LITERARY GOSSIP

New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 24

LITERARY GOSSIP

The- January number of the- "Endi-h Illustrated Magazine''' contain- an articic by I. Zatifr’.vill on ~Tnc- Commercial Future of Palatine." 0 :.her prominent contributions arc. "Co:r.::i" Horne Tnrough Siberia." bv Mr- Archibald Little: -Dan Lenoi'Hi- Life.--Told by Himself: “Thackeray's London." by Lev,'is Melville : ant] "The Sc*otti-h ( rovn and Scottish Coronations/’ bv Agnes Brovin.

j M r Fisher Tuvin published on Januar Y bt. .‘-Irs Alexander'- new novel. j j j C* k el iow Fiend. Mrs Alexander s •\ eilow T lend is a por-onage n.anv of u- t'Oiilu like- to become better acquainted with, for its name is "Gold.”' X 1 e miser s granci-ciaugiiter i.s the personage about whom the story turns, and it jwith her affairs that" it is chi.-flv concerned. _ Trials come upon her: love. £ nd a devotion to art. and the .story is finailv conclttded in the happy manner characteristic of this author.

Though de.-cribcd on the title pane, observes the London correspondent of i -he Xc-v. Zealand Mail. as a new edition. Dr Conan Doyle'.- latest issue of ins "Great Boer War” '..Smith Elder, m to all intents and purposes a new v ent. Dr Doyle lias added to the book as it originally stood about ISO page-, bringing down the narrative from The occupation of Koomatipoort in September, 1890. to October 11. 1901. and covering the campaign of De Wet. the guerilla warfare in the Transvaal,' the .second invasion cf Cape Colony, i j.Y northern operations from January -to April, 1901. the winter campaign, t;,e guerilla operations in Cape Colony this year, and the spring campaign. Moreover, lie lias submitted his original volume to constant revision, so that there is scarce a page which has not- been worked over and many of the additions | asu -l amendments are very essential. In I regard to the new chapters Dr. Dovle ; bas been hampered by the meagreness of the newspaper correspondence a.id I the official statements, but he has had ! jbe advantage of perusing a large number of letters and diaries written tv l officers at the front during the past | twelve months, and of this material he ! has made skilful use. This “thirteenth ; impression” of “The Great Boer War” )is t b° 111 O'M desirable work on the «üb- ; Kct before the public, and is not likely , to be superseded as a concise yet ;ompreliensive and readable history of the struggle for supremacy in South Africa.

Though we can number Mutiny books

by the hundred—“ Memoirs,” “Journals 3 ’ and “Histories”—there is stili room fer the volume which Mr W. H. Fitchett has prepared on the great- revolt-. In “The Tale of a Great- Mutiny” the author of “Fights for the Flag”' gives us a vivid picture of the fierce struggle that- went on from May, 1857, to the end of 1853. The author does not profess t-o provide a complete history of the Mutiny: he furnishes only "a simple chain of picturesque incidents. ' ins sketches being grouped round “the three heroic names of the Mutiny—Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Delhi.” He opens with a consideration, of the causes of the levolt. He admits that the “immediate occasion” of it was the fanatical belief of the Sepoy? that the greasy cartridges concealed a “dark design”' against- their religion: but we must not forget, lie says, the other evil forces at work—the annexation of Chide, the denial to the native princes cf the sacred right cf "adoption.” the decay of discipline in the Sepoy ranks, and so forth. Mr Fitchett has evidently absorbed most cf the existing Muting literature and out of the fulness c-f hi- knowledge Las evolved a volume as serviceable as *t is readable. From p. reference in cue of Mr Stet* ensoirs letters to the offer made by C'assel:- for the book rights of "Treasure Island.” which appears in tne new iife just published, an idea has arisen that £TOO was the sum for which Cassells acquired the copyright- c-f this work, ami several journals nave so represented it. As a matter cf fact. £'loo was cn.y tr.e amount paid in advance on account cr royalties. The -urn paid up to ri.e present time to tine author or his representatives for royalties c*r. the sale of "Treasure Island" bv the urn. over £2OOO. At last a Heine monument 1 So savs the "Berliner lilustrite Zeitung/' which give- in a recent issue an illustration of the memorial to the poet which is t-o be erected over ins grave in the cemetery of Montmartre. Paris, by seme Vienna admirers. The monument, a marble bust surmount ing si pede-tal. the work of a Dani.-h sculptor. show- the* poet a- he was in iris last year—the pedestal bearing the inscription "Heinrich Heine—Frau Heine." Forty-five years have elapsed since Heine died, and tids is the fir.-t monument *o Li- memory. In his day Heine v a- not loved in Germany, but ids antinational outpourings might well be forgotten now. and in his native town of Du.-seidorf something might surely be clone to perpetuate his name.

Stevenson's "New Arabian Nights" and Mr Hardy's "Under tne Greenwood Tree" are to appear in pocket volumes. T!:e copyright m both i? owned by Messrs CLatto. who, no doubt, rank then., with the “Deemster." among their n.c-t fortunate investments. They bougnt "Under the Greenwood Tree” from Tinsley, who had published it in the year 1872. Mr Hardy had already written "Desperate Remedies." and a short -tory. but fame was still before lii!". M hen a publisher buys a book outright, what are hi- ehanc-es cf getting one that will fail or endure? Two more volumes are about to appear i:i the popular Heroes of the Nation- Ber:es. and both relate to English kmgi. In one Mr C. L. King-ford treat- of Henry Ah. who is taken as a typical mediaeval hero. In the other Mr Toward Jenks Jenks writes c-f EdL, w:.om he calls tine English JusHenry - reign witnessed events of striking pieturc-quenes? and fame. a= . for example, the Battle of Agincourt. the Ireaty of Troyes, and the marriage of Henry and Catharine. Edv.ard Piantagenet is eonsiderd as a fig- *-■ >'o:.mir.g-up tne essential elements o: tne nascent nation which he ruled.

-m interesting litne storv attache? r 0 Tne pm tty volume of Swedish fairv tales y. men _u r H. L. Braekstad has 'translatecl tor Mr Heinemann. Years a* o a Bwem-n inond gave Mr Braekstad a "Here is something vou v.lii idle.-- He turned over the w-t.i tne rent ark, “It- isn’t Swedish is it for I know Swedish?” "Not Swedish” ;;R me repiju "but Swedish dialect.” -w., said Mr Braekstad, “can I manage l 0 reacl ltr He tried several times, not very successfully. But one clay he to read the dialect aloud, and tnen ne understood it at once. It iesemblea the dialect of a part of his own country. Denmark, and had been taken d o wn phonetically.

• Dr , Asf red Russe-i Wallace recently liitroauced to English readers a notable v,oim oil the history of human marriage The author of it is Mr Edward Waster! marK who is lecturer on Sociology at the Imversity of Finland. The book has excited much interest among think.roi)e.- ancl another new edition or it, is just appearing here. It will do so at a moment when Mr Wastermark is in Morocco engaged on anthropological research. This prevents him from adding to the work as ho had intended to do, and from replying to las critics But ho will do both faithfully when he returns to Europe hi the spring, A