LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 120, 23 May 1931, Page 19

LITERARY NOTES

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

1 Apparently the last book from Arnold-, Bennett's pen is to bo called "Venus Arising from tho Sea," ..and, "most fittingly, it will bo issued in a luxurious and beautiful form, and collectors of first editions arc already on the lookout for it.

."Many people have wondered what the book is that tho. Prince Consort's, statue in the Albert Memorial has. He has been reading it ever since the memorial was built. ' Many people think it is a Bible. ■ It is nothing of the sort. If is" "a catalogue of "the Great Exhibition of 1851."—Lord Burnham, in. a recent address.

Ji'rom "Catching Wild Beasts Alive," by Mr. Joseph Dcluiont, reviewed in these columns: —

The men of a native village heard that orangs will carry oft women. They met together, conferred, and the following evening took their women into tho neighbouring forest .in which many orang-outangs lived. The following morning they fouud all the women were still there, but since that time not a single orang-outang has. been. Been in the neighbourhood. •

The Victorian age and the great Victorian writers are corning into their own again (says Jonathan. Capo.'s publication, "Now and Tlien"). ..Anthony Trollopo and several, others who ap-' peared to be in eclipse during tUfi,.early years of this century have .been promoted to the first page of the :'Literary Supplement." .. The author - .if'"Hard Cash" and "The Cloister and the Hearth" has already waited too long for a complete biography, and. a sure welcome will be given to -Mr...Malcolm Bhvin's "Charles Kcade," which is now ready. Eeade came into intimate touch with most of the leading literary and theatrical figures 6f Ids time, and: his own career was turbulent, busy, and vigorous.

The book- borrower and .'.'non-re-turner" is a curse in London '■ as well as elsewhere, Mr. A. P.' Herbert-re-marked to' a contributor to' the London "Daily Telegraph" early this year. He sayi he is not able to do as ; much reading as he would like owing to the fact that he is a chronic sufferer' from "borrowing"—that distressing complaint well known' toall book lovers. "I am now just -half-way .through •Grand Hotel'," Mr. -Herbert said, "but I will bet sixpence that' when I want it again I shall not be able to find it. Somebody or other will- have borrowed it," He also mentioned that several American reviewers of "The Water Gipsies" have accused him of imitating Mr. Priestley's style.-"Now that" is really rather curious/-' added A.P.H., "because though I bought both 'The Good Companions' and 'Angel Pavement,' I honestly havo not read a line of them-. They, also, have been borrowed!" ...

Mr. P. Tennyson Cole, portrait painter, in his "Vanity Varnished," tells a story of Sarah Bernhardt. He has seldom seen a < woman in such' awhite heat'of rage, he says, nor heard such an ■ eloquent stream of French curses 0.3 when, on taking her call at the third raising of. the icurtain one night in Melbourne, she discovered half a" cold roast chickea dangling on a string, above her head. "This" arose from tho fact that to preserve realism the actress always insisted thjit real food should be served in the supper scene in 'La Dame aux Camoliatf, 5 and thinking that tho curtain had fallen for the last time a generous propertyman had hit on the idea of hoisting this savoury morsel, on a string to a_ confederate stationed aloft in the flics!".

In the same book is another story of a sudden and disconcerting rovelation. Andrew Carnegio received very, sc.nnt warning that King Edward was .on his way to pay. him a surprise visit at Skibo Castle. Tho Koyal car was seen approaching, but Mr. Carnegie's professional organist, who should havo: been at tho great organ to play the National Anthem as the King crossed the threshold, was disporting himsolf in the privato swimming bath. Mr. Cole writes:—. . . .

"Excitedly, -Mr. Carnegie-commanded him to come- out of the water and do his job at the organ, which stood in the entrance hall. A screen ' was" rigged round the instrument to hide him l'rom view, and so King Edward passed through the portals of Skibo Castle to the strains of 'God Save tho King'— which would have produced a most, appropriate and even dramatic, effect if only at the crucial moment of tho King's entry that screen had not fallen down to reveal the poor woebegone organist, dripping wet in his bathing suit and shivering from cold and fright, as he sat at the keys."