BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 15064, 21 December 1912, Page 3

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

ihe Lost World," being an account of the recent amazing adventures of Professor (Teoitro E. Challenger, Lord John Boston, 1 rofessor Sununcrlee. and Mr F D. .Malone, of the ‘Daily Gazette/ y Art-bur Conan Doyle. London; -dodder and Stoughton, it were not that the reader feels confident that bir Arthur is quietlv smiling to himself and enjoying the joke as much as anyone, he or she might be tempted to suggest one or two contradictions and impossibilities in ‘The Lost World.’ But the keynote of the book is to be found in the lour lines punted opposite the “foreword : I have wrought my simple plan I* I give one hour of jov To the boy who’s half a*man, Or the man who’s half a boy. Well. we come under the last line, thank goodness, and are not ashamed to eay tto have enjoyed ‘The LestWorld’ immensely. We were thrilled, and we laughed, even when we should not, and w© were not at all angry when the superbly lovely heroine who hud inspired Mr E. D. Malone, of the Daily Gazette, to go to "the lost world,” coolly introduces him to “ my husband ” on bis return. Such things will happen—fortunately for the heroes. The creator of Sherlock Holmes goes about his work in a systematic manner, and seeks to make the illusion complete. There is a photograph of the four adventurers, specially taken by William Ransford, of Hampstead, several diagrams, other photographs “ reconstructed by Mr Pat L. Forbes from a sketch by E. D. Malone” (of which it may be said that they neither illustrate the text „nor realise the author’s idea), and an intimation that Professor G. E. Challenger does not intend to prosecute the writer (E. D. Malone) for libel. This plan has its advantages, and certainly accentuates the piquancy of the contrast between the modern and'the prehistoric. ‘The Lost World’ is somewhere up tha, Amazon. It is an elevated plateau, oval shaped, 30 miles long and 20 broad, sloping down to a central lake, thick with bush, ihacessible to man, and at an altitude of about I,oooft. It is supposed to have been thrown up during a prehistoric natural aril—rtuis is lhe ; of ,It —

the life that existed there in early Jurassic times has survived upon it till the present day. So when one adventurers, by the aid .of a. felled tree, cross the chasm- that separates a pinnacle of rock'from the plateau they are at once in touch with the monsters of a far-off age. Here, in what they dubbed “ Maple White Land,” they saw with their own eyes the dragons of the primeval slime. The huge iguanodon. the uncanny pterodactyl, the flesh-eating dinosaur, the fierce phororachus. a fresh-water plesiosaurus, and the ape man and the cave man 1 All bundled together by the scores and thousands on this small plateau! No, Sir Arthur, it will not do. But there are life, and go, and pluck, and terror, and horror to be had for the reading, while the whole ends in a roar' of laughter when Professor George E. Challenger lets loose a live pterodactyl that ho has managed to get across the world amid a packed audience in Queen’s Hall, London. So that ‘ The Lost ’ is most excellent fooling, and Conan Doyle has in truth wrought his simple plan, and given more than one hour of joy.

CHEAPER LITERATURE, Speaking at the 73rd anniversary festival of the Newsvendors’ Benevolent and Provident Institution, Sir Frank Newnes said that about 200 people were now benefiting by tbe work of the society. Many might say the State was doing a great deal to help people in difficulties. There were oldage pensions, workmen’s compensation, and insurance against invalidity and sickness. Some work formerly covered by charily was to a certain extent being don© by the State, but there were many cases the State did not cover, and those were the cases they were asked to consider. The whole tendency of modern literature, he said, was to become cheaper and cheaper. From 10 to 15 years ago very few novelists sold their novels for less than 3s or 3s 6d, but now they got Is and 7d novels. Tills production of cheap literature was not confined to fiction, but it included poetry, drama, and every kind of literature. Directly they got down to these prices the newsagent became a much greater factor than ever lie had been in the past. He believed the British public was intensely musical, and tbe newsagent could do something to cater for this taste of the public. Sir George Riddell, in proposing ‘ Literature and the Press,’ said the fiction writer bad become a power in moulding public opinion. He declared that literature never stood in greater estimation than at the present time. Sir A. Conan Doyle paid a high tribute to the work of George Meredith. It was announced that the contributions received amounted to £1,400. BROWNING AS DRAMATIST. That Browning, like Tennyson and Dickens, was a failure as a writer o£ acting plays all the world is fairly agreed, and some interesting comments 'that appeal.- in the recently-issued ‘Diaries of William Charles Macready ’ show that the most competent contemporary judges never looked for anything else. Browning first met Macready at a dinnerparty in. 1835, Browning being then 25, with a “gentle manner” and "his face full of intelligence.” They expressed mutual regard, and became friends. Browning sending written tributes to the distinguished actor, and frequenting his dressing room. In less than a year the cloven hoof showed itself. Browning had written the inevitable play! This was ‘ Strafford,’ “completed in 10 days.” From the first Macready had his doubts about it, but he toiled over preparing it for the stage, read it to hoped-for backers, and finally got it produced. “ Browning very happy. Asked if I would allow him to dedicate the play to me.” *

