LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3143, 28 July 1917, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Stray Leaves, Admirers of Hugh Walpole's clever novels should note thatja shilling reprint of one of the best of this author's earlier stories, "Maradiek at Forty," has now been published by Nisbets. Mr. Walpole's first story, "Tho Wooden Horse,' can be had in Dent's Wayfarer's Library. A cheaper edition -'if lis best novel, "The Duchess of Wrexe,' should sell well, but is not yet forthcoming. Another author always worth reading is Oliver Onions, whose grimly-powerful story, "The Debit Account," is row issued. in shilling form by ■'Nisbets. This is one of the trilogy commencing with "In Accordance "With the Evidence," already published by Nisbets. It is to hoped that a similar edition of "The Story of Louise," which concludes Mr. Onions's trilogy, may follow later on. Recent Homo papers record the death, at an advanced age, of Mr. Henry S. Wheatley, a well-known antiquarian, and authority on the topography, and history of London. Mr. Wheatley edited a new edition of Cunningham's "London," which still remains tho best book wo have on London history. Hut be will be chiefly remembered by tho famous edition of Pepys—le tout Tepys, the ;i;iexpurgated Pepys—which he edited for Messrs. Bell a few years ago. It is in ten volumes, eight being devoted to the "Diary," with a. volume of/"Pepysiana," and an index volume. Originally, the price was ten shillings a volume, but the edition can now be obtained in a. much, cheaper form. With the Wheailey Pepys, and Mrfl. Arnold Toynbee's Bplendid now edition of "Walpole's Letters," I could witness a whole year of wet Sundays, and be fully fortified cgainst the very possibility of ennui. Apropos to "I'epy's Diary," I potico that Mr. John Lane announces a second part of that brilliantly clever eemmentary on English society in war time, "A. Diary of the Great Warre," by Samuel Pepys, Junr., illustrated, as was the first instalment, by Mr. M. W. Williams. That marvellous product of industry and erudition, "The Oxford English Dictionary," is marching steadily towards completion.- Tho latest part issued commences the "V to I" section, so the end must be approaching. Alfred Moyes writes too much, but occasionally he strikes n flue, vigorous note, specially suitable to the episodes he so often affects as subjects. He has just published, in New York, a new , volume of verse, "Open Boats," in which j he sings of the splendid work done bv the men who work on the mine-sweeping trawlers of tho North Sea.

Tho American "best sellers" just now appear to be "The l/iftod Veil," by Basil King, author of "The Timer Suiine," "The Light in ihe Clearing," by Irvins; Bachellier, ami "Changing Winds," the

letter by the clever young Irish dramatist and novelist, A. St. John Irvine. But nearly alt the lists are headed by an English novel, "Mr. Britling Sees It Through." j, shall be curious to seo' hoiv the American public takes to Stephen M'Kenna's "Sonia," in "Liber's" opinion the best novel of the Lst two year 3.

