We have read worse fairy stories than 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales' by Oscar Wilde (David Nutt), and many very much better. The masterpieces in the way of fairy stories have, surely, been already written; and no man can fairly hope, in this country, and at this period, to come near the great models. Fairy stories today must necessarily be ghosts and echoes of other fairy stories; and ghosts and echoes Mr. Wilde's stories are---ghosts of Hans Andersen, echoes of 'Carmen Sylva'. 'The Happy Prince' is the best; 'The Remarkable Rocket' the funniest. They are all well written, and they at least serve to show how admirably English printers can print if they try. The illustrations are by Messrs, Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood, and they too, are admirable. The shell of the book is excellent, the kernel somewhat insipid; or, to vary the metaphor, we may say that the jewel is out-valued by its setting.