A jest book and a history are not often found in the same volume, but the “Enchiridion of Wit,”[F] is not only what it professes, a hand book of English conversational wit; it is a very delightful history of certain periods of English court and society life. The author has adopted the novel plan of arranging chronologically the _bon-mots_ he has collected. The effect is very striking. This grouping into periods enables a reader to study the progress, the men, the culture and refinement of each age from an entirely new standpoint, and one which no other book with which we are familiar makes possible. The volume will form a valuable handbook in studies of the education and polish of the social and literary coteries from the time of Sir Thomas Moore down to the days of Thackeray and Bishop Wilberforce. “A Penniless Girl”[G] is the story of one who, simply because she was a girl, could not inherit the immense fortune which would have fallen to a son. Her father’s disappointment, and neglect of the daughter whose mother died at her birth, her reception into the house of a wealthy noble family where, after she had been well educated, she accepted the position of governess; and her struggles to free herself from the meshes spread on all sides to lead her into a marriage for wealth and position, and to remain true to herself and the man she loved, make up the plot. It is a book that will help while away an hour or so very pleasantly. A few short extracts from the first page of “Episodes of My Second Life”[H] give the meaning of the title. “On the 15th of August, 1836, I was born again. On that day I embarked at Gibraltar for New York, being then twenty-five years old. It was the beginning of a new life.” The author is an Italian, and had passed his seventieth birthday before beginning this book. It is made up principally of reminiscences of his life in America and in England. His comments on some of the customs of American social life give us a not very flattering view of ourselves as others sometimes see us. His appreciation of the treasures of English literature is very great, and his commendation of them as warm as his denunciation of French literature is bitter. His patriotic, diplomatic, literary, parliamentary, and journalistic experiences give quite an insight into these great fields of labor. There is much of egotism within its pages, but the book is very readable and possesses literary merit. “Light Ahead”[I] is one of those satisfactory books in which the poor good characters all turn out well, and have abundant opportunity to heap coals of fire on the heads of the bad rich ones, who in former years had treated them with contempt. The story of the little _spirituelle_ Alice, who, from a refined home where poverty dwelt, won her way among the noble and the true in the highest circles, until she gained an established position in the very best society, will do good wherever it goes.