LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2200, 30 April 1896, Page 51

LITERARY NOTES.

*.' Kenan's memoirs and correspondence may be expected in English from Mr Heinemann at an eaily date.

• . • Professor Saintsbury in his new book places Byron among the second-rate poets, and not first among* them.

- . • Russia's most prolific writer is said to be Madame Irma Fedossova, a peasant woman of the province of Petrossawodski, who has given to the world more than 10,000 poems.

*.* M. Bruneau has received from Paul Dupont, the Paris publisher, a sum of £4000 for his " Requiem." This is the exact amount that Gounod was paid by Messrs Novello and Co. for his " More et Vita," and has hitherto been the " record price " given for a saored work.

• . • Mr Justin M'Carthy has a three- volume novel and, a collection of short stories in hand, both books being promised for this year. He has made considerable progress with a memoir of the Pope for a popular series, and at least a beginning with his own reminiscences.

* . ■ It is said that Lord Rosebery is at work on a novel dealing with the life of a diplomat. He has always had literary tastes, and has at times written verse o£ more or less merit. Not long after his health began to improve upon his retirement from office he took up work on a novel that had been already well-nigh finished. He is a very careful worknfan, and is rewriting the story for the third time. *

*.■ One of the oldest living English composers is Me Charles K. Salaeaan, who was born in 1814, and made his first appearance in public in 1828 at a concert at Blackheatb, at whioh a song of his composition was sung. Mr Salaman and -Liszt were friends as boys, and played duets together in 1827 when Liszt was in England. Despite his advanced age, Mr Salaman still composes, and plays the piano with remarkable brilliancy. • . • Tbe British Weakly says that the Bishop of Manchester was asked not long ago what was the first book that had influenced him in his early years. His lordship replied that his first ideas of another world were derived from reading " Jack and the Beanstalk." He believed that to many little children this well-known tale brought a first suggestion of something above and beyond this world.

• . * A olever device, and one which will appeal to all those who have a regard for the preservation of their magazines and pamphlets, is the " Sjmons's magazine and pamphlet binder," sold by Messrs S. Low and Co. The "binder" consists of ordinary cloth covers with a flexible back, and a most ingenious system of interlocking steel rods which pass through the magazine, and hold it in its place. When completed, a magazine volume has the appearance and all the advantages of having gone through the bookbinder's hands, with the additional service that the covers lend while the volume is completing. The device U extremely simple and easy in applying, and is supplied with knife and backing complete.

* , * The following passage, extracted from 6-eorge Eliot's " Leave* from a Notebook," just published in the " Standard " edition by Messrs Blackwood and Sons, will not be out of place in these days when the aims, ambitions, and hopes of authors are, alas I not such as those recommended i

An author who would keep a pure and noble conscience, and with that a developing instead of degenerating intellect and taste, must count out of his aims the aim to be rich. And therefore be must keep his expenditure low—he must make for himself no dire necessity to earn ■urns in order to pay bills. Words of pregnant wisdom these, but they will hardly prevail against the blandishments of the literacy ag»ut wt the sordid

demands of batcher and baker and tax collector. ■ •.• Klchard Lowell Edgeworth, the fathd* of Maria, was the friend of many of (ha famous men of his clay, and considerable interest should attaoh to the " Selection from His Letter*," whioh Messrs Bivington? Percival, and Co. are to publish next week. Edgeworth's domestic experiences, it maybe remembered/ were extensive and peculiar. " I am not," he observed, " a man of prejudice. I have bad four wives. The second and third were sister*, and I was in love with the second in the lifetime of the first/ He was also the father of 19 children, and the devotion of his talented daughter to him is a matter of history.

* . ■ The Dublin University Press has just published a pamphlet that deserves notice for the perfection both of its printing and illustration. It la a short monograph on the famous Cross of Cong, by Mlsa Margaret Stokes, the indefatigable .Irish archaeologist. Two exquisite coloured plates and a wood engraving, taken from copies made by the writer herself, adorn the boofr, and show the delicate proportion of the orosa and the fine interlaced gold filigree work and enamels with which it is Covered. It is the most lovely specimen in existence of Irish goldsmiths' work, and the Royal Irish Academy are justly proud of its possession. It was made to enclose a portion of the fjruef oroßß of the year 1123. * ■ ••• In his little book, 1 "Dinners with Celebrities," just issued,. -Mr Howard Paul gives an account of the origin of Chadband. On one * occasion Dlcken'a and Mr Paul walked from Stratford to Warwiok, and, passing the olgfl of a draper with Ohadband on it, Mr Paul pointed to it and said, lr l thought you Invented that name." "No/ was the reply of Dickens ; "I took it from that very sign, and you are one of the few people who have noted the discovery. I saw it a year or more before I used it, popped it down in my note-book, and when I was thinking over a name for the character I was then engaged on Ohadband seem to fib it; and ib was a telling stroke, for people seem to remember both the character and the name."

'.• Slatin Paeha'fl long- expected book, entitled " Fire and Sword in the Soudan : being the Personal Narrative of His Adventures in Fighting and Serving the Dervishes from 1879 to 1895," is being published by Mr Edward Arnold simnltanously with American and German editions. The volume will have a map and numerous illustrations, and is dedicated by permission to her Majesty tha Queen. Slatin's narrative has been edited and prepared for publication by Major F. R. Wingate, R.A., of the Intelligence department, Egyptian army, who also edited, three years ago, Father Ohrwalder's " Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp." The credit is principally due to this officer for tho escape of both Slatin Bey and Father Ohrwalder from Ondurman.

* . ' News comes from Canada that a »ac« cessor may shortly be ezpeoted to "The Making of Mary," the story by which " Jean Foreyth " established hertelf in the favour of English readers. The pseudonym is that oC Miss J. N. M. M'llwraith, a young lady who lives in Hamilton, Ontario, and who has for some timo been known as a contributor of stories and sketches to Canadian and American magazines. " The Making of Mary" was a racy piece of work full of freshness and humour, and had a rery favourable reception on both Bides of the Atlantic, yet .the author declared to a recent visitor that she so strongly preferred literary criticism that if she could find a market for such work sho would never- pen another line of fiction. It would have to be good literary criticism indeed to make Miss M'llwraith's readers profit by the change.

• . • Mr W. M. Roinetti, In bis prefaoe to the "New Poems, by Christina Rossetti, Hitherto Unpublished or Un collected," jast issued by Messrs Macmillan, gives some interesting details concerning the work of the late poetess. Miss Roisetti began writing verse on April 27, 1842, and her compositions were copied into little notebooks. There are 17 of theie notebooks in existence, going on to Jane 1886. The date of each piece is accurately recorded. Miss Bossetti's habits of composing were, her brother tells us, eminently of the spontaneous kind. " I question her," he says, "having ever once deliberated with h«rsel£ whether or not she would write something or other, and then, after thinking out a subject, having proceeded to treat it in regular spells of work. Instead of this, something impelled her feelings, oi • came into her head,' and her hand obeyed the diotation." The " New Poems " has as a frontispiece a striking and very pleasing portrait of Miss Rossetti, taken from a pencil drawing dove by Dante Gabriel, which remained quite unnoticed until it was turned up among her miscellanies after her death, Mr Rossetti regards it. as "possibly the sweetest version of her face" that Dante Gabriel or anyone ever produced, and suggests that it may ba a slight study preliminary to the pioture " Ecce Ancilla Domini." In that case, says the Westminster Gazette, its date would probably be 1849, when Ohriß< tina was 18 years of age.

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