LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 15, 17 January 1914, Page 14

LITERARY.

The "National "Review," in its final issue of 1913, attacks tbe Liberals with unabated vigour, though its prefacing notes of the month are mainly devoted to a review of tbe Unionist conference | at Norwich early in November. We gather that the writer was more than pleased at the action taken with regard to the woman suffrage issue. "Henceforward," writes Mr. Maxse, " it will be impossible for anyone seriously to maintain that this fad is an item in the programme of our party." The same pungent critic, under the title "Towards the Truth," gives some further information as to the investment of "Radical funds, upon which, the disappearance of the broker employed has thrown such curious light. A notable point which he makes is the preference exhibited (apart from the purchase of Home Rails during the coal strike) for foreign securities. An unpaiatable article to Englishmen wHi ba L. W. C^ippern•'3 , censure upon- tbe bad manners of English travellers, in which he finds the secret of Englishmen's unpopularity in foreign countries, and of certain of the nation's international perils. To quote: "'I believe, to put it in a few words, that the detestable manners of the English people will ultimately lead either to the destruction of the British

Empire or to a war in which England will conquer only with an appalling loss of men and treasure. I believe that our manners are the true cause of the peril i that threatens us from the European j Continent, that while jealousy of England's enormous possessions impels I statesmen to get ready for war with our country, the hatred—"hatred" is the word —aroused by the average British tourist is the sentiment that those statesmen count on to make a war policy an enthusiastic papular movement. . . . And these same tourists, when they visit the English Dominions, are even more exasperating, more patronising, more dangerous. A few of them are sufficient to turn a loyal community into a comnrunity of Anglophobes." Two other contributions that will attract some attention in this issue are Sir Charles Hunter's "Three Weeks in the Balkans," and the Earl of Arran's ."Irish Covenanters and Their Oath." Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, in her latest novel traces the history of a poor Xew York boy, Temple BartMii —shortened in schooldays to Tembarom — through over five hundred pages of close . type. How T. Tembarom, while strug- | g'ling to make himself a position on a New York newspaper, learns that, as

Temple Barholm, he is the supposed heir to great estates in England; how he tries to fit himself into his new life; how, all the time, lie is unconsciously looking after the real heir, who has lost his memory, makfK ;i long but fascinating book. The author of "Little Lot<l Fa.untleroy" has not lost her touch, and Tembarom, his Little Ann with her mothering instincts: the real heir, Temple Barholm; and the aristocratic Lady Alicia, are a very human quartet. The novel will please youth equally with middle age, and -in its un except ion ".tote frri-hn-.-n----is proof that it still is not necessary to sink to the vices to be interesting. Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton are the publishers. M. Jean Ilichepin demands that the .French Academy t-.'iall admit journalists to its ranks as well as "mere writers of books.'* The journalist, says M. 1 Rich&pin, writes bstory while it is -ha-p- ---; pen-rng, and this, if anytforng, is a higher ! art than writing 'history after it has '.happened,. But this contemporary hisj tory must be written "\vi._h absolute reIgard.for the tru.l.li.*' ami .horn we seem to have a stipulation that .would considerably narrow the field of choice. The French neiwspa.por gives very little nows at all, but it has never been accused of inaccuracy in what it <locts give. Newspapers in some other place* give a great de-al oi news, but red ration can be cast on. the trul'.i oi much of dt. l"y all "means let the truthful reporter lie honoured by official recognition. -It is t'ho only honour he is ever likely to get. But it will be necessary to catch him first.

