LONDON LITERARY GOSSIP.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1164, 22 June 1894, Page 30

LONDON LITERARY GOSSIP.

FromVur Own Correspondent. London, April 27. A good many not altogether unintelligent persons complain that they find " Marcel la " stodgy and hard to read. I confess I cannot understand it. From lit sb to lust the noble s*,ory enthralled me. "Since 'Felix Holt' we have had nothing so powerful on the subject/' says a famous reviewer. Personally I must say 1 think "MwceUa" far tho greater book of the two. We most of jus know someone like tho heroine. Tho cogcoscenti see in her a judicious blend of Miss Margaret Harkuess, who did so much for the dockers, and was tho guardian angel of the Labour eh.ctor, and the Countess of Carlisle. The litter more probably stood for Mrs Wharton, who carried Socialism to tho pitch of insisting that her servants should, as Yankees say, "meal" with her. Mrs Wharfc n's old butler in " Marcella" flatly refuses, but the Carli&les of real life did, 1 believe, for a time carry out this moßt uncomfortable custom at Castle Howard. The Venturist Society are, of course, the Fabians, Bennett is John Burns and Wilkins is Keir Hardie. These anyone and everyone will recognise, but William Morris, Walter Crane, and above all Mr Champion flit through the three volumes in less recognisable guises. The character whom many have fixed on as the original of the last-nanud Labour leader is disguised physically and temperamentally. His history does not tally with Mr Champion's in one single particular. Nevertheless ask the Labour members which of Mrs Ward's creations resembles the once petted demagogue, and you will see they all name the same persun. There is much talk concerning Aldous Raeburn. Several men hardly known at all to the general public are suggested as likely to have unconsciously stood for that hero. Edward Ilallin is, of course, the late Arnold The village characters, especially Mrs Jellison, old Pattern, the wretched Hurd, and his feckless wife Minta, were without doubt deliberately drawn from life. They are ai ical as Hardy's rustics, and presented to us with infinitely more sympathetic insight than he ever displays.

"A Valiant Ignorance," which is the title of Mary Angela Dickens's new novel, would have been better named "Thy Gold is Brass/' Like the same author's " A Mere Cypher," its strung point is the subtle drawing of one remarkable character around whom the others —rough sketches of a conventional kind—revolve. Mrs William Romayne, as a girl of 20, marries a man much her senior for the sake of his money and position. She becomes a woman of the world, devoted to " society/' and believing its artificial pleasures and conquests and its insincere flatteries the only things worth living for. Unfortunately, just as, by her uncommon beauty and perfect manner, Mr Romayne attains to the "best set," her husband is exposed as a dishonest spec*

latorand company-monger, and commits suicide to avoid arrest. Chagrined and embittered the widow retiros into the country, and devotes herself to her only son. Presently an old uncle dies, leaving Mrs Romayne a wealthy woman again. This suggests to her the idea of recovering for her sou's sake the social status his father forfeited. With extraordimvy pains and tact and ingenuity she sots to work to attain this end, and finally sue ceeds. When the lad (who knows nothing of Mr Romayne's delinquencies) reach s manhood his mother is able to introduce him to a number of unexceptionable peoplo, and to impress upon him that social distinction and the good opinion of the world are the two things that really matter. Young Romayne inherits his father's weaknesses, and his mother, who would gladly give her life to save him from them, actually provokes catastrophes, and leads him into temptation by her false gospel. Nothing is wrong save what society considers wrong. When Julian gets "entangled with a girl " fen mother's one fear is not lest he should have seduced her, but lest he should hivo put himself irtetrievably wrong with society by marrying her. So it is with everything. Ttie mother, whilst guarding her boy, as blio in her valiant ignorance believes, in all essentials, actually hastens his destruction. How the story works out ono must not, of course, tell. The men in the book are a poor lot. Miss Dickens is far more .sue cessful with her women, but even they seem conventional shadows beside Mrs Romayne. Mer "gold was brass," yet her mother love made her fight desperately to retain it.

