LITERATURE AND ART?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11771, 28 September 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART?

The title of Max Adeler's new book is to be " Captain Bluitt."

Mr. Justin 'M'Cartby has recently begun a new work, a history of the reign of Queen Anne, and it will be published in two volumes by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. The announcement is one which will be welcomed by the many admirers of Mr. M'Carthy's writings, for it is an indication that his health is better than it was.

•Mrs. Campbell Praed's new novel, "The Insane Root," will be published by Mr. Fisher Unwin soon. The story is founded upon the idea that a man, by the exercise of immense will-power, enters the body of a handsome rival when, by the action of chloroform, the soul of his victim is temporarily absent. He is therefore in the position 'to make love to the woman who loves his rival.

Messrs. Constable and Co. have arranged to issue a new edition of the novels of Mr. George Meredith. The volumes will be of the size known as "pott octavo." After various experiments, a special paper has been secured which is suitable for what will really be a pocket edition. The books will be as attractive as possible; they will be bound in red cloth, gilt top, and will have no other ornamentation than the author's autograph on the side.

" Truth," the third volume of Zola's four Evangels, is to be ready soon. It deals with life among French schoolmasters and boys, and is a. violent attack on the present educational system. He advocates a kind of co-operative education, and closes with a picture of an ideal community employing Socialistic methods. As soon as "Truth" is completed Zola will begin work on " Justice," the last volume of the series, which will be based on the history of the Dreyfus case.

Mr. Louis Becke has three books in hand for the coming season, all of which will be published by Mr. Fisher Unwin. The first of the trio will be entitled " By Rock and Pool." Later on will come " Breaohley, Black Sheep," which is a narrative of adventure by sea and land, the hero being a colonial boy. Mr. Becke, in this book, takes the reader" from the northern rivers of Queensland right away to California, and thence to the ""South Seas. The third volume is called " Yorke the Adventurer, and Other Tales."

Mr. Meredith Townsend, who was for twelve years connected with the Friend of India, "is about to publish with Messrs. Constable and Co. his studies on " Asia and Europe." They should meet (says the Athenaeum), with acceptance as the result, not of the tour or two which make a modern "expert" book, but of a long life devoted to the relations between the two continents. The subjects discussed include the retention of India, by England, the Asiatic type of mind, the "future of the negro, Islam and Christianity, and some account of perhaps the only people who preserve any personal dignity," the Arabs. The book will bo issued shortly. Messrs. Putnam's Sons being responsible for the American edition.

An attempt to attain perfection of beauty in reproduction is about to bo made by Messrs. George Newnes, in a- fine art quarterly publication, entitled the Ideal. _ It will" contain, besides numerous illustrations in the text, at least eight full-page etchings, photogravures, mezzotints, or other fine art productions, the pictures selected (many from private collections), being those of the greatest masters, early and modern. Mr. A. G. Temple, F.S.A., Director of the Guildbail Art Gallery, will direct the selection. The full-page reproductions in colour will be executed by Messrs. Boussod, Valadon, and Co. For this work the subscription price is thirty-eight guineas for the four parts, and ten' guineas for a single part. Three of the eleven items in the first volume will be: "The Madonna, with the Cherries," by the Master of Cologne, the text- by Mr. Selwyn Brinton; "Velasquez and His Work;" and " The Egyptian Work' of Sir Lawrence AlmaTadema." * Among the pictures to be reproduced for the first"time are " The Ladv with the Mantilla." bv Velasquez: " The Wife of Plutus," by G. F. Walts. R.A. ; and Turner's "Marriage of the Adriatic" and Hie Giudecca." _____,^„„