LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11947, 22 January 1901, Page 3

LITERARY NOTES.

— Professor Bury's "History of Greece" ' has been disposed of so rapidly that Messrs Mncmillsm have put it again to prcsa with only a few corrections of obvious slips, the professor having had no time to revise his ' volume throughout, owing to the short interval that has elapsed sincc the appearance i of the first edition. I —The supplement to the "Encyclopedia. Britannica," which has been announced by ■ Tho Times as being in preparation, will ccciipy morn space that was at first expected, 1 and Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace has , handed over the editorship to Mr Hugh ChisI holm. Instead of ono volume, the supple- ! ment will, it is reported, extend to six or seven. — The name of Miss Lillias Hamilton, M.D., is well known as the Amir of Afghanistan's medical adviser. In her novel, "A Vizier's Daughter," which Mr John Murray published on November M, the author saya: " Every character is drawn from a. model, and should, therefore, as far as it goes, give an accurate description of one phase, at any rate, of Afghan life." — A writer using the nom de plume of Mme. lo Marquise do Fontenoy, who is rc- . ported to ho a lady of high rank on tho Continent, will issue, through Hutchinson and Co,, a couple of large volumes on tho " Secret Memoirs of William II (of Germany) and Francis Joseph (of Austria-Hungary)." The work will consist largely of personal reminiscences and descriptions of ovents with which she is familiar. — Mothuen and Co. hwfc arranged with . Macmillan and Co. for permission to use I Edward FitzGerald's translation of " The j Kubaiyat of Omar IChayyam " in their edition of this work, which will be characterised by a full commentary on each 6tanza by Mr ; H. M. Batson, and a biography of Omar by ! Professor Rosa, who is a well-known Persian ; scholar. Tho biography contains many new i and interesting facts. The book will be published about the middle of the month. _ ; —Miss Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler is colI lecting the short stories she has written at various times into a volume. It will bo in- ! teresting to see whether the public vote for the success, in this ptyle of fiction, which she has achieved with her novels. The English : reader is conservative with favourite authors ; —in other words, is apt to hold them to the I lino in which they first win famo. Miss Fowelr, too, is to give us a volume of verse . —her second verse offering—with titlo ; "Love's Argument and other Poems. I —Mr Fisher Umvin, who has published so many admirable books on the Himalayas, Will soon bring out a specially important one bv Captain 11. Deasy. The author, who started J from Sriuagar, tho capital of Cashmere, three and a-half years ago, has succeeded in surveying as much of Wcptern Tibet and Chincso j Turkestan as would cover tho whole of England. Within that space Captain Deasy has recorded and measured about 250 peaks, one of which is about 8000 ft loftier than Mont Blanc. , —No one in London'-now asks Who reads an American book?" says New York World. For a while aftor its appearance Mark Twain's " The Man "Who Corrupted Hadlcy- ( burg " was tho best-soiling book there. I — Onco a lady aslied George Eliot what her duty was in certain circumstances, and re- ] ceived a reply. " But,' 6he objected, if I did that I should dio!" "Surely that has nothing to do with your doing your duty, answered George Eliot. , — The Hungarian Mark Twain, Kalman Mikszath, may boast an unusual honour in a King for a translator—Oscar X)f Sweden having put his jokes into the Scandinavian tonguo. Miksznth's humour is very quiet. He speaks of a dog named Vistula, and gravely explains that Hungarian peasants i generally give their dogs the names of rt/ers, thinking it prevents hydrophobia. He describes a soil so poor that it cannot be spokeu of as " Mother Earth " but as " mother-m- , law earth." . 1 — Great Britain imports from the United Stales six times as much printed mutter as Germany. Tremendous exports of American books are sent into Canada, where they are _ ufually provided with new title pages by local publishers. Mexico buys almost as many American books as Germany and more than . France. British Australasia is a good market, Ono bad result of the export of books - and plates is the impending ruin of American spelling (says tho New York World). Books printed in New York for sale in London, Meli bourne, and Montreal contain such atrocities as"honour," "labour," "cheque," "kerb, and "tyre." — The new life of Shaftesbury, the great philanthropist, contains an amusing story of his marriage. 'Having been refused by a lady in whom he was mildly interested, ho waited seven years for his brother to marry, thai the title might not fail of an heir. But the bro-, tlicr had no mind for matrimony. So Shaftee- . bury bethought himself of a girl he had not seen since she was a child. , Her .elder sister. bud turned out a good wife, why shouldn't she? He sent a friend to propose, and only saw the.lady after everything was settled. The marriago, so far as any one knows, turned out well. . - ' — How George Sand once discomfited a Britisli writing'woman is related in tho Youths Companion. Tho journalist onened a notebook and demanded, "At what hour do you work, madamo?" "I never work," replied George Sand, gaily. "But your books— when do you make them?" "They make ; themselves—morning, evening, and night. " What is your own favourite, may I ask, among your novels?" " 'Olympia,'" returftod George Sand, with a beaming smile. "'Olympia?' Ido not know that one." "Perhaps—l have not yet written it!" and the author- beat a hasty retreat. _ « — Anothor literary coincidence is afforded in Mr Zangwill'e now book, " The Mantle of Elijah," and Mr Anthony Hope's "Quisanto." In both works the central figure, that of the politician hero, is strangely similar. It was by a curious acoidont, by the way, that Mr Zangwill's thoughts were first directed into tho literary channel. Ho was walking on the saiids at Bnmsgato—he was only a boy of 16 at tho time, in fhe early throes of his work as a London East End Board school teacher—when he casually picked : tip a derelict page of a weekly popular paper, on which a prize competition was announced. Only a day remained in which to send in re- • plies, and Mr Znngwill made a hasty bid ■for the prize—and got it. Although the young author thought he had scaled the top l '• most peak of Parnassus, lie had much weary ; climbing before success came to take his hand. It is interesting to recall that Mr Zangwill s second effort, in collaboration with a fellowteacher, was produced as n penny pamphlet - and hawked about the streets of the East End of London. .' |