LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2056, 20 July 1893, Page 47

LITERARY NOTES.

Mr Clark Russell's motives, In bis stories 1 , are about as constant as, according to an ancient waiter at the Trafalgar Hotel, used to be the menu of a Greenwich dinner, " Two zootiea, sir, two stewe, two frie?, and two baits," he used to say. One open boat, one honest sailor man more ,or less young, one queer craff, one youcg woman, these are Mr Russell's invariables, or almost invarUbles. — Academy.

The Dante Exhibition in London was succeßsful beyond all anticipations. About 1000 persons visited it, and the entrance fees will cover expenses and leave a small balance, which will be devoted to the social branches of the work of University Hall. The general public and the general press failed, it is feared, to catch the idea of the collection, and found it scrappy and dull, " But Dante students, who visited the hall in considerable numbers, saw that the illustration of the central conceptions of Dante's scheme of things in their contrast alike with classioal and modern ideas, and the universal scope of his studies within the framework of that soheme, gave the exhibition an organic character not obvious to the casual visitor.

The second-hand London bookshops are just now suffering from a severe visitation of French novels. At the present moment there must be some thousands of volumes exposed for sale within a mile of Bookseller'sjow. A diligent but fruitless search for chance " finds " goes to show that first-rate or even second-rate authors are entirely unrepresented. The probability is that the whole batch has been shipped over from France by some enterprising middleman, and sold to the dealers at an extremely low rate. Evidently very few booksellers, not even among the staideat of them, have been able to withstand the temptation. The prica per volume has already declined from Is 6d to lOd, and will assuredly go lower.

In Edinburgh recently some interesting letters, books, and art treasures from the collection of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, "the Scottish Horace Walpole," were disposed of. Douglas's " Peerage of Scotland, 1764," realised the long figure of lOOgs ; but the interest of buyers seemed to centre on the autographs. About 30 letters of Sir Walter Scott sold at prices ranging from £22 downwards ; a letter by Sharpe, stating hia opinion of a certain portrait of Burns, brought £9 10s ; while some drawings and sketches from the same hand, including " Dickens in the Oanongate," were knocked down at £3 15s. Sharpe was an intimate friend of Scott, and several of 'his sketches, notably one of Queen Elizabeth danoing • high and disposedly," are familiar , to visitors at Abbotsford.

Mi Gladstone's purchases of. second-hand books are enormous in quantity, and almost; infinite in range. The catalogue of Mr H. H. Hartley, of 21 Park street, OamdenTosra, seems to have interested Mr Gladstone more than nsaal, for he has selected from it no fewer than 16 volumes. These vary from " Ihe Shepherd of Banburv's Boles to judge of the Changes of the Weather " to Swedenborg on the Athanasian Creed ; from " New and Rare Ferns " to the " Last Four Popes " ; from "Lady Fanshawe's Literary Remains " to " Echoes from Old Cricket Fields ; " and from the " Persecutions of the People called Quakers'" to "The Fiend's Delight, by Dod Grile." No doubt the Prime Minister is collecting for the Hawarden village library as well as for himself, but how, he oan find time even to glance at half the books he buys is a conundrum it passes the wit of man to answer.

The Baroness Burdett-Oontts bas been engaged for nearly one year collecting and editing a series of valuable papers dealing* with the philanthropic work of women in Great Britain and the colonies, whioh will be published during the spring by Messrs Sampson Low, Marston, and 00. Princess Christian writes a paper upon the work dona by the Royal School of Art' Needle work; and the Baroness, in addition to a preface and analytical notes, contributes two papers. The book will also oontaia ' articles by Florence, Nightingale^ Lady Victoria Lambton, and Mrs Malleson upon nnrsing ; by Mm Boyd Carpenter on the work of wonxea in connection with the Church of England j by Miss Weston and Miss Anne Beal© on whafc woman has done for our sailora and soldiers. Mrs Oashel Hoey gives a general account of women's work in the British Colonies and the East, and Miss Sellers and the Hob. MaudeStanley write upon movements for the benefit of girls. Papers will also be contributed by Miss Hesba Stretton, Mrs Molesworth.'Mra Sumner, the "Countess Gompton, and the; Hon. Mrs Stuart Wortley» "Rosa Mulholland," and other ladies engaged upon philanthropia work.

Dr Eggleston bas been deploring the extent to which novel reading is carried nowadays. - His views are expressed- in the Boston Literary World :— " Unfortunately ibera are many who read novels tofcfely for the plot, for the mental excitement to be derived from them. Indulgence in this kind of reacting if» in my opinion, dangerous, in many cases distinctly harmful. For those who steep themsalves in romances are apb to derive from them a perverted idea of life which may unfit them for their own work oy manner of living. Bat the novel, the good novel, has its uses in presenting life as it really ia and depicting characters as they actually exist, George KJiot's novels, for instance, have a high ethical valno, and the works of many other novelists have done a vast amount of good humanity. But the novel to do good must be trne to life ; if it is not its tendency is to be deplored. Though I suppose lam best known *as a novelist, I oare more for ' history than for fiction, and I have devoted much more time and thought in my life to historical study than to story writing. The first story I ever wrote, • The Hoosier Schoolmaster,' is the most popular of any of my books ; it still gives me a good profit every year." , >