LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11056, 6 May 1899, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

With its next issue Blackwood makes its thousandth appearance in a special double number, with additional features in honour of the occasion. Messrs. Macmillan will shortly publish a complete edition of Tennyson's poetical works, exclusive of dramas, in their wellknown Globe Library, at 3s 6d. Mr. Gosse's "Life and Letters of Dr. John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's," upon which he has been long engaged, is finished, and will be published by Mr. Heinemann. Messrs. Holder and Stoughton are about to publish sixpenny editions of books by Mr. IJarrie and "lan Maclaren," One of these is "A Window in Thrums," and the other is " Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush." Mr. B. L. Farjeon's new novel. "Samuel Boyd of Catchpole Square," which Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. are to publish shortly, is said to be one of that popular author's most thrilling stories of mystery. Mr. Walter Wellsman, who for 41 years lias edited "The Newspaper Press Directory." is preparing a history of the Press of the nineteenth century, and hopes to have it ready for publication early in 1900. Tho New Era: an International Record, is the title of a new Catholic weekly newspaper, which appears shortly under Catholic control. Special prominence will bo given to news from the chief centres of Catholicism. ' Oliver Cromwell," by Dr. Samuel Rawson Gardiner, is being issued in the first art series of historical works, projected by Messrs. Goupil and Co., in which "Mary Stuart," "Queen Victoria," "Queen Elizabeth," and Charles I." have already appeared. A second series of Mr. Cutcliffe Hyne's Captain Kettle's stories will shortly be published by Messrs. Pearson. Mr. Hvne has also completed a novel dealing with the island of Atlantis, and the Universal Deluge. The name of the hero of this romance is Deucalion, but the name of the heroine is not Pyrrlia; and the story is said to have been suggested to the author by certain geological studies which he pursued at the University of Cambridge. A new edition of Carl.vle's "Cromwell" is in preparation for Messrs. Methuen. Mrs. S. C. Lomas has undertaken to bring it up to the standard of modern scholarship, and will furnish notes, appendices, a new calendar of letters, and index. The new letters discovered since Carlyle published his last edition will be quoted in oxtenso where they are important, while of the less important ones an abstract only will be given. Mr. C. H. Firth will contribute a long introduction to this edition. Lord Tennyson has made an interesting and welcome gift to the University of Oxford in the shape of an autograph letter of '" s '™\ which he has just presented to the Bodleian Library. Ihe Bodleian had not hitherto possessed any letter of Tennyson. Cambridge, especially Trinity College, is very rich in the MSS. of Tennyson, as is only fitting, considering that he" is one of the many poets whom Cambridge can claim. It is said that the letter is an interesting and characteristic one, and it has been placed m one of the show cases of the library.'

It is well known— only to tire initiated, but also to a large number of others that the post-Biblical writings of the Jews are rich in literary curiosities of diverse kinds; but recent discoveries may safely be said to have made that which is curious more curious still. Towards the end of last year three large boxes of ancient fragments on paper and vellum were brought to this country from tie ancient synagogues and cemeteries of Cairo. The authorities of tlie British Museum, to whom these finds were first submitted, selected the most interesting and most important of the fragments, and muck of tho rest has found other purchasers. Almost every branch of Hebrew literature has in this way become enriched, and sidelights on the literatures of other nations are not wanting either*