LITERARY NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 22

LITERARY NOTES.

" I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a knag , who did not love reading. —Lord J Macaulay.

Address all communications for this column to “ The Editor, ‘ New Zealand Mail.” •Publishers sending books for review are requested to mention their price. Publishers and booksellers are invited to send books and publications of general interest for notice in this column, thereby enabling country readers to be in touch with the latest works in the colony.

BOOKS MDBOOKHB.

Tho "boom” in "early Riphngs continues. Recent London papers record the sale of a copy of Kipling s /Schoolboy Lynes,” printed at Lahore m lobl, "for private circulation only' tor Lido. The purchaser was a second-nan cl bookseller, who was buying as agent for a wealthy American bibliophile. The little shilling paper-backed editions (published by Wheeler and Co., Calcutta) of Kipling’s earlier stones are steadily going up in value. The compiler of these notes is the happy owner if an early edition of the afterwards suppressed "City of Dreadful Night. He gave sixpence fob ie in a Wellington auction room some five years ago and last week saw 7 the same edition m a rued £1 10s in a London catalogue. ■ Talking of Kipling, the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” of April 9 prints two long columns of ‘‘Poems about Kiplmg, selected from a very large number or verses published in all sorts of papers throughout the Union. Many of-these are written in imitation of lyip* ing’s own verses, as in the following. Which may be taken as a specimen of the best : NEWS FROM A MISSING LINER--TO A CONVALESCENT. Crawling back to port again, half her cargo shifted ; , . - Just enough of fuel left to steer ner to ! the pier; . , , ~ Plunging through an icy gale wnen the ' fog has lifted, . , . \ Bettered by the breakers, but her; ■ lights a-burning clear ! Hope almost abandoned —days and i, nights she floundered— Nights when not a star was out, and no lights, were near ; All the world believed her lost; men despaired, but wondered Hc-w the liner could be wrecked ami. Kipling thre to steer ! > I Now she makes her harbour-lights,‘glides 1 : through seas enchanted — Whistles shrieking gaily, and tnou-; r i- • sands at the pier; . . ■ Qn the bridge the Captain, paie arid Worm > :■' --undaunted! . * ■I “Welcome back to life again H@ar,| | the people cheer ! ' ” ' | I Messrs Smith Elder’s new “Biogfaph-j iSal 15 - edition of ‘Thaeberaye-w-*

lv _ <- edition of' complete in thirteen volumes at 6s. each.,.,, Th<rH>*efaees,;. bv. Thackeray Is .daughter, Mrfii J jKicMi6ltd’ Ritchie; J are most mterestfej 'The: laSt'/Vdlume of the series, iuslfpublished, contains a life of Thackeray bjC-Mx Ueslie Stephen. Another life;‘of the famous novelist is also announced for publication by Messrs Hutchinson and Co. The author is Mr Lewis Melville, who', it is stated, has for some years been collecting material for his work. The life will be issued m two large vblumes and contains a number of illustrations^...

Tiiose who I? have read and are reading Mri Kip lmgte atorie.s of English schoolboy and! Co ”)m the Windsor MaMizm^,'ltfid tvho are not? will be mteiwfced in the stories of Kipling’s school days as ’told m the Cambridge Magazine, by nf “Mc.Tiirk.” Sneaking of the great romancer’s method of reading the innumerable books put at his youthful disposal by the wise old “Head, MoTurk says : jading attracted considerable notice. He would hold his book just a few inches from his nose, and pore over it, turning over the pages at an extraordinary rate. In this way he would often\get ••through half-a-dozen books in a day.;. Whereas the ordinary boy of nothing but stories of pirates, savages, fires, and hairbreadth escapes, Mr Kipling looked upon such as worthy of all contempt, and would instead read Chaucer, Froissart-, De (jjpifirfr&Y. -and authors of that class.. < Aj

Evideifeii T , r the Headmaster ;of Westmust have largely influenced the general trend of Mr Kipling’s ambitions. Here is an interesting comment of Me Turk’s on his personality: “The Head”, was'.not h'lctei'gymMi and.it; is to this fact that Mr Kipling has attributed his popularity, for, he says, a master who punishes *' one dayand preaches the next cannot he but an object of suspicion to those under him.

