LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 89, 14 April 1917, Page 14

LITERARY.

Mr. G. B. Burgin has another novel in hand with HuU'hinson. It bears the title "The Puller of Strings." and finds its plot and scenes in Canada. Of all his novels Mr. Burgiu likes "The Belles of Yaudroy' , best. Robert l-ouis Stevenson's velvet jacket, tho red Bash of his South Sea days, and the last pen he aised have been given by his step-daughter. Isabel Strong, now Mrs Salisbury Kield, to the Stevenson Society of America, which lias its headquarters at isaranae. Mr. Algernon Black wood has a volume of " Day and Night Stories " just ready with the house of Cassell. Its keynote is found in the first story, which seeks to suggest a real, if elusive, psychical relation as existing between the living and the non-living. A new book by Mr. Arnold Bennett on '" Books and Persons " is forthcoming with Ohtitto and Windus. Us contents are selected from a causerie which Mr. Bennett, signing himself '" Jacob Tiinson." contributed to the " New Age " during the years 1908-1911. Before the war Mr. VV. J. Chihle made a journey across Asia .Minor on foot, and a full book describing it is just ready with the Blackwoods. " Mr. Child* walke'a thirteen hundred miles in fifty-four days. He often rested by the wny, -o that his remarkable jotirnev occupied five months. Mrs i'Torence llaniijs story, "The Roeary." is having a |a,rge sale" in the popular half-crown edition. Another of her stories, "The .Mistress of S-henstone," will shortly be issued by the I'utnams, at the same price. They announce a new novel 'by "Rita," with the title "The Rubbnsii Heoip." The autobiography of Mr. E. A. Sothern. son of "Lord Dundreary." the actor, will be published in England by Cassell. He went to America on a theatrical tour—following in the steps of his father—and he remained there. The title ie "The Melancholy Tale of 'Me,' " and it ■stands for a good book. Sir Rabindrannth Tagore's most popular book in England is " Gitanjah." ot which 37.000 copies have been sold. Next to it comes "The Gardener" with a sale of 14,000 copies, and then "The Crescent Moon " with 10.000 copies. A book on Tagore r s famous school in India is being published by the Maumillans. Messrs. Chatto and Windus announce another volume of stories by t)he Russian novelist Tehehov. His two preceding volumes, "The Darling, and Other Stories," and '"The Duel, and Other .Stories." have cold well. T.he new book takes its title from the opening tale, •'The Lady With the Dog." Mrs Constance Garnett ds the admirable translator of Tchehov. Mr Richard Wasrfxburn Child's book Potential Russia," just published by Mr T. Fisher Urrwin. is concerned a>bove aJJ with the economic possibilities of the country. The greatest storehouse, of minerai and agricultural wealth left to the world, plus one hundred and seventy millions of people needing every kind of manufa<-tured goods—thas combination makes Russia the great question and the great opportunity of the Twentieth Century. Russia needs British enterprise. British capital. In order to make friends with Russia, however, we rrauet get fco know her people better—their tastes, bheir thoug-hts, their habits, their business customs—all different from ours. Mr Chad went through the length and ■breadth of Russia to find out what the West ought to know aibout thie land of the future. What he sa/w, heard, and felt, he describes and interprets in a sane, stimulating and suggestive way. Some entertaining stories are told in "My Life and Work," by E. K. Muspratt, LL.D., F.C.S., just published by John Lane. Perhaps tne best are those told of ■Mγ. Philip Rathbone. a prominent Liverpool merchant, and father of the late Mr. W. E. G. Rathbone, formerly editor of the "New Zealand Graphic." Mr. Philip Rathbone's absent-mindednees, particularly with regard to dinner parties, seems to have been most engaging:—"Having asked friends to dinner one evening, he and his family forgot all about it, and were much perturbed upon seeing carriages come up to the door just after they had settled themselves at table. The only thing to do was to wait until the visitors had got safely into the hall v when the whole family climbed out of the dining-room window, crept round to the bock door, and entered the drawing-room to welcome the unexpected guests." On another occasion Mr. Rathbone, having invited a friend to dine, offered to drive him up. On the way Ratbhone iforgot all about the dinner, and, to his friend's dismay, suddenly said that he knew he had promised to drop him somewhere, and would this do; thereupon stopping, and practically forcing his unfortunate victim to descend and walk back to town. "'Die Life and Work of Lord Kitchener," by E. S. Grew and others (Gresham Publishing Co.), throws a good deal of light on Lord Kitchener's early work for the Palestine Exploration Fluid before the Arabist movement called him to Egypt—one of the first of those adventurous men who were then drawn to Cairo on the sporting chance of a career. Many extracts are given from his journal and letters to the society proving how profoundly he was moved by the poetry and historical associations cyf the Holy Land. His motto was "Thorough," and it first became manifest in this arduous work in the Holy Land:—"Nothing (writes Mr. Grew in a characteristic passage) was too minute for him; if he was inspecting commissariat he must know the cost of every item and the quality and usefulness of every detail; and when, later in life, he collected china, his avidity for information and for exact knowledge of glazes and periods ■was greater than his desire to add fine pieces to his collection. So it was in Palestine, where, at the end of his period of work, he had become an expert and a controversialist. Had not greater work called Kitchener, had there been no such things as wars and empires, he would have developed into an Oriental scholar." Another instance of hie thoroughness is ffiven by Mr. George Tnrnbull in liis well-informed chapter on Lord Kitchener's homes, describing among other places the estate acquired i>y the FieldMarshal in 1!>12 in East Africa, for ■which he exerted his influence with Mahomedans t<, obtain Tare seeds for coffee-growing from the heart of Arabia, besides importing special cattle from i'-gypt and experimenting through hie manager with the best kinds of tobacco it was characteristic of him, also, that he placed the results of his experiments at the free disposal o f the white settlers I throughout the British Protectorate.

