Mr. Oscar Wilde, after having given the public some remarkable fiction and criticism, has returned to his old love, the poetic fairy tale, and in “A House of Pomegranates” exhibits a literary skill far in advance of that which went to the making of “The Happy Prince,” good as that work unquestionably was. “The Young King, The Birthday of the Infanta, and other Beautiful Tales” is the sub-title which Mr. Wilde, with a pardonable touch of vanity, gives to his book, which has evidently taxed all the cunning of the printer; for both in the matter of arrangement of type and illustrations it is daringly original. The larger drawings, by Mr. Shannon, depicting the subjects of each of the four tales, are as delicately fantastic as the tales themselves, and seem on a second study to grow in the imagination just as the tales themselves do. Of these the best in our opinion is the one which bears the title of “The Fisherman and his Soul,” though it is somewhat difficult to decide between this and “The Birthday of the Infanta,” which is highly poetic in its treatment, and does not appeal to the fantasy so much as the former tale. The plot of it is so slender that it would be unfair to reveal even its main outlines, but not the least pathetic portion is concerned with with a little dwarf who dances before a princess on her birthday, and excites her to laughter, whereupon he, who has never seen his own face, imagines that the princess is in love with him.

Among other pretty things, his creator says of him [...]. Here is prose-poetry deftly written, and an art that knows how to conceal art. Sometimes, however, the straining after effect is obvious, as in the following description of the mermaid, who is the central figure in the delightful story of ‘The Fisherman and His Soul,' ... These caprices are but occasional, and they are not unpleasing to the adult reader who is not so foolish as to despise fairy tales, or to avoid the reading of good English prose when he can get it. Among the gift-books of the present season, 'The [sic] House of Pomegranates' deserves a high rank.