Further on in his article, “McTurk” Fas some interesting biographical details of the school and later life of the “Three Musketeers ” He says:—lt was some time ‘before Mr Kipling attained to the dignity of a study. In 1879 two places became vacant m a study of five, and he and “McTurk” were invited to fill the vacancies. Later on that study was

wanted as* an. extra.: room hv the house master, and -then‘‘McTu rk, ” Mr Kipling, and “Stalky” were relegated to a smaller room in No. 5 house. 1 This was the famous “No 5” study. Readers; of “Stalky and Co.” have doubtless found out the identity of “Beetle.” “Beetle, blessed Beetle,” was the -nickname given to Mr Kipling by “McTurk” because of a supposed resemblance, owing to Mr Kipling’s thick busliy eyebrows, and a habit he had of walking about with his elbows held forward and his hands in his pockets ; this was no doubt due to his nether garments being fitted with front pockets. Finally, here is the real sequel to Mr Kipling’s schoolboy romance : —‘‘McTurk” took up an engineering post m India, but finding he was unable to withstand the heat of the sun, came back, and is now an artist in London. “Stalky, ’ on leaving Westward Ho, went out also to India, and is still serving out there as a captain in the India Staff Corps. Mr Kipling was written that “the three swore eternal friendship before they parted,” but I believe he has entirely lost sight of the remainder of the “Three, Musketeers. ” Mr G. S. Street is very severe in Ids criticism of the policy which dictated the publication of the Browning Lore I,otters. He says, in the May number of “The Fail Mall Magazine: Many people have been reading the letters which passed before their marriage between Mr and Mrs Browning and even more people have been taming of them. I have not done the former, for reasons of my own, but I am quite ready to do the latter thing. Indeed, I have a serious reason—as reasons for scribbling go—for saying a word on the subject; it is that my opinion lias hardly found expression so far, whereas the opinions generally are articulate. Speaking carefully, and with as little offence as I may, I think that the publication of these letters is an outrage on the respect which right-feeling people have for t!ie chginity of private and personal. As it lias been stated that the Rev Charles M. Sheldon, the author of the religious stories which have recent !y had such a large sale in as well as in America, was an Unitarian, and that imo hooks were intended to “explain away the Atone ment,” a corespondent recently wrote to him to know whether the slat nu-ut was true. In reply. Mr Sheldon said, writing from Topeka, Kansas, L .S.A. • —“I believe with ail my soul in the .Atonement of Christ for a sinful world, ana 1 preach it constantly in my church. The book “In His Steps” was written to arouse Church members and nominal Christians. It was not written as a texi. ba k on the doctorme of the Atonement.”

A book which created some attention last year was Lieut. Winston Chuichill’s “With the Malakand Field Force,” a capital account of the Indian frontier hill fighting. Lieut. Churchill, who is a soil of the late Lord Randolph Churchill, acted as correspondent for the “Daily Telegraph” with the Tirah expedition, and was also present at- the battle of Omdurra&n. He is now coming out as a nove4 list, having completed a story which is entitled, “Savrola; A Military and Political Romance.”' ' ’ " ■•'“■Art ■--—We- not ica thatAVa-ijxLw il 1 sliortl y putiTi sli a vdlumo rt an d Travel in’ Pfrrtugujp.se Ea St f A.filia.” The author, Mr F. is a brother of Mr J. Kirby,,-. twhq| is well-known in New Zealand: circles.. Mr Vaughan Kirby s first Ifßok, “In Haunts of Wild G'ame*” pphlishecMwc or three years ago, was fi griijatAsucSess. The author is well-known fioli&k clefs of “The Field” under the nom-tle-plunjje of “Maquamba.” K « |tAt a book sale by Sotheby’sH, the famous London book auctioneers on April $7, a remarkably fine copy of the firftL fetation of Sir Walter Scott’s “Waverlej 7 ,” ISM. uncut and in the original grey boards, £l5O (Robson) —the Ashbur'nham copv, which sold for £7B was . almost equally fine, but it was in half calf. Another leading feature of the day’s sale was the extensive collection of the work by R. L. Stevenson, presented by him to bis mother, Mrs M. . Stevenson, and nowsold by order of her executor. A few of the principal items, all first editions, are the following: "Macaire,” by W. E. Henley and R. L. Stevenson, 1885—£14 ; “Beau Austin,” by the same authors, 1884, £2O; “Admiral Guinea,” by the -same, 1884—£19 15s; R. L. Stevenson, “Kidnapped,” the original unpublished leaflet edition, comprising 27 pages, exceedingly rare—£3o ; R. L. Stevenson, “Father Damien,” 1890, the original Sydney edition, privately printed, presentation copy with inscription from the author to his mother—£l ;R. L. Stevenson, “Notice of a New Form of Intermittent Light of Lighthouses,” xL7I, reprinted from the “Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of .Arts,” four copies all inscribed 'btith the author's compliments” realised from £ll 10s to £l2 5s each : It. L.“S ; teyenson, “The Charity Bazaar,” four pages quarto—£B 10s. The day's sale realised £1638.

