A House of Pomegranates is just the sort of title one might expect from Oscar Wilde, and as a matter of course no other firm save that of Jas. R. Osgood, M'Ilvaine [sic] and Co., could fittingly publish for this author. The picture designs and decorations are by C. Ricketts and Ch, [sic] Shannon, an it must be admitted that a more charmingly got-up volume could scarcely be produced. The style is severely antique, and the colours of the kind which aestheticism dictates. So far as a special set of illustrations are concerned the non-initiated will best understand their character by saying that they resemble (while of course far surpassing) what boys call 'transfers' before these are transferred. The paper is of the choicest quality, and it would be difficult to imagine a more elegant gift. Nor is this by any means all that can be said for the volume. Mr. Wilde is always clever and abundant in allusions betraying taste and erudition. But here we have nothing savouring of his customary cynicism. On the title page it is modestly asserted that the contents are 'beautiful tales', and the promise is realised. There are four tales, or rather allegories, and as many dedications, with one extra for the book as a whole, which is to 'Constance Mary Wilde', and a perusal of one or all of 'The Young King', 'The Birthday of the Infanta', 'The Fisherman and his Soul', and 'The Star Child', will be found thoroughly seasonable and wholesome reading. Necessarily the supernatural obtrudes itself, and many situations strange and weird are encountered.