A book by Sir Francis Fletcher-Vane sets down his impressions and experience* of the Irish rebellion last year. It is announced by Werner-Laurie.

Mr. Douglas Sladen has edited some very remarkable letters written from Ruhleben by an Oxford graduate, which Hurst and Blackett will publish.

Mrs. Alice Perrin has written a new novel, entitled "Separation," and it is announced, by the house of Cassell. Its scene lies partly in England, partly in India.

The news from America is that Mr London Ims left quite a number of manuscripts. "Enough," says one who knew him, "to keep his friends publishing for two or three years."

The inner story of Prussian diplomacy for half a century back is told by Princess Catherine Radziwill in a forthcoming book. Bearing the title "Germany Under Three Emperors," and it will be published by Cassell.

Two books by Mrs. Barbara Baynton, "Bush Studies" and "Human Toll." are announced. She has added new stories to "Bush Studies" for a popular edition which Duckworth is about to publish, tintler the title "Cobbers." an Australian word which means '•chums."

Mr George Moore some 3.1 years tvso wrote his first book, "The Modern lxivcr." Recently lie has Ik>cii working its motive and plot into what, apart from that, will be a new novel. This book will have the title, "Lewis Seymour and Some Women." and will be published by Heinemann.

The thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of the " Cambridge History of Gut Literature " which appear together, bring the work down to our own day and close it. The subject of the thirteenth volume is the poets and novelists of the second and longer half of the century. It contains fourteen chapters, all of" which except the first, which is on Cnrlvle. deal with poets or novelists; for Mr. Saintsbury'?, interesting chapter on Prosody is scarcely an exception. The poets begin with Tennyson and end with a crowd ot - lesser poets."' the last of whom are Davidson. Thompson and Richard Middleton. The novelists stretch from the Brontes to a final chapter on Meredith Butler, and Gissing. The final volume deals with the philosophic, scientific. lind historical literature of the period with other topics such as the literature of sport and the growth of journalism.

