LITERARY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5835, 31 March 1897, Page 2

LITERARY NOTES.

■-» [F_.6_i' Otm CobbsswondbntJ LONDON, Jan. & The Boolcman thinks thos« interested int the progress of the great Oxford English Dictionary will be glad to hear that,- by the first week of December, the whole of theletter D was in type. This involved tremendous pressure upon the -.taJ-v and the' editor himself, Dr Murray, for three months, worked uninterruptedly foseighty' or ninety hours a week. The Bection 1)0 to the end was found to be exceptionally difficult, and the whole letter D required about two and a half years' work, but then Co alone took two years, and there is no heavy letter now ahead until they come to P, which is one of tho three "giants." The whole of "E" has long since been published, and Mr Henry Bradley, the other editor, who works in London, is now slowly toiling through F (published as far as Flex—). His next volume will be F and G, but the Oxford staff hope, ore it appears, to havo issued Vol. V., which will be made up of H, I, J, K. The first proofs of the dictionary were sent to press so long ago as the middle of 1882. The evening Sun, which looked like setting permanently under "Tay Pay," may reach high noon beneath the mgis of the energetic Hooley. Already many provements are observable, and.it scored' a big point against the Evening Neros over "Clement Loriiner." \ The News introduced its new serial with a tremendous flourish of trumpets, prognosticating it would prove " one of tho most remarkable tales ever written." The Sun unluckily promptly spotted the great work as a fortyyear old novel by Angus Reach, which can be bought anywhere for .4&d. It is now discounting^ -the , Nei_tf .6poratioi-8 by publishing chapters in advance.- Thus oh the day the News publishes Chapter' .IV. the Sim issues Chapter V., ahd so on. Jan. 23. There is in the smart new edition of "The Silence of Dean Maitland" one illustration which covers a multitude of sins. It represents Cyril Maitland preaching his first sermon, and exactly reproduces tho author's word picture. For the reßfc of the . attempts to set the, characters of this remarkable story before us the less, said the better. They are,. to put it mildly, infelicitous. There is no doubt at all as to the locality of "the Jago," made famom. by Arthur Morrison's grim' study of East End morals arid manners in" A Child of the Jago." THe Jago refers generally (as I've roerftibned before) to the Shoredifcch parish oithe Rev Osborne Jay, but the inner Jago (Jago Street, Jago. Court, &c.) is the. Boundary Street area .of Bethtial^ Grejßn', ln _ Boundary Street (formerly Cook Lane) lived Milton's granddaughter, who married a Spitalfields weaver and kept a chandler's shop, The network of courti here was long a. disgrace. Half a century ago we, find a tfoyaiA'ommissiou iemg told of their. filt__ and ftyer, It has been left for the .London Ck^u^ty Council (stimulated 1 by Mr Jay), to cWw-them off the face of the i earth]/ The less xofwdy but almost equally depressing portions of Shoreditch aro pictured in " Children of Gibeon," by Walter Besant, to tbe fidelity of whose descriptions Mr Charles Booth, in his great work on the London poor, bears witness. y»,_Ehe Academy, which is becoming quite l.n,j\ij}-to-date publication in the able hands j$ ? Lewis Hiiid, has been questioning cele^ifies.' ; ''of';'iljJ_lrßortß, from Herbert -Spencer to' P§ttl;K3inquevalli, as to "the two .books which /tatfased and interested " them •most. ikl^pCj'( 'The namee- propping up oftenesfc in ifchtf replies are, as one would expect,- Purcell's-. "Life! of Manning," Barrife's ■'■'. Margaret; OgUvy," . and Merriman's "The. Sflwers^'-. Those two prime poseurs,. WiUon Bajcep apd;Max Beerbohm, return "Then Bible' "and "Shakspere*' as the literature, upqn. which their giant intellects' browsed 1 most profitably. Mr George. •,,!.. Sims, .Mr .'Pett -Ridge and Mr John Burns, M.'Pl, swear by "A Child of the Jago," and Mr Isaac Zangwill and Mr A. B. Walkley by Harold Frederick's "Illumination." Canon Scott Holland and " Lucas Malet " place Zola's "Rome" first on their list, and Mr Jerome K. Jerome and Mr John Porter, the famous trainer, are at one in giving a preference to " Rodney Stone." Not a single notability, save two, in the theatrical profession, has a good word for Marie Corelli. Paul Cin'quevalli, the juggler, found "The Sorrows of Satan" and " Judo, the Obscure " (a nice blend), the chief books of 1896, and Mrs Sara Lane, of the Britannia Theatre, couples " Barabbas" with " Under the Red Robe." Otherwise, Miss Corelli is only mentioned by Robert Blatchford (' Nunquam "), who considers " The Mighty Atom " the most inane novel he has read for years, vr Andrew Lang gives Mrs Edward Ridley's " Story of Aline " a big lift by heading his list therewith, and Sir Douglas Straight similarly compliments "The Carissima." Sir Donald Currie alone has a good word for "lan Maclaren," and S. K. Crockett and Professor Norman Lockyer are unique in mentioning " Sentimental Tommy." A book of poetry in high favour'' is Stephen Phillips's " Christ in Hades," Mrs Meynell and Mr Le Gallienne both "enthusing" thereon. Summarised, the Academy's expert opinion comes to this : That the best biographies of 1896 were — Purcell's "Cardinal Manning" and Barrio's "Margaret Ogilvy;" the best novels— "The Sowers," "Illumination," and "Child of the Jago " best book of verse — "Christ in Hades." The now American Ambassador in London is Colonel John Hay, tho famous author of "Little Britches" and "Castilian Days." He has been a diplomatist for many years at Paris, Madrid and Vienna, was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1861, and distinguished himself in tlie war between Noith and South. He has had considerable literary experience, writes humorous poetry, as well as moro serious matter, and from 1870 to 1875 tried journalism iv connection with the New Yorlc Tribune. His conversational powers are brilliant, ancl he will bo a great addition to London society. For few novels has thero been a steadier demand than for " John Halifax, Gentleman," which year out, year in since 1850, has sold woll in tho expensive) six- shilliug form. About eighteen months ago Mo3srs Hurst and Blaokott reduced the price to threo shillings Laud sixpence, and now I see a cheap reprint is promised. The secret of tho permanent popularity of this book — which the Sjwctalor truly enough dubbed " a novel of second-class " — Hes in its perfect suitability for middle-class family reading. Many of us are far from altogether approving of My Halifax^ who bel'ed tliG pvoillise of liis boyhood lii several ways, still his adventures contain thoroughly wholesome lessons for the rising generation, and they aro not too tiresomely obvious.. "John Halifax" is far from being Miss Mulock's best book. This I take to be " A Noble Life." In its begin- [ ning, the first-named mt-fci have made an altogether unusual iiiipressioii, as one constantly comes across copies of; tho three volume issue which were given in the fifties as presents. During a temporary craze for first editions I picked up a beautifully clean copy of "John Halifax," which had been i v ft clergyman's library, for a pound. Subsequently, feeling convinced that tho prices realised by unillustrated first editions were artificial. I sent it and a number of Merediths, George ' Eliots, &c, to Sothoby's. Tiie prices realised wore peculiar, for whereas _S9 10s was bid for " Adam Bede," 1 had to. buy in "John Halifax" for 19s. Ou the same occasion (this was in 1888 or 1889) an unopened copy of Stevenson's. " Treasure Island " (Gs issue) realised 18a.