LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16120, 8 July 1914, Page 8

LITERARY NOTES.

— Messrs John Long , will shortly publish a new novel -entitled, "The Beloved Premier," by H. Maxwell, author of "The Paramount Shop," etc The author imagines what, wnuld happen in England -were the authorities to govern with absolute disinterestedness and singleness of purpose. The picture thus drawn depicts a topsy-turvey -world indeed. The story w told with much humour and many shrewd thrusts at our most cherished institutions. It is an unusual book, replete with good tilings. — Mr John Foster Fraser has just completed the volume dealing with his journey to the Argentine Kepubhc, and this will be published by Messrs Cassell on the 30th, inst. In hie search for information upon the commercial possibilities of this Retrablio Air Foster Fraser travelled from Buenos Aires in the East to the Andes in the West, and past Tucuman in the North to Bahia Blanca in the South. The investigation haa provided him with material for an informative volume, which is entitled "The Amazing Argentine." — "Pinkerton" of "The Wreckers" was a striking character, whom the devotees to "R L. S." will be glad to know, better. His real,live self is Mr S. S. M'Clure, the American publisher, who has written the etovy of his own adventurous career. This is, indeed, a romantic narrative, telling how Mr M'Clure did house-work to pey his way and provide his schooling, how he peddled for a livelihood. marriedNi wife on next to nothing a year, established M'Clure's Magazine, and an agency, the first of its kind, for the diffusion of literature. In the course of the autobiography he describes meetings and talks with Stevenson, Henley* Meredith, and other literary "supermen." Devout Tennysonians must have rubbed their eyes on reading in The Times Literary Supplement tho other day the statement that "Tennyson, of all poets, needs a judicious and drastic editing; hie poems, of all poems, can least stand the pomp and circumstance of a 'collected' edition," and the further pronouncement that "the ideal <?dition would certainly not contain moro than fcO poems, and these gathered from the earlier books." We all know (says the Westminster Gazette) that Fitzgerald declared that Tennyeon never regained the level of the volumes of 1842, but is it now to be suggested in all seriousness that we are to jettison all save, perhaps, 50 of those poems which so completely won our admiration? Surely not. H. G. Wells's new book, "The I World Sut Free," is a'return to the method by which he first obtained a band of appreciative readers. It gives an imaginary history of the world tor the next 70 or 80 years, presenting a great conflict between the ancient traditions of law and property and nationality, and the gigantic and altogether revolutionary possibilities of science. I The story ends with a picture of a group of citizens in the vorld set free looking back upon our own' dark and passionate times, and forward to the new efforts of a liberated race. Messrs Macmillan were to publish the book on May 8. — Even the most successful authors do not grow rich in Spain; and the great national Spanish author, Senpr Perez Galdos, finds himself in such poor circumstances in his old age that a national subscription is being organised for his benefit. Alfonso has headed the subscription list with an offering of £400. Senor Galdos ie probably the meet voluminous historical novelist that the world has ever seen. In a series of romances he has surveyed the whole history of modern Spain, from the battle of Trafalgar to a time within recent memory. Out of his own. country, however, he k beet known on acj count of his , anti clerical drama, "Electra. , It happened to appear at a time when Spain was ringing with a clerical scandal. That accident made'the play popular, and gained its author a European reputation, For a time even the bullfights were less frequented than the theatres in which the piece was staged; and the bishops gave it an excellent advertisement by threatening both the, acton and the audiences with excommunication. —In the first number of -the. Bodleian Quarterly Record, some remarkable particulars are given about the present position of the famous library. In eiie and importance (taken together) it is the greatest university library and the greatest Irbrary not directly aided by the State. About seven rank above it in the world, but among English-speaking peoples only the British Mueeun* It contains about 2,750,000 printed literary pieces in, perhaps, £60,000 volumes. There are also about 40,000 manuscripts, not counting separate charters and deeds—which number about 18,500. In the year 1913 the accessions were 97,795, of which 571 were manuscripts. Tho staff consists of 68 persons. The number of Toaders average mom than 250 a day. The normal income ia 1913 may be stated as £11,700, and • the expenditure as £12,000. The financial poeition causes anxiety. —In an appreciation oi Mr G. K. Chesterton, the editor of Great Thoughts writes:-— "With splendid insistence ho assails the dangerous teaching of Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam. While admitting♦he literary 'splendour of the work, he justly condemns its philosophical, ethical, nnd religious ir-flucnce He holds that the poem of the Eastern nrofligate essajls the real joy 'of life- 'Great joy,' he eays, ' doee not gather, the rosebuds while it may : its eyes are fixed on the immortal rose which 'Dante saw. Great joy has in it the sense of immortality.' On another we roirh ' When Christianity was heavilv bombarded in the last century, upon no point was it more persistently and brilliantly attacked than upon thai. of its alleged enmity to human jov. Shelley and Swinburne and all their armies have passed n.gain and again over the cround, but they 'have not altered it. They havo not sot up a single new trophy or ensign for tho world's merriment to rally to. They have not grven a name or a new occasion to gaiety.Mr Swinburne does not hang up his stocking on the eve of the birthday of .Victor Tlugo. Mr William Archer does not eing carols descriptive of the infancy of [bson outside people's doors in the snow. In the Voiind of our rational ar.d mournful year one festival remains out of ill the ancient eaietiee that once covered the whole earth. Christmas remains to remind us of those ages." Tho following brevities, again, axe worthy of consideration: 'Ultimately a man can -enjoy nothing except religion. , ' Evnry man has hated mankind when he was less than a man.'"