horsemanship. A New Method of Teaching Riding and Training by means of Pictures from Life. By EDWARD L. ANDERSON, author of How to Ride, A System of School Training, The Gallop, &c. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1884. There is something novel and out of the way about the- appearance of this book, with its light buff covers, on the first of which are a couple of instantaneous ...

... . THE exclamation O most frequently to the English ear-- I mean the uncultured one that does not travel much-- is generally found in the forefront of a remark. O my prophetic soul, my uncle! as Hamlet says in the original English. We have not. lately had the opportunity of seeing Signor Salvini play the Prince of Denmark in Italian, so to the ear referred to it would he a peculiar point ...

... . AMONGST our amateur musical societies there are few more worthy of respect than the Bach Choir, which has done much to elevate musical taste by excellent performances of great works which had long been neglected, and in many cases had never before been heard in this country. On Wednesday last this society gave, at St. James's Hall, the first of the two concerts with which its members will be ...

... . Befoee My Sweetheart at the Strand, where crowded houses continue the rule during the engagement of Miss Minnie Palmer, a lever du rideau of a very pleasant kind is now pro vided in Two Photographs, by Mr. Arthur Clements. The genuine vein of humour possessed by this writer will be remem bered by those who a few years ago saw his parody of Broken Hearts produced here under the title Cracked ...

... . Sugar and Cream, a comedietta presumably new, now played before The Member for Slocunt at the Globe, is a mild and slight little piece, illustrative of the way in ■which a pretty young widow turns round her finger a father and son whose matri- monical attentions get somewhat confused. Sugar and Cream fully hears out the very innocent, if rather cloying suggestions of its title, and is very ...

... . STEINWAY Hall was filled last Wednesday afternoon by an audience which included aconsiderablenumber of skilled musicians, attracted by the announcement of a remarkable form of musical entertainment provided by Mr. Frederic H. Cowen, a composer who deservedly occupies a very high place amongst his contem poraries. The programme of this Song Recital was com posed entirely of Mr. Cowen's own ...

... THE recital given by this excellent and justly-popular pianist at St. James's Hall on Wednesday last, attracted a large gathering of the aristocracy, and many eminent musicians. The pro gramme, as might have been expected at a recital given by the favourite pupil of Madame Schumann, was mainly composed of classic materials. The most successful number was the Beethoven sonata in C minor, op. 30 ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. THE BOLD MATINEER. A Tale. THE Stoke-Newingtons were a very decent and respectable, kind suburban people--indeed, one might go further and say that there was some quality about them. They kept a boy in buttons, and a brougham. Stoke-Newington was plain Stoke until he married his charming and accomplished wife; then the acquisition of a little property caused the addition ...

... . COVERT GARDEN. After an absence of more than seven years Signor Salvini has returned to bid farewell to the London stage, and his reception has, on the whole, quite justified him in renewing the experiment which resulted so disastrously at the Queen's Theatre in 1876. It is true that, as before, the actor's perform ances have been more of a curiosity than anything else to those who do not ...