An opportune illustrated article in “The Temple” describes Mr Kipling’s home- at Rottingdean. His house is the same oldfashioned rooftree under which, a swart -youngster fresh from India; he spent his holidays not so many years ago. To come back to this sleepy little Sussex village, with the sea at .its feet and the rolling Downs behind; is, in Mr Kipling’s case*

to retnrp,|tp fiiyold love. At Rottingdean he is among V-he friends of his boyhood. Nearly every old villager remembers “the little Indian,’ as they used to call BurneJones’s nephew, and every house m the single, straggling street possesses for him the charm of old association. Indeed, Rottingdean has associations for more of us than Mr Kipling. At the ancient vicarage many famous men learned the rudiments of knowledge. The great Duke of Wellington was flogged there. Bulwer-Lytton was “cock” of the little school, as his son tells us, and once fought a seven-round battle with a schoolfellow named Moreton on the village green beside the horse-pond. Another scholar turned out by the "Vicarage Academy was Cardinal Manning, and there is a. long list of lesser Only a, few wek.s ago the remains of William Black were Laid to rest in Rottingdean churchyard ; the flowers are still heaped upon the grave of that charming wordpainter. And near by lie the ashes or Burne-Jones.

In a 1 nilv illustrated “Life Story of Marie Corelli” in “The Young Woman, we are. told that thirteen years ago—m 1880 —Marie Corelli published her first book, “The Romance of Two Worlds” which-was largely the outcome of a curious experience through which she herself passed. “The book, says the wiitei, ‘was an instant success, but. like rnostotlier famous books, it was not published without having first thrown aside as not worth printing. Miss Corelli s original idea was to offer the story as a shilling railway volume under the title “Lifted up.” 'but, acting on second thoughts, she sent it to Mr Bentley. It seems almost incredible now, but every one of Mr Bentley’s readers advised the rejection of the story, among them MiHall Caine, whose strictures are said to have been peculiarly bitter. With a feeling something akin to compassion, however, Air Bentley read it himself, and the result was that* the book was accepted. That is the history of Marie Corelli s firstbook, which was named, by the way, by Mr Eric Maekay, the poet whose recent death caused the authoress such profound grief. This is the only occasion on which the author of “Love Letters of a Violinist” (which was dedicated to Marie Corelli) ever offered so much as a suggestion to his step-sister, she steadfastly undertaking everthing connected with her work her self, even to the personal management of all the business details.

Among the older novelists whose position will certainly have to he reconsidered. says an English writer, is Miss Yonge. I heard an eminent novelist say the other day that her historical romances were in his opinion infinitely superior to those of Mr Stanley J. Weyman. In the recent Life of William Morris we are told that Miss \ T onge’s “The Heir of Redclyffe” had extreme and extraordinary fascination for Morris, Rossetti, Canon Dixon, 1 find their early friends-. “In this book more than any other may be traced the religious ideals and social enthusiasms which were stirring in the years between the decline of Tractarianism and the Crimean war. The young hero of. the novel, whith his overstrained conscientiousness, his chivalrous courtesy, his intense earnestnss, his eagerness for all such social reforms as might be effected from above downwards, his high-strung notions of love, friendship, and honor, his premature gravity, his almost deli-quescent-piety, was adopted by them as a pattern for actual life; and more strongly by Morris than by the rest, from his own greater wealth and more aristocratic temper.” Canon Dixon, in mentioning this book as the first to influence Morris, pronounces it, after nearly half a century’s reflection and experience “unquestionably one of the finest hooks in the world.” It is curious, too, to note that the romances of Fouque, which supplied Morris with the germ of many of his own early tales, became known to him through reading “The Heir of Redcclyffe.”

The Hon W.P. Reeves (says the I)unedin “Star’s” London correspondent) has been taken lip by the “Spectator,” which gives him a two-column notice many of the alumni of letters will envy 7 for his “Long White Cloud.” The “Spectator” is still (as in R. H. Hutton’s time) the Court of Literary Appeal. Its reviews are often last but never least. It says of New Zealand’s Agent-General: “ He is a ready writer, racy of the soil. From boyhood he drunk in his country's varied natural beauty. During early manhood he mixed largely in her affairs, and has even left his permanent mark upon her Statute Book. And from being a Cabinet Minister, holding the portfolios of Justice, Labour, and Education, Mr Reeves, at ail age but little over forty, is Agent-General for the colony in London. We measure our words when we say that the writer lias produced a book which is remarkable for its freshness, force and general accuracy.”