LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12663, 17 September 1904, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

"Baliol Grate," Mr. Algernon Gissing's new novel, was expected from Messrs. Chatto about the end of August. ' Part 11. of the German Official account of the war in South Africa, translated by Colonel W. H. Waters, R.A.,, is nearly ready. Concerning Fiction :, Miss Dorothea; Ger- ; ard has written,a, novel called "The Bridge of Life," which Messrs. Methuen will publish., : /s>■ . v ; ; '.v: ;•.':-■.'" ''}':■■ . , ■ ~. . ■ y v A new school history of England,, written by Miss M. A. Tucker, of Newnham College, is to be published by Mr. John Mur ray. ; ~-.'; ■-~,■'. . ._ .-> •■ '■][ • An edition of "Uncle/Tom's Cabin," illustrated in colours from drawings by Mr. Simon Harmon Tedder, will be published by Messrs. Black in" October. Mr. Murray announces a story by Miss Mary Deaue, under the title, The Rose Spinnei." It is a "romance:of town,and country in the Bubble year, 1720." Mr. Rowland Ward will shortly publish a book of travel and sport in Alaska, a land very l attractive to the sportsman. The writer is Captain C. E. Radcliffe. ■ , : Mr. Fisher Unwin promises an autumn novel by the lady who writes .as " Lucas Oleeve." Its title is "The Children of Endurance," and the reference is to the people of Israel. Miss Myrtle Reed, an American novelist who has found many readers in England, has a new storj* nearly ready with Putuams. She entitles it " The Master's Violin," and it is a gentle old-fashioned love story. A new edition of "The Southwark Psalter" is being prepared by Messrs. Longman. The words for this psalter were arranged in paragraphs by Bishop Westcott, and set to music by Dr. Madeley Richardson. Mrs. Clayton Glyn has now completed the play on whichj as* may be known, she has been engaged. If it is as bright and taking ! in stylo as her "Letters of Elizabeth," it should readily find a stage and then popularity. Mr. George Allen announces "From a Holiday Journal," a book by the late Mrs. E. T. Cook. Another book in Mr. Allen's list deals with recent discoveries and excavations in the Forum, the author being Mr. St. Clair Baddeloy. Vv "- <> Under the title of " Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902," by Dr.. Sven Hedin, the first volume of the sis the work will contain, describing the Tarim River, has been published in Stockholm. The next few volumes will describe Lobntor and Tibet. So great has been the interest aroused by. the article. on the, Tsar in the current number of the. Quarterly Review that a third large edition has been called for, and is now in the press. The article, which is "from the pen of a Russian official of high rank;" contains a vigorous indictment of the late M. de Plehve, who is finally summed up as " the ame damnee of autocracy." ■■ ! i&

The novel "which Henry Seton Merij.imaii. left will be published in England and Jn America in September. There ,is a touch of pathos in its?title, "The Last Hope." The surroundings' of the story are in France and England during the Presidency of "the Bonaparte who later on became Napoleon 111. It deals intimately with the attempt to secure the Imperial throne before the famous coup d'etat. '- >' , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first story, written at the age of .six, was about a tiger that swallowed a man. The youthful novelist used to tell his stones to his schoolmates, ftfr'-which they paid him in jam-tarts; and he was wont to ensure prompt payment by working the tale up to a hair-raising climax and then refusing to proceed unless the price was immediately forthcoming in tartlet currency.,-'. Mr. Justin Huntly McCarthy is usually happy in the titles of his-stories, as take the last one, "If I Were King," with'its promise of high doings. Distinctive, ; too, is the name he is giving to another story, which we shall get in the autumn. "The Lady of. Loyalty House." This Story "deals with the opposition of a noble and beautiful Royalist lady to a Puritan captain, which indicates the period dealt with. From being enemies, the lady and the captain ultimately become friends,* and she pleads for his life with King Charles—successfully, of course.

" The Complete Motorist-!" It was bound to come,, and, therefore, it might well- come from the ■ bright pen of Mr. Filson Young. The "book is announced by Messrs. Mfituuen, who are-putting many illustrations into it. We are told that, as it is written, by an amateur for amateurs, so the point of view throughout is that of the private user of motor cars. Mr. Filson Young has endeavoured to write a book that will, in itself, be a sufficient literary equipment for beginners, and a useful guide and pleasant companion to them in their career as automobilists. • * "'■''... Young people will be glad to hear that Mi. Crockett, who can fell a story with anybody, has written some for them. Messrs. Black announce a volume by him called " Bed Cap Tales," with the sub-title, " Stolen from the Treasury Chest of the YVizard of the. North." Says Mr. Crockett:—" Four children would not read Scott, so I told them these stories—and othersto lure them to the printed books, much as carrots are dangled befcTe the nose of the reluctant donkey." Now these four children skirmish nightly as to who shall sleep with " Waverley under his pillow. A "Miniature Reference Library" is now being prepared for, publication. The first volume will be a " Dictionary of Quotations." Another volume is to be " Famous Sayings," a third a " Reader's Guide and Handbook," and a fourth a " Dictionary of Abbreviations," while subsequentTvorumes will be devoted to "Synonyms and Nicknames," a "Dictionary Appendix" of words and terms not generaUy found in. dictionaries, "A Dictionary of Phrases," and a volume of " Christian Names," with explanations as to their origin. Each volume will consist of 300 pages, and the price will be Is per volume. • '

The Athenaeum says that the death recently occurred ci: William Ridler, for many years a successful dealer in old books in the now demolished Holy well-street, and, during the last three or four years, in High-street, Holborn. He was an assistant or porter with a well-known, Holywell-street bookseller, "Tommy" Arthur, who made a respectable fortune out of books, and bequeathed a small legacy to Ridlei, who promptly bought the goodwill of his employees business, and carried it on with considerable profit to himself. The business is no longer tc be continued, and the stock is to be sold by auction in the forthcoming autumn.

Carl Joubert's book, "Russia As It Really Is," gives some plain words tor the Tsar. The author has spent nine years in Russia, and has mixed with all sorts and conditions. His conclusion is that it is rotten from top to bottom. There is such.a thing ar a system grown too vast and intricate to be controlled by one man. "In Russia," he says, "fetters are a necessity, and if a man will not wear them on his understanding he must submit to them en his limbs. Ask the students themselves," he says, " about the closing of their universities, and you will hear another story. It seems that some of the students began to think. That is the worst of education; it make? men think. They studied historyand' they thought about it. They read the classic literature of the Greeks and Romans—and they thought about that. They dipped into philosophy, science, and sociology—and their thoughts became deeper than ever. Poring ovei books, doubts began to obtrude them" selves on their minds— about the infallibility of the ' God on Earth,' doubts of the sanctity of Holy Russia. Then, one day, a student whispered his doubts to his friend, and found that he, too, had his doubts. So they went to a third, and whispered to him ; and he whispered to another. At last, somebody whispered to the Governor and the University was closed, and a squadron of Cossacks wiere quartered m the town." Exile to Siberia followed, and Mr. Joubert gives all the incidents.