Lord Ampthill, late Governor of Madras, makes a vigorous indictment of the British Government's attitude on the question of British Indians in South Africa. He outlines the Indian demands as "merely that they should be treated in accordance with the pledges given to them by British Governments, and made by British statesmen. They ask that in the eyes of the. law they should not be treated as an inferior and servile race, and that, although it is necessary for economic reasons to set. bounds to their competition with the white man in South Africa, they may he secure against wilful and systematic oppression." "So modest an appeal for justice and humane treatment," says Lord Ampthill, "ought to commend itself alike to Imperialist and Little Englander; in fact, to any member of any class whose views are based upon principle and held with sincerity." The progress of aeronautics to sea power is discussed by A. Wharton Metcalfe, and F. A. W. Gisborne dissects illuminatingly Australian Commonwealth finance, while H. Douglas Gregory writes rather unsympathetically on woman's claim to the suffrage. Another article that will I attract some attention in this number is "The Temper of Europe," by "Diplo- . matist." The December "Windsor" presents its ' readers with a charming series of col- | oured plate reproductions, several of ■ which deal with some of the best-known ! pictures in the London Guildhall colleci tion. Among the articles of the number is an account of the curious museum of stuffed birds and animals representing nursery rhymes and other famous episodes, which is the result of the life's work of Mr. William Potter, a native of the little Sussex village of Bramber. Much biographical and anecdotal interest is centred in an article on distinguished brothers, showing how many different or similar talents run in the same generation of certain families and contribute to the public life of our day, in various professions and careers. Many famous novelists contribute their latest stories to the fiction programme of this issue, and other writers of note are responsible for important features, among them Sir H. Rider Haggard, An-

thony Hope, Halliwell Sutcliffe, Beatrice Harraden. "Q," H. B. Marriott Watson, Charles G. D. Roberts, Edgar Wallace, Arnold Bennett, Eden Phillpotts, E. F. Benson, S. Macnaughtan, Barry Pain, and other authors almost equally well known. Sir H. Rider Haggard's contribution is a large opening instalment oi an import_nt new romance, entitled "The Holy Flower," which reintroduces his famous traveller-hero, Allan Quartermain, as the narrator of a new chronicle of stirring adventure in wildest Africa. Our copy is from Wildman and Arey.

An ilruistrated article on an art-topic in the "Windßcr Magazine" for December is devoted to the painting of Anna Lea Merrifct, whose beet known picture is perhaps, "Love Locked Out" —t_e figure of a nude youth in a doorway -pressing against a dosed door. Charles J. L. Clarke describe- (military bridge building, a ta»k in which be i 6 assisted by numerous .photographs, and Gladys Evelyn Warren recalls some of the famous fools of history. The concluding eharptems of Gertrude Page's novel appear, and among well known names of short Btory writers who contribute to ■tbe December "Windsor" we specially notice these of Robert Barr, Dornford Yates, Dolf Wyflarde, and C. G. D. Roberta.

Onr school texts begin a little to reflect the point of view first taken by John Richard Green, who in his "History of the English People" (1874) revealed to an astonished world the fact that the history—properly so-called— of a nation should deal with more than mere campaigns of lawless barons and rival kingmakers. The people, as he showed, lived as best they could outside these rivalries, which make up so much of the pageantry of alleged history. They were, as much as they could be, passive onlookers, or active buyers-off from warfare. What was the life in the main of the people A little "Social History of England," by George Guest, BA, just published by G." Bell and Sons, gives us something towards an understanding—as the author describes it in his foreword —of the social and industrial history of England. It is all to the good that the rising generation should learn a little before they enter on the vexed field of local politics as to just what the guilds of the towns stood for, what the mercantile system was, and what part trades unions played in the horrible industrial exploitation of European countries which is connoted by the factory system. There is nothing revolutionary or extreme in the ' book—indeed, it is somewhat too medic- I val, and could with effect lrave given I less space to the early period, and more to modern social and industrial develop-1 ments. Vor after <a\\, the earlier history I is useful more to the historical student than to the school boy or girl of to-day. Its greatest lack is the fa.ct that it docs not touch on the development oi local government, a field in which the Old Country possesses unrivalled material, and the value of which is hardly realised. Something of the nature of Mr and Mrs Sidney Webb's works boiled down to essentials would be a much more useful equipment for the young ! citizen to make him or her a heftier town councillor or mayor of the future.

