ABSTRACT
Is A House of Pomegranates intended for a child’s book? We confess that we do not exactly know. The ultra-aestheticism of the pictures seems unsuitable for children-as also the rather ‘fleshly’ style of Mr. Wilde’s writing. The stories are somewhat after the manner of Hans Andersen-and have pretty poetic and imaginative flights like his; but then again they wander off too often into something between a ‘Sinburnian’ ecstasy and the catalogue of a high art furniture dealer. Children may be very much attached to bric-à-brac (though of this we have our doubts), but the more natural among them would certainly prefer Hansel and Grethel’s sugar-house to any amount of Mr. Wilde’s ‘rich tapestries’ and ‘velvet canopies’. Would they not probably yawn over the following?—
The walls were hung with rich tapestries representing the Triumph of Beauty. A large press, inlaid with agate and lapis-lazuli, filled one corner, and facing the window stood a curiously wrought cabinet with lacquer panels of powdered and mosaicked gold, on which were placed some delicate goblets of Venetian glass, and a cup of dark-veined onyx.