"Parliamentary Reminiscences and Reflections." by Lord George Hamilton (John .Murray), remind us of the amazing advance that has been made by the democracy in England during the past three years. lx>rd George foii-Mit three elections before the passing" of the Corrupt Practices Act, and these eo*t him ±-30,000. An election meeting in those days was liable to develop into a very pretty ••mix-up." At Tottenham one of Lord George's hecklers was the redoubtable Bradlaugh:— "Suddenly a man. as much bigger than Bradlaug'h as Bradlaugh was than myself, got up with a huge club and said, "*C,ive mc the signal, my lord, and I will crack this infernal scoundrel's skull." A perfect pandemonium ensued. Bradlatiglt's people tried to come to their hero's rescue, unpeople keeping them back. Bradlaugh and the big man both remained immovable, but Bradlaugh was -furtively watching out of the corner of his eye the big club over his head, and the holder of it w.l.- watching intently f,.r mc to give the signal for an onslaught. The tension was broken by a big Irish parson who was Rector of Tottenham, and who previously -had had many an encounter with Bradlaugh. He jumped up and began to exorcise Bradlaugh both with tongue and fists as if he were a devil. 1 was afraid that he would strike Bradlaugh, so I got hold of one end of the very long tails of the orthodox parson's frock-coat. One of my uncles seized the end of the other tail, and the result of our combined efforts was that the coat split up right to the neck, leaving us each with a coat-tail in our hands."

Another good story told by Lord George Hamilton, in tils "Parliamentary Reminiscences," relates to ].ord fcitrathnairn's handling of an abortive Fenian rising at the time when he was Com-mander-in-Chief in Ireland: —"His escort at Tallagh was small, and as it was the rendezvous for the Fenians who came there from all skies, in a short time the number of prisoners made were too large to be adequately guarded. The officer in charge asked for instructions. "Take all their braces and pocket-handkerchiefs from them, and split up their trousers behind and before," was the reply, it was a very cold night, and the ridicule excited next morning in Dublin when hundreds of pale and disordered men waddled through the muddy streets try. ing to hold up their trousers in front and behind put quite as much an extinguisher upon the movement as the punishments inflicted upon its chief promoters."

Some of the things which brave women have endured and accomplished during the present war are told in "The Cellar House of Pcrv-yse." by Miss G. E. IMitford (A. and C. Black). It is the stoTy of a couple of English ladies (Miss Chisholm is .Scotch, but the pen barks at British ladies) who formed part of a voluntary ambulance unit organised to assist the Belgians at the outbreak of war. Sometimes their expeditions carried them into the full surge of battle. 'There were sudden shouts and the jangle of field equipment and a hideous scuffle, and all in the dark, right around the car, Belgians and French and Germans, inextricably mixed in bayonet fighting, swept past." Sometimes they drove their ambulance car through shellswept areas where male ohaulfotirs became paralysed, and even physically sick from the sense of übiquitous peril. After several o>f these defiant and adventurous journeys, they established a "porte de secour" immediately in rear of the firing-line, among the ruined houses of Pcrvyse, and it is from this chapter . f their career that the book receives its title. Its area was ten feet by twelve, with bare room to stand erect, and its only light came from gratings in the pavement above. Here they pursued their work for months, sleeping on straw: —"There was, ot course, no possibility of changing clothes; they lay down as they were, and were often called up in the middle of the night to attend to ghastly wounds. They had none of the appliances and conveniences surgeons think necessary? there was the greatest difficulty even in getting boiling water for sterilising any instruments which had to be used in first-aid. The air was heavy with the smell of antiseptics and decayed matter and worse! Night after night the guns roared before and behind —their own and the enemies'. There was no minute night or day when swift death might not pounce upon them. . . . They sacrificed their hair, for it was impossible to retain long hair in such conditions. Thrice they were shelled out, and left without a roof over their heads."