LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15017, 11 July 1914, Page 9

LITERARY GOSSIP.

Tho Villa Said, which Anatole France, disgusted, it is said, by the rapid transformation of the Paris of his youth and middle-age, is leaving for a new home at Versailles, has long been famous as a treasure-house of art. The great novelist is also a great connoisseur, and his collections include somo lovely French furniture of tho best periods, priceless pictures, fine porcelain, and rare books. Ono feature oi" M. France's library is that it contains nothing modern beyond, so it is said, the great Littre Dictionary and tho Larousso Encyclopaedia. The framework of these treasures at tho Villa Said has been worthy of them, for the wails, where they have not been painted in Pompeian red, have been covered with silks or tapestries, aud the floores with real Smyrna carpets, and a dim, religious light has been filtered through -windows of ancient stained glass.

Considerable value attaches nowadays to relics of the Bronte sisters, and much interest has been shown at Homo m the sale last month (the results of ivhich havo not yet reached us) of a batch of documents, including somo Brussels exercise-books in German, French, and arithmetic, with corrections, possibly by the great Heger himself Then, too" (says' the "Daily Telegraph" in describing these documents), "thero are previous fragments of prose and verso belonging to tho miniature hooks copied out by the Brontes when they were children, and there will" bo a mighty contest among the faithful to decide whether Charlotte, or Emma, or Anno wrote them. There is no mistake about tho fustian in the hand of the wild prodigal Patrick Branwell Bronte, but he has earned his place in the. eyes of the elect. On ono scrap, beginning 'O'er Grafton*6 Hill the, blue heaven smiled serene.' it is stated that there is a draft of minutes of a meeting 'of some Society.' We may be ablo to throw light on this. In tho 1907 sale tho original minute-boo!., was sold, and we then explained its purport by quoting the resolution forming the Ha worth Operative Conservative Society. Its bravo terms are worthy of repetition in these days:—'That a society be immediately formed, to be called tho Haworth Operative Conservative Society, and the principles of which shall over bo to'maintain loyalty to the King, attachment to the!"connexions between Church and State, respect for the independence and prerogative of the House of Lords, and a proper regard for the Commons House of Parliament, wishing that branch of the Legislature to exercise constitutional rights and privileges, unfettered and uncontrolled by the clamours of factions, and unawed by th© revolutionary demands of the enemies of the monarchy.' "

When Charlotte was a little girl of seven,she wrote: "Anne and I wonder what we shall be like, and what we shall be, and where we shall be, if all goes on well, in tho year 1874— in which year I shall bo iv my 57th year." She died in 1855. Her last fragmentary sketch, dated November 27th, 1853, ancl entitled "Emma," js, perhaps, the most interesting manuscript in the set. It was first published by Thackeray in the' "Cornhili;" April, 1860, with a noble preface. The manuscript is in pencil, on 19"; pages. The letter describing Charlotte's first meeting with Thackeray was sold four years ago, but it is worth recalling for its naive bravery: "The giant sat before mc. I was moved to speak to him of some of his shortcomings (literary, of course). One- by one his faults came into my mind, and ono by ono I brougbt" them out and soueht some explanation or defence. He did defend himself like a great Turk and heathen. That is to say. tho excuses were often worse than the crime itself. The matter ended in decent amity. If all bo well I am to dine at his houso this evening." A birchwjood rocking-chair, an arm-chair, and a sidc-tablo used by Charlotte at the Haworth parsonage will be offered. Her writing-desk, paint-box, and samplers, wore sold in 1907, along with a frag-" ment of Napoleon's coffin, given to her .by M. Heger. ./ . •

The claimants for fame as the originals of notable characters in Dickens's novels aro gradually dying off (says an English paper). ■ Mrs Harriett Lucy Tico, who died at Stoke Newington on May 10th, claimed to be Little Nell of the "Old Curiosity Shop." She was born in the shop in Compton street, which has been identified as the old' curiosity shop, and in these days makes a specialty of. selling prints and pictures depicting scenes from Dickens's novels. Mrs Tice was the daughter oi' Mr John Pepjoerell, a former proprietor of the shop, and she claimed that her father had been depicted by Dickens as the grandfather of Littlo Nell. But apart from the fact that she was born in the old curiosity shop, there is no evidence that Dickons regarded her as the original of Little Nell. Instead of dying pathetically like Little Nell j in her childhood, sho lived until' she j Avas 87. and passed away peacefully iv her bed. There have been many claimants to the original of Little Dorrit, but the claims rest on the most shadowy foundations, Mrs Mary Ann Cooper, who died. at Southgato last year, at the ago of 100, was one of these claimants, and she was at least able to I prove that she had been a neighbour and J playmate of Dickens in his youth. She j was wont to declare in her old age that Dickens had christened her Little Dorrit. and before ho was an author had exnressed his intention of writing a book j about her.