In the 'nineties of the last century the stories of Henry Harlaiid, that clever Anglo-American who i'pr a time edited the once famous "Yellow Book," were very popular. Several of them were reprinted, if 1 remember rightly, in Mr. John Lane's "Keynotes" series. Jlr. Lane has uiieartlled a story by Harlantl which has not hitherto been published. The title is "At the Court of the Corsicon." According to "The Times." the story contains a remarkably new and original portrait of the Emperor; not a flattering portrait by any means. The story is printed at the end of a reprint of ilarjand's "Mademoiselle Miss cud Other Stories," which Mr. Lane has just published at the modest price of a shilling. There has recently been some discussoin in the Homo Press as to the practice of British subjects accepting and wearing foreign decorations. A correspondent of "The Times" recalls a saying of Queen Elizabeth, as reported by the historian' Camden, which seems to show that the famous Tudor Queen wa= strongly averse to her diplomatists and other of her subjects accepting foreign orders. Camden writes:—"As it is not proper for a modest woman to cast her eyes on any other man than' her husband, so neither ought subjects to look at any other prince than the one God has given them. I would not have my sheep branded with any other mark than my own, or follow the whistle of a. strange shepherd." Sir William Watson's new book of poems, as announced by Mr. John Lane, is entitled "The Man Who Saw, and other poems relating to, the war." Tho volume will contain the series of sonnets which, first published in tho United States, caused so much discussion in the American Press. There are also some fifty other noenis in a great variety of keys, but all bearing on the war, inspired by an iifipassioned if not always too sa.ngnine, patriotism. It is some timo now since Mrs. Elizabath Robins Pennell gave us that startling story,, on the White Slave Traffic, "My Little Sister." She is now .-gain to the front with a story of a very difteront character, a tale of a French artist and'hie brido, told partially in letters from the front. Heinemann is the publisher. In a recent issue Mr. Punch pleasantly satirises the all too common 1 practice nowadays of publishers printing puffs preliminary of their new publications. Here is a sample extract from a i.iost amusing article: — Tho Booming of Booka. Comfort and Joy's New Books for tho Million. Aroll Bagsby's New Gigantic Novel. "Tho Saint With the Swivel Eye." fs. A deliciously vivid book, about an utterly adorable countess, her four husbands, aud her ultimate conversion to Tolstoianism. Please write for scenario, with author's portrait in hygienic costume and sandals. The Book oi the Hour. "Tho Luscious Life." By Alexander Tripe, author of "Tho 'Ammy Knife.". Tho novel which was banned in Dahomey ! "Verax," in the "Daily Lyre," says:— "This is a colossally cerebral, book. By the side of Tripe, Balzac is a bungling beginner and Zola a firuiicking dilettante." "The Manxman" says:—-"A wonderful panorama of the life of a decadent Abyssinian prince; with full details of his wardrobe, his taste in liqueurs, his emotions and dissipations. . . . Simply must be read by any ono who wishes to bo 'in it.' It is a liberal education in the luscious." Mr. John Pougher writes in "Saturn": —"Tripe is tho most nourishing author I know. To adapt Dickens's famous phrase, tliero is a juiciness in his work which would enchant a scavenger." 2s. net, or three copies for 55., and four (with lib. of sugar) for Gs. Commenting upon George Moore's discovery of Stevenson, over whose "Inland Voyage" and "Travels W'tli a Donkey" the Irishman goes into ecstasies, but who lias but a poor opinion of R.L.S. as a novelist, calling him "no story-teller," that usually sound critic, Mr. W. L. Courtney, remarks:— It, soma to me that Stevenson was a story-teller, but a somewhat laboured and artificial one: what he 'writes smacks unduly of the midnight oil. He works so hard at his style tliat he becomes difficult to read, v.ery much like Flaubert, for instance, wlio can never be read with case or—witness • "Salammbo"—jvith pleasure. But )vo_ cannot deny for this reason that Flaubert was a novelist, nor that "Madame Bovary" is a great novel.

r But surely Mr. Courtney / is as far "out of it" as Mr. Moore. Stevenson never toiled over his plots, But over his style. Where, I wonder, does Mr. Courtney find that Stevenson (in his stories) is "difficult to read"? It is tnie that Stevenson went to immense tiouble to l>e historically and topographically accurate, especially .in "Kidnapped" and "Tho Master of s,nd that splendid fragment "Weir of Hermiston." But in -each case tho story itself flows easily enough.

A correspondent of an English weekly draws attention to a passage in Spenser's "Faery Queene" (a poem, I fear, much more talked about than read in these latter days), which, a.s ho points out, possesses a quite singular appositeness to present circumstances: "It often falls in course o£ common life, That right long time i« overborne of wrong. Through avarice, or power, or guile, or strife. That weakens her and makes her party strong. " v / But Justice, though her doom she doth prolong, Yet at the last she will her own cause right. As by sad Beige seems, whose wrongs though long She suffered, yet at longth she did requite And sent redress thereof by this brave Briton knight." -Spenser, F. Q„ v. xi. 1. The word "party" in the fourth line is said to convey the same significance as the'modern word "opponent." l'n any case, the whole extract is most, curiously apposite to the present state of afflicted Belgium.