The real name of the author of the tk Honourable Stanbury," the late3t pseudonym to attract attention, is Mrs Stewart, wife of a Scotch country gentleman.

Mark Twain reading his own tall stories before American audiences can usually "enthuse" them. When, however, he ventures oft' the line disaster is apt to occur. At a smart Fifth Avenue Girls' School once the humourist, gave tho famous incident from " Feristah's Fancy/ 7 After he had finished the mistress brought up an English, aud very literary, young lady. She felt she ought to say something apologetic. This professional funny man had not waked a sing'e laugh but her own. " I was so sorry for you," she murmured swecly ; •• the others didn't seem to see the joke in it. I suppose you wrote it yourself; it was a skit on Browning, wasn't it ? 1 understood about as much of it as I do of Browning." Mark confessed humbly he hnd tried to give the words as Browning wrote thorn, aud added—with an attempt at dignity—" he is my favourite author."

The novels most frequently borrowed at tho London public libraries are Mrs Henry Wood's, EJna Lyall's, Rider Haggard's, Miss Braddon's, Charles Dickens, and Cpnan Doyle's in the order given. The two stories in the greatest demand are ** East Lynne " and "King Solomon's Mines." The grown-up folk amongst the masses read the former, and the youngsters the latter.

Mr Scott-Elall, who recently agreed to purchase Cumuor Place from Lord Abingdon under, he declaros, the impression he was buying the actual scene of the Amy Robsart catastrophe with the "ghost of that heroine, and all usual accessories," lias refused to complete the bargain Forced to explain why in a Court of Law, Mr Scott Hall pleaded he had been misled. The present Oumnor Place w*B'not even on the site of the old manor (long ago pulled down), and the spot where the ghost of Amy Robsart walks—if she ever does take a midnight constitutional nowadays—was actually beyond the boundary of the property he had bought mainly in order to possess her. Legal arguments, long and involved, followed* but ultimately tho Judge decided Mr Scott-Pall had not been deceived, and ordered him to complete the purchase.

Professor Gold win Smith, speaking at the Booksellers' Society annual dinner, the other evening, sneered an unworthy sneer at Mrs Humphry Ward and other writers of "political and religious novels," and invoked the shade of Sir Walter Scott. This great master, ho implied, was to little read nowadays. The booksellers must have smiled, and reflected how ignorant certain learned men are of what goes on in the reading world around them. Why, tha feature of the last six months has been the recrudescence of the historical romance. Scott and Dumas have both been in strong demand, and Mr Stanley Weyman and Mr Conan Doyle's "A Gentleman of France " and " Refugees " have sold in thousands.

The scene in "The Rubicon" where Lady Hayes, with the aid of the overture to " Tannhauser," undeceives the guileless Reggie Davenport as to her true character was published by Mr Benson as a short story in the English Illustrated Magazine a few months ago.

Kfaoda Broughton's " A Beginner," which has been running through Temple Bar for this last few months, is now out in one volume, price 6s. It describes in the authoress' characteristic fashion the experiences of a young lady belonging to a smart county family who secretly writes and publishes a very modem, almost

risky, novel. On dU at Oxford, that "A Beginner" contains many reminiscences of Miss Broughtou'a own experiences some fifteen years ago, or in re.

" A Modern Buccaneer " by Rolf Boldrewood and "Our Ain Folk" by Hon Jas. Inglis arc amongst the latest AngloColonial fiction. Mrs Catiyn's "A Yellow Aster " goes strong as ever at the libraries, and is now in a fifth edition.

Sir Chas. Gavan Duffy's "Revival of Irish Literature " has just been published by Fisher Unwin. Popular as the old man is in Australia, I scarcely expect many of vou to read this great work. " The Art of Living in Australia/' by Dr Muskett, of Sydney, is also just out here.