LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1907, Page 10

LITERARY.

The "' Comhill Magazine" for May contains tho customary instalments of

""'Fraulein Schmidt and Mr. Austruther." by the author of '" Elizabeth aud Her Carman Garden," and " The Broken Road," by Mr. A/ E. W. Mason, M.P. Mrs. Margaret L. Woods contributes a noteworthy poem, entitled "' The May Morning and tlie Old Man." Topical articles are'"The Problem of the Flying Machine," by Professor G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., and " The Growth of a Military Spirit in China," by Major G. D. Bruce, who lately commanded the Chinese Regiment at Wci-hai-Wei. For short stones, Mr. Maurice Hewlett continues " Tbe Countess of Piepus," and Katherine Tynan contributes " The Romance of a Bookseller," while in '" A Great Darwinian and His Friends" Mr. Leonard Huxley writes of Sir Joseph Hooker, who next month completes his ninetieth year, and of the famous X Club.

I Mrs. Alec Tweedie contributes to J '"'Chambers's Journal." for May an article lon " Germany of To-day." "In the dawn !of 1907." says the writer. " Germany is | outwardly more prosperous than she has ever been in history. As- a n?cion we Britishers must realise that Germany is an undoubted world-force. She is /urging ahead. She is rich and well-organis-ed. She has her nobility, her middleclass, and her peasantry. 'Above all, :-!,e is ambitious. She has "felt her feet.'and she means to march forward." Having' said this much, which is very generally-! admitted, Airs. Tweedie makes some de- ' ductions, and expresses opinions cf a' decidedly more controversial nature. "We. are her friends," she. writes, " both chips I of the old block, so to speak, and we ! should try to understand her. to symp:.-! tiiise with her, and help her in her aims. ' rather than present an antagonistic front' and seek to retard her development." YT H. Carter writes on ' : Financial Panics " ' Gilbert R. Redgrave oa " African India-! rubber," Bay Allen Wilier on "' Kaisii. ! Sunken Vessels," Edward Vivian on "The I Passing of the .Animals" while there are I several other varied and interesting articles and a quantify of readable fiction.! "Shakespeare" lias been relegated to ' fifty-ninth place in Messrs Macm'llan's I English Men of Letters series, not pre- i suiuably, on a basis of rclathe. impoi- i tana-, but because it has been dillicult i to secure a writer to attempt so eolo.-sal I a task within the comparatively small i compass that this particular series al-I lows. Professor Raleigh has at last as- ' sumed the work, and lias acquitted him- I self as well as any man could have done ' under the- circumstances. Thoroughly j readable biographies upon Shakespeare tliere have been: but in them we find ' much that is conjecture, and a distinct j evolved fe>r the great poet, : is so far the creation of the writer i that, looking at it dispassionately, one knows that the. is every probability; that it 0 a personality entirely opposed j to that of the real man. Professor ' Raleigh e!oe.-. not venture upon these : flights: the nature of the series, and pos- j sibly aiso of his position of Professor of English literature, at Oxford, precludes ! hini departing too far from accepted ' facts. Put within the limitations of the I siftetl evidence thut h«s eonan down to | us from Elizabethan times, the writer ! has achieved an admirably-constructed i and written book. Professor Raleigh j has somewhat of a reputation•• at the University, for aptness of phraseology. ' and it is justified in this book. For in- j stance., nere is a very pointed saying on ! the study (and the stuelents) of the .an- i guage in which Shakespeare wrote: "Here I the good progress made ia recent times by the science of language is of little avail; most of the l masters of that se-ience are men who know all that then' ; is to be known about language except - the uses to which it is put." The book ! will be found to one- of the be.-.t of I what has proved a very excellent series. I

' Rita" has marshalled some of her miscellaneous, contributions ou current topics, and they have just been issued by Mr Fisher Ulwin. In the prefatory note this clever writer says that iv gathering them into a volume she is only following other notable examples, and expresses a hope that "my temerity will pass muster as an instance of that 'imitative' faculty of which 1 have accused my sex. and to whose, rule 1 lay no claim to being an exception." "Rita" labels her introduction "The Bane of Society."' It- is a powerful lay sermon against the growth of modern wanton extravaganex l . The book itself is divided into three main heads —"Phases of Womanhood." 'Observation." and "Meditations." "Rita" deals in distinctive and thoughtful style with such subjects as the education of woman, ber gradual assumption of a new position in the world's citfairs, aud the effect of the change on her character and the relations of the sexes. Among her observations articles on the stage as a profession for women, tbe changing taste in fiction, and the mistakes of authors and critics areshrewd, well balanced articles. The writer's meditations on such subjects as husbands and wives, on uses and abuses of fashion, tho increase of vulgarity among women, the American and kindred topics, are sharp, common-seuse, and often amusing. "Rita" is observant, and her view? on the subjects with which she deals are entertaining and profitable.

The standing charge about the inability of the Scotchman to see a joke may have some evidence to support it. but there is much quaint humour acknowledges Scotland as its birthplace, and as it takes something of an acquaintance with the language to fully appi"ciate its finer points, it would he distressing to think that it was the proeiuct of the few and wholly unappreciated by the many. A Melbourne firm, with some confidence in pawky humour lo find its reading public in these colonies, has recently issued a selection of thirty-three of the stories of deems Kayes. Jecuis is an acknowledged Scotch wit, wilh a good command of satire, and in thorough sympathy with the great foundatinns of wit north of the border—whuskey, parritch, the schule, and the kirk. The sketches will delight, all Scotchmen.

There, has been quite a crop of stories denlinj.' with Russian life- and cpisoele during tlie past few weeks. For the most part authors nre content to introduce their own countrymen into Russian surroundings, and there le-t tho myrmidons of the Czar provide them with •abundant nerve-wraekinj.' adventure. This course is adopted by Robert Barr in "The Baltic Rock." A Russian and an Englishman are incarcerated on this almost unknown islet, where the grand ducal riujr has established a prison alongside which some other prisons we read about, even in Russia, are pleasant villa residences. But the Englishman has an energetic American sweetheart, to whom difficulties are but an incentive, and she has at her disposal one of those luxurious yachts for which America's ; millionaires are notorious. She alao has

the advantage of a new invention, by ; the aid of which the melting of rock is j about on a par with the. melting of butJ ter before a hot fixe. Mr. Barr" is quite | a past master at working up interest under such circumstances. His tale is briskly and amusingly told, and adventure abounds. It is one- of the best novels of the sensational class issued during the present publishing season. Messrs. Bell and Sons are the publishers, and our copy is from Wildman and Arcv.