LITERARY NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 9428, 1 June 1891, Page 3

LITERARY NOTES.

London, April s.

Bishop Moorhouse’s new work on " Tha'l Dangers of the Apostolic Age” is having] a large sale, and has been highly favour-' ably reviewed by the Press. ; Mr Fergus Hume’s now shilling shocker,] " Monsieur Judas,” should bo out to-day.'l The title is not at all a had one for suoh al work, being at once suggestive and pro-! vocative of curiosity. Tho second volume of the_ Whitefriars : Library consists of a collection of trum-j pery resurrected magazine tales by Mans ville Fenn. The best of a bad lot," Sawn] Off,” gives the title to the book. • "Bush Life in New Zealand,” by Donald Ferguson, is the title of a new work on that Colony about to be published by Swann, Sonnenschein and Co. It deals,; I believe, with the Middle Island. The lady who,-under the pseudonym o£l " Frank Danby,” perpetrated " Dr! Phillips ” and “ A Babe in Bohemia** ia! writing a " daring ” play for Mr Gtein’aj Free and Independent (i.e., easy) Theatre. Mrs Oliphant’s " Memoir of Lawrence Oliphant,” which promises to_ be the most interesting work of the (Spring) season, will be published next week by Blaokwoods, who also announce a cheap edition of Lang’s " Life of Lord Iddesleigh.” ; A sequel to "Miss Boyle’s Romanoe/*] called "An American ‘Duchess,” by Wj Fraser Eae, is published this week by Bentleys. I never thought- much. of “Miss Boyle’s Romance” myself, but it had a certain vogue amongst Americans, j The fourteenth edition of "Men of tho Time” now called "Men and Women of the Tims” ia greatly enlarged and improved ; in fact, to all intents and purposes a new book. A fresh editor has been engaged, and several hundred biographies added. Many Colonial celebrities are,] however, still wanting. < In “ Her Evil Genius,” Mr Fredk Boyle attempts to draw an artist of much the same elaborately complex character as Mrs Harrison’s able creation in ** The Wages of Sin.” Tho plot of " Her Evil Genius” turns on the old expedient®! " ringing*ln w j an impostor on well-meaning folks who are seeking for a long lost heir. ; ‘ ! The best of the stories by Australian! ladies in Mrs Patchett-Martin’s " Coo-oe”! ia Mrs Henry Day’s “ Mrs Drammcnd, of| Quondong.” It possesses a genuine up--: country flavour, which some of the more] pretentious tales lack. On the whole, how-j ever, the fair editor has been distinctly] fortunate in her contributors. ,•

" David ” is the title of Mrs Humphrey; Ward’s new book, and amongst other; forthcoming novels worth looking after I may mention “ A Eainbow at Night,” ,by M. B. Le Clerc; "Kinsfolk,” by Mary Deane; and a three volume story bytha clever author of " Culmshira Folk ” and “ John Orlebar, Clerk.” The latter'will 1 run through Blackwood serially.

The new edition of Mr Gladstone'*: speeches will fill from six to eight volumes,; It is not true that the work is to boj entitled "Exuberant Verbosity." Wheal consulted by the editors on the subject of| publication, the G.OJL expressed modeafr doubts as to there being any call for such! an extensive re-issue. However, on betn®| informed that an edition of M. Thienr] speeches, which ran into sixteen volumes,; was widely read in France, he gave way. ; The special translation of "Crozefe! Voyage to Tasmania and New'Zealand ia.’ 1571-2,” which (I mentioned to you re-! cently) Mr Henry L; Eath has in the l press, will be a particularly interesting! work. It is to be embellished with fullpage autotype plates and other illiwka-’ tions in the text, and will contain a special! preface by Mr James B. Booss, of th®i Colonial Institute. Needless ,to say all! public libraries in Australia and New Zealand (more particularly) should possess; this work. Only 500 oopios are to be! printed, and the cost will be Ips -6d. The so-called ""Talleyrand Memoirs,” for the English rights of which the Csa-; tury Magazine paid a large, mice,, and; which have, so far, provedmoat disappoint-; ing, are condemned by M. Anland ,(Fre«! feasor of French Eevolutiohkay:History): as wholly apocryphal. His opiniorus that the few chapters in which r the light, eighteenth century touch of Talleyrand is; easily recognisable, differ essentially from 1 at least six-sevenths of the two vommes., Moreover, the work contains glaring errors! which Talleyrand, who had a good deal to] do with the men of the Eevolution could never have committed.

Neither in appearance nor contentrdoes Mrs Sfcannard’s so-called “ new departure,"' Golden Gates , promise well. Its get-up ia : common to a degree, whilst for mawkish | sentiment of the sickliest and most un»| wholesome sort commend me to the-editors 1 storyette “ His Chum’s Chum.” The mere! idea of healthy lads of eighteen or nine-) teen shedding gallons of tears over a tern-: porary separation and kissing each other; like girls or Frenchmen sends a shudder! down one’s back, and will certainly rouse) the wrath of virile readers. Golden Gatesi is not likely to have a .very long lease-or life. , ;

Lippincotts announce a complete novel' by Julien Gordon (Mrs Van Renselaeri Cruger), author of that clever little “A Diplomat's Diary,” in their May; magazine. It will be called ‘‘"Vampires.”! 1 hear, by the way, it was the editor oft this periodical who insisted on Mr Rudyard Kipling eliminating the new Chapter vixit) from ‘‘The Light that Failed ” and alter-, ing the finale. This, it seems, was origi-i nally tragic as now, though much shorter. 1 The editor opined Maisie’s conduct was 1 ; unnecessarily cynical and unnatural. He| stipulated for a happy ending, and (as; Lippincotts paid JS2SO for 1 merely using! the story) got it. . , Dr Smiles, whose “ Life of ■- (the first), John Murray ” I commended toyour notice last mail, is a hale old man of nearly, four score years, but looking considerably: younger. He. might have given himself In. ‘‘.Self Help" as an- example of theiih-, telleot which takes time to mature. -.Dr, Smiles was forty-five when-he published! his first book, “The. Life of George; Stephenson.” The famous “Self-Help": he tendered to several publishers fruit-; lessly. After “George Stephenson” succeeded, Murray rather doubtfully accepted! it. He sold one hundred and eighty thousand copies in a comparatively short time, and the book has since been translated into every known European language*