LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2058, 3 August 1893, Page 40

LITERARY NOTES.

The surplus stock of the Eevised New Testament is being offered at very low rates for charitable distribution— e.g., 500 copies of the sixpenny edition for a penny. Fifty thousand copies of Mr Bryce's "American Commonwealth" have been printed, but it iB believed that by far the greater part of the sales have been in America. At no time since 1871 has there been a loss on the publication of Mr Buskin's works, and between 1886 and 1892 Mr Buskin received the sum of £28,100 as his share of the profits, an average of £4000 a year for the last seven years. The anonymous authoress of the clever one-volume novel "A Moral Dilemma," lately published by Messrs Longman, is a granddaughter of Mr George Thompson, of Pitmedden, Aberdeenshire, head of a famous London shipping firm. The book is the lady's first Venture in authorship. Miss Braddbn's new novel, " All Along the Biver," is published by Simpkin and Co. The keynote of the story is emotional rather than sensational. The romance is one of everyday life in a little Cornish watering place, and, in serial form, has already found favour with all who are familiar with the Western scenes described. Mr I. Zangwill has another book nearly •ready for press. It will consist of a collection of short studies, some of which have already appeared in print, which will probably bear the title of " Ghetto Tragedies." Mr Zangwill is also engaged upon a short serial story which, under the title of " Tbe King of the Schnorrers," will appear in The Idler. More persons now visit Milton's cottage at Obalfont than was formerly the case. Visitors to the poet's grave in the beautiful old church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, also continue to be fairly numerous. A large number of those, are Americans. Milton lies in the great central aisle, the spot' being marked by a slab. In another part of the building is a bust of the poet. The most thrilling scene of any author that we have ever read is that where lago hisses in an undertone to his master Othello his suspicions about Desdemona. It should be remembered that it is a mere conversation between two men, with no bloody murder in the couree^of perpetration, as in the Agamennon ; ho Prometheus is defying the great god Zeus for his injustice and tyranny ; no devil is on the point of snatching away the maddened Margaret to eternal torment, as he thinks, in the prison scene of Faust; no Day of Judgment with all its terrors are described, as in the sermon on " Le Petit Nombre dcs Blue," of Massillon ; but all is quiet in the silent room and the calm breast of the Moor. — Spectator. How many stories has Mr Marion Crawford written 1 In a recent monograph on the novel, he told us that " half-a-dczen books or lees will make a reputation ; 10 will sustain one ; 20 are in ordinary cases .a career." He must be getting on for the latter. His new novel, "Pietro Ghisleri," which has been running in several newspapers, and which Messrs Macmillan are seeing through the pre3s, will be out shortly. The story opens in Rome ; some of tbe characters are Italian, and others English. •+ Professor Henry Drummond'a books are the most popular- and pay-ing of the day. Hero is a list of them and their circulation. The "Natural Law" and "Tropical Africa" are three-and-sixpenny volumes, the others are published at Is: — "Baxter's Second Innings" (boyb' b00b)... 25,00 "Tropical Africa" 28,000 "The City Without a Church" 48,000 " The Programme of Christianity " ... 61 ,000 "The Changed Life" 82,000 " Natural Law in the Spiritual World "... 114,000 'PaxVebiscum" 121,000 ' ' The Greatest Thing in the World " ... 312,000 This gives an average circulation of very nearly 100,000 for each book. No modem writer, novelist or other, comes near that, Of

I " The Greatest Thing in the World " 312,000 I copies have been sold.

If the Bams literature goes on Increasing as it has'been doing of late, the enthusiasts in that particular branch of book-collecting will soon find themselves out of house and home. Ihe latest proposal of whioh we (Literary World) hear is a work devoted entirely to the fascinating theme of "Highland Mary." It will be edited by Mr John D. Boss, of New York, and will be on the same principle as Mr Boss's " Barnsiana," of which two volumes have now been published. Mr Boss is an Edinburgh man, well known for an admirable volume dealing with the " Scottish Poets in America," which, by the way, is several times mentioned by Me William Black in his novel "Stand fast! Crate-Eoyston."

"Japan as We.saw It," by Miss M. Bickerstetb, just published by Messrs Sampson Low, is a brightly written sketch of a recent tour in the country taken, by the Bishop of . Exeter- and two members of his family. Under, tbe guidance of tbe Bishop of JapaD, they visited many places of interest, and obtained much curious information regarding the Japanese and an entree into theirsociety which is denied to the "globetrotter "in the ordinary round of hotels and famous'places in the Mikado's empire. The author heard some quaint stories while in Japan of the first beginning of railways. For ksfance, one man waited all day at the station, hoping the fares would diminish by the evening ; and numbers of passengers, by mere force of custom, took off -their wooden clogs before entering the train, as if it had been a house ; bufwere greatly discomforted to find .themselves shoeless at the other end, having expected the clogs would somehow or other follow their owners. Daring their visit the most terrible earthquakes of modern times occurred,, and Hhe accounts of the narrow escape of the party from injury 'and tbe illustrations of the affected districts' are of special interest. Fart of the book is devoted to the missions in charge of the Bishop of Japan. , .' •