LITERARY NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5918, 13 February 1880, Page 3

LITERARY NOTES.

Miss Colenso, a daughter of the ex-Bishop of Natal, has written a history of the Zulu war, which is now in the hands of a London publisher. William Black, the novelist, is one of the most rapid writers of the day, but seldom works two days continuously, the strain of which would be too much for him. Mr J. Daniel Leader, E.S.A., proposes to publish a complete and minute narrative of the events of the long captivity of Mary, Queen of Scots, during the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury. The volume has grown out of a pamphlet published fay the author in 1869. Attracted by his subject, the writer was led on without at first intending it, until his collections have accumulated. William Morris, the English poet, has a sort of house-furnishing place of business, and in his store he makes out designs of wall paper for wealthy and fastidious families. He does a great deal of work for stylish houses, his best patterns being in green and gold. Morris is 45 years old. Professor Henry Morley has been giving a lecture on “ Newspapers,” in which he said that there was much in the newspaper world that they might well wish away, but did they wish away that which represented society or that in society which created certain features in the newspaper world ? It was of no use to break the mirror because they did not like the look of their nose. The newspaper was the mirror of English society, but he hoped none of hia hearers would like to be the editor of a journal that reproduced small talk and gave accounts of the meaner views of life. A pamphlet has been written on the Civil List of the Crown by Mr George Standring, entitled “ Court Flunkeys.” The author gives some remarkable examples of how the public money in Great Britain goes. A superb edition of “Lalla Rookh” has been brought out by Mes.*rs Longman and Co. It contains 69 illustrations by John Tenniel, besides five ornamental title pages of Persian design by T. Sulman, jun., and is magnificently bound. Tom Moore’s poem was never before arrayed in so much glory. Victor Hugo is nothing if not epigrammatic. At the supper recently given to celebrate the 100th representation of “ Notre Dame de Paris,” he said : —“ It is literature that makes nations great. It is by Homer and yEschylus that Athens exists; it is by Tacitus and Juvenal that Rome dominates; it is by Rabelais, Moliere and Voltaire that France reigns. Three cities only in history deserve the name of urbs, which seems to sum up at a given moment the whole of humour and intelligence. Those three cities are Athens, Rome, and Paris. The whole of Italy is expressed in the word Dante; the whole of England in the word Shakespeare.” Emile Zola, the novelist, whose daring books are filling even Paris with wonder, has just written the sequel to “ L’Assommoir,’' which be promised. He left one of the characters of “L’Assommoir,” Nana, the child of the drunkard, Coupeau, and the laundress, Gervaise, just where he could conveniently take up her history at a most interesting point. She was a young girl, abused and poor, who one day looked in a broken mirror, and found herself handsome. In the light of her beauty, an easy life dawned upon her. She ran away from her parents, who were both wrecks, and found the life. Some glimpses of her adventures were given in “L’Assommoir.” Zola now takes up her history and introduces his readers to the Paris vaudeville stage, where Nana’s dazzling beauty is her only attraction. If. is a rich field, and Zola reaps the full harvest of its realism. The book is likely to be even more popular than “L’Assommoir,” which good fortune seldom happens to a sequel. Mr Charles Lewis Gruneisen died at his residence, Surrey street, Strand, in his seventy-third year. Mr Gruneisen was connected with London journalism as far back as 1832, and in 1838, while acting as the war correspondent of the Morning Post in Spain during the Carlist war, was taken prisoner by the Christines, and had a narrow escape of being shot. After, enduring great sufferings at Logrouo, he was released through the influence of Lord Palmerston and Count Mole, the French Premier. Mr Gruneisen was the Paris correspondent of the Morning Post horn 1839 to lt-44, and organised an express system to convey to the London papers. He was musical critic of the Morning Post, the Morning Chronicle, and latterly of the Athenceum. He took a leading part in the foundation of the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden, in 1847, and was one of the founders of the Conservative Land Society, of which he was secretary from 1853 to 1872. Mr Gruneisen was a Fellow of the Rjyal Geographical Society, and had published one or two books on musical subjects. __