Dr. Saintsbury observed recently that illiterate people referred to Richardson's famous novel, "Clarissa," as "Clarissa Harlowe." A writer in the "British Weekly," taking exception to this charge of illiteracy, has gone to j some pains to fiud out the real history | of the title. . The first title-page of "Clarissa." he says, is "Clarissa, or the.! History of a Young Lady, compre- I handing the most important concerns of Private Life, and particularly showing the distresses that may attend tho Misconduct both of Parents and Children in Relation to Marriage." This title is re-eated, apparently, in I all the editions issued in Richardson's lifetime. But—and here is a most important point—above,the first letter in all th© editions, and on all tho following pages we find the words. "The History of Miss Clarissa Harlowe." The title a*, now given appears first, it seems, in tho 1811 edition, edit-, ed by the Rev. Edward Manein, M.A., in which the title runs: "The History of Clarissa Harlowe in a Series of Letters," as in Leslie Stephen's edition in 18S3. "I submit," the writer adds, "that Dr. Saintsbury ought not to call writers like Sir Walter Scott and Sir Leslie Stephen illiterate, and that there is a justification from Richardson himself in using the words, 'Clarissa Harlowe' as a title, oven though, it is true that Richardson's title was as I have given it."

That the advertisements contained in a book may come to hare their value to collectors was evidenced by the sale recently for £495 of "Tho

Posthumous Papers of tho Pickwick Club," as originally published ro twenty numbers, with wrappers and advertisements {slips included) complete. Somo time ago a similar set was unearthed, and sold in America for the unprecedented sum of £286, but the twenty numbers referred to abovo easily beat 'this amount. The set was well known to Dickens's students as that formed by tho lato Captain R. J. H. Douglas, "R.N., a most diligent admirer. Theso were tho twenty numbers in their earliest issue. With them aro the back and front wrappers of advertisements, tho extra leaf ments of "Heneky's Brandy" ana "Mechi's Catalogue." a folded advertisement of "Rowland's Preparations (with a wood-cut of a black woman*), slip advertisements of "Phrenology Made Easy," the sum total, in fact, of everything which accompanied the immortal story by Dickens as it came into the world. * A "maiden aunt might havo formed such a collection by buying two numbers of each as they appeared—one to read, and tho other to be put away (remarks the "Daily Telegraph"). Indeed, many maiden aunts might have done so. But in fulness of time, doubtless, the numbers were sent to the binder,, who mado a neat- job of them, cutting out tho advertisement pages, and throwing the slips away. It is a regular habit of readers to hurl slip advertisements into the waste-paper basket before giving the binder his chance. It falls out, l\en, that the gods of advertising were avenged and vindicated at th::; sale. Even Dickens himself could not have imagined r the homsige one day to bo paid to "The Pickwick Advertiser."

That Edgar Allan Poe was a plagiarist—a plagiarist of genius, of course, but a particularly unblushing oiie—was the contention of an American critic, the late Joel Benton, who wrote a book to show that a large proportion of his poetry wa*-> based on the productions of a couteropornrvversifier named Thomas Holle-y Chivefs. Olivers, who wa? a doctor by profession, possessed a wonderfully extensive vocabulary, largely of a technical kind, and from him Poe apparently drew many of those unusual but finely-sounding words which characterise his poetry. To Chivers also he would seem to be indebted for the equally characteristic habit of haunting repetition of a word or a-phrase. Chivers, however, though possessing a good sense of sound and metro, was absolutely dovoid of humour or real poetic foolr iiig. He was a good deal worse, in fact, than the Elizabethan euphuists. But Poe-—assuming tliat he actually was tbo plagiarist—took this base metal and transferred it into gold with tho fire of his genius.

(Olivers wrote a thing which ho called '•Rosalie Lee." which, grotesque as it is, undoubtedly -suggests "Annabel Lee." A stanza, ono out of six, may be quoted as.a sample:— Many mellow Cydonian -Tickets, / Sweet apples, ant-osniuil, divrhie. From the Ruby-riinmcd Buryline buckets, Star-g.minod, lily-shaped, hyaline— Like that sweet golden goblet found growing On the wild «merald Cucumber tree— Rich, brilliant, like ChTysopraz blowing— I then brought to my Rosalie Lee— To my lamb-like Rosalie Lee— To my beautiful, dutiful Rosalie' Lee. And in a piece called "Lily Adair" he repeated tha fearful experiment. These lines read like an absurd parody of Poe's stylo:— On the beryl-rimmed rebecs of Ruby, Brought tr-sh from the hyaline stre-ms,

Than my beautiful Lily Adair— Than my dove-lik. Lily Adair— Than my saint-liko LAy Adair— .. ■ Than my beautiful, dutiful Lily Adair, j In the pages of Chivers we meet with "Lsrafelia," -which is something like Poe's "Israfel," a "Requiem on the Death of Henry Clay," which strongly resembles tho final version of The Bells," "Una of Auster," "Tho Fall of Usher," "Ullalume." "Never—Never More," "Aiden," "Politan," "Lenore," and several other things which bear a more or less close resemblance to poems by Poe himself. ,