Two famous books--The History of King Arthur, and the inexhaustible Chronicles of Froissart--have furnished nearly all those stories of chivalry and knightly adventure that are scattered through all literatures, and that have been the favorite reading of boyhood for hundreds of years. Boys of the last few generations, however,--even though the separate stories in some form will never die out,--have lost sight of the two great sources themselves, which were in danger of becoming utterly hidden under cumbrous texts and labored commentary. Last year Mr. Sidney Lanier opened one of these sources again by the publication of his _Boy's Froissart_. He has now performed the same office for the noble old English of Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; and under the title of _The Boy's King Arthur_, has given the _Froissart_ a companion, which perhaps even surpasses it. However familiar the Arthurian heroes may be to him, as mere names encountered in poetry and scattered legends, not one boy in ten thousand will be prepared for the endless fascination of the great stories in their original shape, and vigor of language. He will have something of the feeling with which, at their first writing, as Mr. Lanier says in his preface "the fascinated world read of Sir Lancelot du Lake, of Queen Guenever, of Sir Tristram, of Queen Isolde, of Merlin, of Sir Gawaine, of the Lady of the Lake, of Sir Galahad, and of the wonderful search for the Holy Cup, called the 'Saint Graal.'" The _Boy's King Arthur_, like the _Froissart_, will have Mr. Alfred Kappes's vigorous and admirable illustrations; and the subject here has given him, if possible, even greater opportunity to embody the spirit of the knightly stories which he has caught so thoroughly. [**asterism]_The above book for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, upon receipt of price, by_ CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. * * * * * _THE Science of English Verse._ BY SIDNEY LANIER. 1 vol., crown 8vo.--$2.00. This work marks a distinctly new phase in the study of English literature--a study to which it is certainly the most noteworthy American contribution made in many years. It embodies opinions thoughtfully held, and the results of a well-known thorough scholarship; and, in spite of its striking originality, it is not in any sense the mere putting forth of a theory.