... TARANTELLA, by Mathilde Blind (2 vols.: T. Fisher Unwin), has, among many other merits, that of decided originality. The authoress has done well to call it a romance; and this descrip tion of it, ...

... A GLANCE AHEAD.-- We last week passed in rapid review the music of the past year. The outlook is somewhat more cheering. Until February, it is true, music will be represented in London solely by the B ...

... MESSRS. DUNCAN DAVISON AND CO.-- Of three songs by H. C. Hiller, for which he has written both words and music, Three Ages is the most original, and will certainly be the most lasting of the group. ...

... CHRISTMAS ENTERTAINMENTS. DRURY LANE THEATRE. A TRULY magnificent pantomime is the one which Mr. Augustus Harris has this year presented at Drury Lane, nor is it easy to imagine any further development of the splendours of this form of stage production. Good taste, novelty of effect, and lavish expenditure have all at one time or another been employed upon the Christmas entertainments at this ...

... THE chronicler of the Christmas performances at our theatres has now-a-days but little to note in the way of absolute novelty. Not that the fashion of going to the play in the Christmas holidays is in ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. BOXING NIGHT AT DRURY LANE. I NEVER sat in the gallery of Drury Lane Theatre. I had my opportunities of doing so five-and-twenty years ago, but I regret to say that I neglected to avail myself of them. Otherwise, I might perchance have risen to the proud distinction of hearing a banner on the classic boards erst trodden by the sandals of Macready and the wild beasts of Van ...

... MUSIC. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. THE Promenade Concerts now being given at Her Majesty's Theatre are conducted with considerable spirit, and the band-- amongst whom are several eminent instrumentalists-- now plays with the homogeneity which can only be acquired by combined to conciliate the lovers of classical music, or high class music of any kind. The management, in the exercise of its ...

... DRAMA. IMPERIAL THEATRE. ONCE more is fortune tempted at the theatre attached to the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, and tempted with success, if we may judge from the extent of the audience there on the occasion of our visit. Audiences are of course not to be tested by numbers alone, and it must be admitted that the crowds which filled every part of the house hardly bore the aspect of paying ...

... Peter Penniless. Gamckccvcr and Gentleman. . By G. Christopher Davies, Author of Norfolk Broads, Sea. With original Davies, Author of Norfolk Broads, &c. With original Illustrations. London Erederiek Warne and Co., Bedford- street, Strand. This is described as A Book for Boys, and all hoys who know anything or care anything for country sport will read it with pleasure and satisfaction. Our ...

... MISS BROWN, a novel, by Vernon Lee (3 vols.: Blackwood and Sons), amply justifies, in point of power and originality, all expectations raised by the reputation of its author in other fields of liter ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIO. CO VENT GARDEN CIRQUERIES. A FEW days before the open ing of Covent Garden Theatre as a circus I happened to look in. I found matters in that transitional state so sweetly diverting to the disinterested spectator, and so intensely aggravating to all more directly concerned. Carpenters were busy in the erection of barriers and partitions. Up holsterers were unfurling and ...

... From Tost to Finish. A Novel. By Hawley Sir art. London Chapman and Hall, Limited. IT is the fashion of the day to give books titles which render it impossible to guess what they are about. The freak is rather senseless, and is naturally scorned by so straightforward a writer as Captain Hawley Smart. suggests a story of the turf, and that is precisely what it is. Need it be said that the ...