LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND THE DRAMA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7222, 10 January 1885, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE, MUSIC, AND THE DRAMA.

Mb* Arthtjb Mi all has just completed the tory of his father's Edward Miall. , A little fiction sketch, "Chewton Abbot," by Mr. Hugh Conway, is promised by Messrs. Chambers.. v , 4 Lieutenant Greely is about to visit England with a view of publishing there his work on Arctic exploration. . A new threes volume novel by Mrs. Alexander Fraser, entitled "The Match of the Season," will shortly be published. *, Mr. Elliot Stock will shortly publish a new monthly magazine of a popular character, devoted to the study of ancient literature. _ , A' new work on Prince Bismarck is announced, said, to be from the pen of a Russian diplomatist. The book is in French. The New York Publisher's Weekly gives currency to a rumour that Mr. lhomas Hughes is at work on a biography of Peter Cooper. The Rev. Professor Church's boy's book for the year—" The Chantry Priest of Barnet: a Tale of the Two Rosea"—is just leaving the printer's. '• Mr. J. S. Winter, author of "Cavalry Life" and " Regimental Legions," has prepared another set of similar sketches, which will be published shortly. . . Dr. Parker is about to begin an exposition of the whole Bible in twenty-five volumes. We hope that he will live long enough to complete his gigantic task. . Mr. Joseph Thompson is, it is reported, to receive £1500 from the firm of Messrs. S. Low and Co. for his forthcoming work on his expedition from Zanzibar to Victoria Nyaoza. The Rev. George Mathison, of Innellan, is at work on the problem of evolution and revelation, which will be published under the title, " Can the Old Faith Live with the New , . Aa a contribution to the history of to-day, Lady Bellairs proposes to edit a series of " Notes and Tales of the Transvaal War, 1880-1." Messrs. Blackwood and Co. are to be the publishers. '' Mr. Henry Faulds is preparing a series of reminiscences, which will have the title of "Nine Years in Nipon: Sketches of Japanese Life and Manners. The book frill be illustrated. Mr. Laurence Oliphant, who seems to have permanently settled at his home in Haifa, Aas committed his confession of faith to writing, and the book will shortly be published by Messrs. Blackwood under the name of " Sympneumata; or, Signs of Humanitary Evolution." Mr. H. Van Laun's "Characters of La Eruyere" is certainly one of the most beautiful books evßr produced, quite apart from the excellence of the work itself. Book collectors therefore, will hear with the greater regret that nearly the whole edition has been destroyed by fire, and that the damage is ■aid to exceed £3000. . The correspondence of men of their time is flinging some curious light upon celebrities. Mr. John Wilson Croker was a remarkable man, and played his part. , His letters, just published, tell us new things about the men of Croker's day, from the Puke of Wellington to Sir Robert Peel, and is likely to be the best picture of those times which we possess. Mr. Mackenzie Wallace's acceptance of the private secretaryship of the Indian Viceroy does not involve the abandonment of his great work on the subject of the races of the Ottoman Empire, upon which he has been engaged for the last six years. His progress with the work will be suspended until his return from India, when he expects to resume and complete his studies in three or four years. The editors of Dickens' correspondence have ascertained that a most interesting record of his connection with the Daily News Sb still in existence. This is a diary kept 0y the sub-editor, Mr. Dudley Costello, containing the directions given by Dickens from day to day as to the conduct of the journal. The subjects for leading articles are noted, and directions are given as to the persons by whom they are to be treated and the manner of treatment. As the editor of household Words' and All the Year Round, Dickens is known to have been most careful in selecting subjects and supervising his contributors, and it now appears that he had been equally vigilant when editing the Daily New?. ben these fresh particulars are made public an interesting view will be given of a part of his career about which Uttle is set forth in his biography.