It is very nice to know just how long the points of fashionable shoes were when Edward Vl.' was king, but it would do tbe young New Zealandcr in search of historical lore much more good to know how English mayors grew to their present status, and how English citizens acquired the right to run their own motor omnibus services. AN OLD TALE RE-TOLD. "THE ROSE OF RAVENNA," by EDWARD A. VTDLER. Ceo. Robertson and Co.„Propy., Ltd., Melbourne, .Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane. The story of Paolo and Francesca hardly required to be re-told, since it has for ever been f.-mbalmed in Dante's immortal " Divina Commedia," in a lurid setting that drives home its moral lesson with terrible force. It is doubtful whether any good will be done by its recapitulation in a dramatic poem; indeed, the literary form into which the tragic tale is cast by Mr. Vidler, and the glamour of romance that is thrown over the love of the guilty couple, separated from the scene of awful punishment de-pic-ted by tbe earlier poet, will not improbably make the modern version as much of a " pander page " as the booli that the. hero and heroine read together If. however, "The Rose of Ravenna" i: viewed from the simple standpoint ol

'■ art for art's sake," Mr. Vidleris performance may be honestly commended. He has cast the. story in dramatic mould. | There are five acts, nine scenes, and all j the necessary directions for stage production, but we should say that the poem is meant for private •reading, for which, in fact, it is only suited. It is not that Mr. Vidler shows any absence of the requisite reticence in dealing with such a delicate, story, for his treatment is in the best taste; but the composition is throughout in blank verse, which does not lend itself well to the vocal expression of tense emotions such as arc here depicted. If Mr. Vidlers aim was to make a polished and readable poem, he has succeeded admirably. There is a high level, well sustained throughout the poem; and if it never rises to superlative "altitude, it is never in danger of sinkirpg to bathos. As fine a passage as any is that in which Paolo for a time resists the allurements of Francesca. whose love he had. won by his habit of gallantry rather than by

deliberate design. [When she says: "My Paolo, let mc go with thee," he replies:

'Francesca, though our hearts do burn with Love, Whence none can rise again. Nought can Let us not fall to Treachery's deep slough, divide Our hearts —not Life's wide-sundering gull nor deen Abyss of Fate. I go: but linger still Within thy heart's domain inviolate; And there we hold communion evermore. So in the compass of this little life We still may love and never stoop to sin."

The reader will already perceive a hint that Mr. Vidler has a mind to engage in the fashionable work of " whitewashing." Paolo is by no means a light libertine and deceiver, but is depicted as a man of honour and sincere feeling. Francesca (except in the passage which we have quoted from Scene 3, Act IV.) is all that a modest maiden of high lineage and breeding should be; their fall is attributed to the resistless 'force of pure love, helped by the wicked Suggestion of an old nurse and fanned by the fatuous stupidity of Count Giovanni, the busband. So when the tragic denouement comes, when Giovanni slays Paolo, and Francesca commits suicide, falling into the arms of her expiring lover, it is the injured husband who suffers most. He resigns himself to " drink the draught of dread remorse down to the dregs"; and, beholding the spirits of the lovers I floating by, he says:—

"Their souls pass onward—see! Their V twin-souls flee, So spotless white, beyond this bloody world That could not stain them. Now I know— 1 know. And never shall forget, though I should sink Deep, deep, and' deeper still, and deeper yet, E'en to the nethermost.. . . O, most horrible! Paolo! Francesca! O, most horrible!" Thus Mr. Vidler (who introduces Dante as one of his " dramatis personae") has the audacity to throw a -halo over the faithless wife and traitorous brother, whom Dante so fiercely condemns in his "Inferno." The volume is artistically printed, illustrated and bound—an attractive setting to a seductive story of the t"iirtena__t Cental]*.