LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Issue XXXVI, 21 October 1905, Page 10

LITERARY.

The fund that is being raised to aid j the late Mr Bret Karte/s daughter, Miss j Eihel Bret Harte, has already reached j £ 700, and when the American news- I papers have taken up the subject the sum will doubtless be increased to four j figures. Bret Harte, as Mr Shorter reminds us in the "Sphere," was a Jew by i birth, but he was an Israelite in whom the passion for the accumulation oi j money had no place. His grandfather j was a Jew of the most pronounced type, j and was highly indignant with his son j for having married a Gentile woman, j And the grandfather was Israel Hart, j scorning the Christian "c." ; That mystery of Edwin Drood has ■ puzzled many, and. unlike the Mystery ' of the Hansom Qat>, it has never been j solved, in spite of numberless attempts. | Was Edwin Drood slain by his uncle John Jasper, as Jasper himself certainly I believed; or, if Edwin escaped, how did I he escape, and how would JaspeT be unaware of his own failure, to murder his ! nephew? Such is the main puzzle of unfinished story, "Edwin Drood," and Mr Andrew Lang tackles it j in a volume which Messrs. Chapman and Hall are shortly to publish. Miss Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, who is now Mrs A. L. Felkin, has in the leisure of her work as a novelist written two books of dainty verse. They had such a cordial reception that an edition of them as one book will, it is thought, be welcome. It is announced by Cassell's. I An important work on "International ! Law 3 ' is announced by Mr Unwin. The authors are Mr F. C. Smith, 8.C.L., Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and Mt X. W. Sibley, L.L.M., and the title is "International Law, as interpreted during the Russo-Japanese War." The book embraces all the questions of law which have arisen during the war, and deals at length with the subjects of the detention and destruction of neutral vessels., the. practice of blockade, the right of search, mines in mid-ocean, wireless telegraphy, contraband, and international arbitration. Apart from its interest to students of law, the volume is likely to be of importance to shippers and merchants.

"A Royal Bascal," the title given to Major Arthur Griffith's latost novel, is somewhat Misleading. The rascal in this case is not a dissipated monarch on the loos?, nor. indeed, a dissipated person of any sort, but a distinguished officer of the 145 regiment, which formed part, of Picton's fighting third in the Peninsular War. and which obtain- i ed the title of "The Royal Rascals" through a reprimand administered to th»m by Picton for marauding. The story carries the reader through some of the most stirring episodes of the Napoleonic wars in which Britain was concerned Colonel St. Clair, the narrator, had a very varied experience. Commencing his career as the sou of an officer at Gibraltar, he describes the condition of the garrison at that fortress in the beginning of the last century, and also gives glimpses of garrison life in Ireland, of service in India, of the treatment of English prisoners- in France under Napoleon, of the disastrous retreat 'of Sir John Moore, and tbn victorious campaign of the Duke of Wellington, in whicli he took' part,"ending-with the batflo of Waterloo. The narrative is everywhere graphic, and the subsidiary historical fads reliable. As a tale of love and adventure, founded upon one of the most momentous eras in British history, the novel is sure of a pTomimsnt place in public favour. It is issued in Unwin'a popular colonial library.

"The Coat of Many Colours" (Unwin's Colonial Library), falls considerably short, in literary interest, of the author's preceding work. "Honoria's Patchwork." It sftts forth the oxperiences, emotions and literary judgments of a woman of taste and feeling. A rather undue prcnninenae, however, is given to reflections that are hardly worth recording, and the book might have bern considerably improved by the judicious exercise of a blue pencil. But the abundance of good wholesome nourishing grain makes more than amends for the intermixture of chaff. The author's impression's oi Swedemborg's "Heaven and Hell," of Florence and its artistic treasures and memories, and of Venice, bespeak a cultured Hfonoria has derided' opinions of her own upon art as well as other things of a more prosaic nature, and she expresses; them with a se-W-oon-fidenee and egotism which, if not always convincing, is often amusing and never offensive.

The Windsor Magazine for September contains a series of excellent halftone productions illustrative of the art of Albert Moore. There is also a picturesque account of the liie. of a Dartmoor farmer, by Eden Phillpotts, and an instructive article upon met**>ri< stones, giving some facts concerning these rather unwelcome visitants from the upper regions. Robert Barris en tertainrag series ot stories, describing tbe speculations of Jack Steele, shows how the smart young speculator once more escaped from a tTap laid lot him by his astute and unscrupulous millionaire enemy. The other short stories by popular writers are well up to the standard maintained by this popular magazine. Mr H. Ride* Haggard's Ayesha grows in mystery and gruesomeness.

A writer in "T.P. ; s "Weekly" Telates the following amusing story: The hero of it is no less a person than Captain Marryatt, who owned a Canaletto, which he was persuaded to send to Waxdaur-street to be cleaned. The cleaner kept the picture an inordinately long time, and the captain, his suspicions being aroused, went down to Wardour-street to see what had become of it. He was told that it had been sent elsewhere to be treated, but this explanation did not satisfy him. He believed that it was on the premises, and he proceeded te look round !ot it. •'What's that place up there?" be asked, pointing to a sort of upper chamber, reached from the shop by a sort of ladder. "Only a storeroom. There's nothing there to interest you," he was told. "Never mind. I'll go and have a look at your storeroom," he said. The dealeT protested, but the captain swung his stack at him, and having thus cleared a passage, quietly made the ascent of the ladder. As hi 3 head emerged above the floor a strange .sight met his eyes. Quite a number of artists were there, each standing before an easel, each engaged in making a copy of the missing Canalefcfco. "Enough of this. Ont you get," he roared in his best quarter-deck style, and in half a minute he bad cleared the tooui, not hesitating 'to use such violence as was necessary. Then he made the tour of the room, j piercing each canvas with his walking--1 stick iv turn, only to discover that, in his haste, he had mistaken the original j for a copy, and done serious if not irre- ! parable damage to Jus «wn_nrppexty.