The production, as everybody knows, was a sort of “ sneers d’ennui,” not go biid as Macready liad expected, but never popular Posterity has fully continncd Macready’s opinion. Brovnijig. however, had different notions. A few extracts must tell the rest of the curiously typical story;— May 9, I&37.—Called on Forster, who informed me how much he had been hurt by Browning's expressions of discontent at his criticism, which I myself think only too indulgent for such a play. After all that has been done for Browning, it is not pleasing to read in his note: “ Let . . . write any future tragedies!'’ It is very unreasonable, and, indeed, ungrateful in him.

May 18.—Browning walked home with me, and again evinced an irritable impatience about tho reproduction of ‘Strafford.’ May 22.—A letter from Browning, at which I am surprised and annoyed, "as it 1 had done nothing for him—having worn, down my strength and my spirits as' I have done. ... I was at first disgusted by the sickly and fretful overestimate of his work, and was angry ; but reflected that he had forgotten what 1 had done, " so let him pass, a blessing on his head!”

August 3, 1840.—Read Browning's play The Return of the Druses'), and with the deepest concern I yield to the belief that he will never again write to any purpose. I fear 1 his intellect is not quite clear. August 12. —Browning called, and walked out with me. He talked of his play. He unshed me to have his play don© for nothing. 1 explained i o him. . . . August 27.--Browning came before I had finished my bath, and really wearied mo with his self-opinionated persuasions upon his ‘Return of the Druses.’ 1 fear he is for ever gone. February 10, 1845.—Browning, in the worst taste, manner, and spirit, declined any further alteration,; (in ‘The Blot on the ’Scutcheon’). I could only think Mr Browning a very disagreeable and offonsi vely-mannered person. February 11.—Browning seemed desirous to explain or qualify Lho strange carnage and temper of yesterday. March 18.—Browning was startled into accosting me, but seeming to remember that ho did not intend to do so, started off in great haste. What but contempt, which one ought not to feel, can we. with gelled spirit, feci for these wretched insects about one? Oh, God, how is it all to end? Jifric 4. 1846.—Went, to Mrs Procter's ball. Saw Thackeray and Browning, who did not speak to me, the puppy! So it was with nearly all poor Macready’s friends—sooner or later self-interest came along, and the one-time comrade proved a Rosencrantz or Guildenstern, trading on Maeready’a friendship for his own purposes. Like Hamlet, Macready asked too much of human nature —he had not the gusto to take the world’s sour with, its sweet. THOUGHTS OF MASTER MINDS. “Don’t be too ready to think a subject is exhausted; on all great subjects much remains to be said.”—ibid, “ Much nonsense has been talked abont Macaulay and his overwhelming others in conversation; no one came near Macaulay without conceiving admiration and affection for him.”—lbid. “You say you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. I say you can, if you work the right wav, and liard enough.”—■ Ibid.

Lord Roberts has issued a book, which is being sold for 6d, reiterating his advocacy oi compulsory military service. The London ‘ Times,’ in a leader, says: “We all know row, whatever some of ns may say, tbac voluntary enlistment for the army has broken down. We know that the regular army is not large enough, and that the territorial force is a sham. We know, in (act, that compulsory service for a serious period must be faced without delay. The people must be told how much is goin to be asked of them, for what purpose, and at what cost. The call will be the harder to make the longer it is delayed. It is nearly a century since the people were faiced with a national danger in any serious form. Is democracy capable of preserving its great heritage from dissipation? We most firmly believe that British democracy is."

‘The Foundations of Freedom ’ is the title of a new book of essays about to be published by J. Bagots, Limited, Middleton, near Manchester. The contributors to the book _ are . experts on the subject of the taxation-of Land Values, and include wellknown. men in Great Britain. France, the United States, and Ike British Colonies.