LITERATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16189, 26 September 1914, Page 12

LITERATURE.

AMONG THE ANNOUNCEMENTS Mi's Humphry Ward has •■vrittoii ;i new novel round the women's suffrage controversy. It is culled "Delia Jilam-litlowt'r," and will commence its serial appearance in this mouth's Lady's Realm. The new volumes in Messrs Williams and Norgate's Home. University Library contain admirable and well-written .studies of " Elizabethan Literature," by .1. M. Robertson, M.l'., and of "The Renaissance," by Edith Sichol; a vanci.se and scholarly history of " Central and South America,'' by Professor \V. .11. Shepherd; a pleasant, gossipy, thoroughly useful book on " The Alps," by Arnold Liuin ; and " Religious Development between the Old and the Now Testaments." by Canon R. H. Charles, a masterly little study in a great subject that the thoughtful reader will find as deeply interesting as it is informing. A curious book announced for September is " Limehouse Nights," by Thomas Burke. It is described as " A Set of Queer Tales," and it is, perhaps, the first attempt to interpret the intimate life and manners of that dark -corner of London where the Asiatic colony is segregated. Some of the tales have already appeared in the English Review, the Nation, and other journals. It is no easy matter to hit upon a new featirre for any magazine, but Mr David Whitelaw seems to have done this in the Premier. He gives in his September number a sensational story specially written for him by Mr Max Pemberton; the story will end in an unsolved mystery. But in the following month will be published a story by Mr G. K. Chesterton, in which the mystery will be solved by that noted detective, Father Brown. Tlie series will include other stories in which the mysteries will be solved by the Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, by Mr Austin Free man's Thorndye, and by Mr Arthur Morrison's Martin Hewitt; there will, of course, be no collusion between the writers of the mystery stories and the writers of the solutions, the ide- being to test the astuteness of these fictitious detectives in a practical way. Following the somewhat sensational work on one phase of the great Irish leader's career, "The Love Story of Charles Stewart Parnell, ,, by his widow, the former Mrs O'Shea, it will be well to have the complete biography of Parnell that is promised this month. The author, John Parnell, the famous statesman's brother, has spent much of his life in the United States, and his book contains a detailed account of the work done by the American branches of the Irish Land League, etc. The long struggle that has finally resulted in Home Rule for Ireland is quite unintelligible without a knowledge of the part played by Parnell in the initial years of the great campaign. At this particular time, moreover, when his native land places herself in friendly accord with England in the face of a great international crisis, an adequate account of the political career of the brilliant Irishman is epculiarly welcome. Miss Ethel C. Hargrove is completing a new book on " Progressive Portugal," for publication this autumn. It is a study of both the country and the people, giving full attention to such' subjects as education, music, drama, folk-lore, literature, trade, and general history. Two earlier books by the same author, "Silhouettes of Sweden" and "The Charm of Copenhagen," were published by Messrs Methuen, and . more recently Mr Andrew Melrose published her " Wanderings in the Isle of Wight," an intimate and interesting study of the island. Contributors to the " Odd Volume," the largest and most interesting number of this popular annual yet published, include W. B. Maxwell, G. K. Chesterton, Jerome K. Jerome, Morlcy Roberts, Patrick Mac Gill, Eden Phill-potts, I. Zangwill, W. L. George, Walter Emmanuel, Bart Kennedy, Charles Garvice, F. Raymond Coulson, Keble Howard, Neil Lyons, J. A. Hamerton, Lady Margaret Sackville, . Stanley Portal Hyatt, Constance Smedley, Lady Jersey, Edwin Pugh, F. J. Randall, etc.; and the pictures (24 in colour and 32 in black-and-white) are by Arthur Rai:kham, Frank Reynolds, John Hassall, Chairles Robinson, Willy Pogany, Lieuten-ant-general 'Sir Robert Baden-Powell, W. Heath Robinson, Will Owen, Tony Sarg, Lawson Wood, Harry Rountree, G. L. Stampa, Alfred Leete, George Morrow, W! K. Haselden, Starr Wood, Wilmot Lunt, Wallis Milk, J. A. Shepherd, and other well-known artists. The Odd Volume, the profits from which go to the funds of the Book Trade Provident Society, is edited by A. St. John Adcock, and is published by Messrs Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. " Cross Trails," a new novel by Mr Herman Whitaker, is being published by Messrs Harper. It is a story of the Canadian North-West. "When Thoughts Will Soar," a romance of the immediate future, by the Baroness Bertha von Suttner, is to be published shortly by Messrs Constable. Baroness von Suttner, who died in Vienna in June last, came of a distinguished military family, but for the past 15 years or more she was one of the most prominent figures in the European peace movement. It was her direct experience of the war of 1866., and of the Bosnian campaign of 1878, that filled her with hatred of military enterprise, and inspired her to write her famous novel, "Lay Down Your Arms," for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize of £5000. Messrs Hodder and Stoughton have just published a popular shilling biography of Joseph Chamberlain, by Alexander Mackintosh. They are publishing immediately a new, carefully revised, and largely rewritten edition of Mr Mackintosh's " Joseph Chamberlain : An Honest Biography," a book which on its first appearance was commended as one that "must take a permanent place in the literature of British politics." Mr St. John G. Ervine is publishing four Irish plays, through Messrs Maunseli, of Dublin, and "Jane Clegg," a play in three acts, through Messrs Sidgwick and Jackson. Messrs Maunsell are also publishing Mr Ervine's first novel, "Mrs Martin's Man."