LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Mr. George Allen is projecting a new edition of Ruskin's work in thirty volumes, with all the plates in a reduced size, and with' additional material which Raskin left behind.

Professor Herford, recently appointed to the Chair of English Literature in Owens College, Manchester, ga.ve bis inaugural address on " The Permanent Power of English Literature."

Mr. Buruand, editor of Punch, is said to be busy with a volume of reminiscences. This should be extremely interesting, as Mr. ! Burnand has been intimately associated with j a host of famous men during the last half j century.

" The Mental Functions of the Brain: An Investigation into Their Localisation and Their Manifestation in Health and Disease"' is "the title of a work by Dr. Bernard Hotlander which Mr. Grant Richards has just published.

Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co. have in hand a new and complete edition of Thackeray's works. It will "be illustrated throughout by Mr. Chas E. Brock, and will be edited by Mr. Walter Jerrold. The edition will commence publication immediately with "Vanity Fair," and will be completed within a rear.

Maxime Gorky, it appears, is not the real name of the Russian novelist. It is a pseudonym signifying " the bitter one," which tire author has taken to symbolise his hard life. His real name is Alicksici Maksimovitch Pieslrkov. His Litest _ novel, " Foma Gordyer," a dramatic story, is to be published shortly by Mr. Fisher Unwin.

A volume of addresses by the Bishop of J London, entitled "Words "from under the j Dome," is announced by Messrs. Wells Gardi ner. Darion, and Co. " Among other works • bv the same firm are: "The Christianity of I the New Testament and Our Modern Christian Life," bv the late Rev. J. P. F. Davidson. M.A. : '"Atonement and the Eucharist.'' by the Rev. William Kerr Smith, M.A. : " Reasons Why I am a Catholic, and not a Roman Catholic." by Charlotte M. Yonge.

Messrs. Bel! will publish shortly an elaborate "History of the Tower of London." by Lord Ronald Sutherland-Gower. It will be illustrated with a large number of photoKravme plates, including reproductions of photographs specially taken from he buildin itself, ami old "views and scenes connected with the Tower. The first volume, taking the history down to the end of the Tudor period, will be ready in a few days, and the second and completing volume is in the press.

A generation has passed since there has been any reprint of Sir Walter Scott's deiigktful" "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." and no revised or critical edition has appeared since Loekhart's, some seventy vcars ago. Since that time a great advance has been made in the study of ballad literature, and the time seems ripe for a new critical edition which should correct and supplement the note of Lockhart, and by means of variorum notes trace the different versions of the ballads and show the nature of Scott's alterations. Such an edition Messrs. Blackwood and Soils arc about to publish. Mr. Henderson will be remembered, as co-editor with Mr. Henley of the" Centenary Burns." In connection with this work it may be interesting to recall, says the Westminster Gazette, that Robert Siirtees, the antiquary, palmed off one or two ballads "of his own manufacture as genuine relies of antiquity on Sir Walter. One of these, "The Death of Feat hers ugh," is capitally done, and is accompanied by some curious elucidatory notes from Surtees, which completely deceived Scott. Referring to this fabrication Hill Burton, in his " Book Hunter.'' tells an amusing story of someone who, wishing to test the critical powers of an experienced collector, sent him a new-made ballad, which had been secured, so it was said, only in fragmentary form. To the Surprise of the fabricator, thb ballad duly appeared, but in complete formthe collector having, in the course^of his inquiries among, the peasantry, been so fortunate as to recover the missing fragment:;! Such anecdotes are very entertaining, but they engender unpleasant doubts about much of cur "old"' ballad literature.