LITERACY WORLD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 45

LITERACY WORLD.

• . • Mr H. S. Nichols has in preparation a new series to be termed the " Fin de Siecle Library." The first issue in it will be " Daphnis and Cbloe," which will bo followed at intervals by translations of Gautier, Sourget, Flaubert, and Paul and Alfred Musset. • . • The death is announced of Dr William Francis Aioswortb, cousin of the well-known novelist, and himself a distinguished geologist and traveller. Dr Ainswortb, who was in his 90th year at the time 'of his death, contributed freely to the literature of science and travel. • , • Under the title of " Sculptured Tombs of Hellaß," Professor Percy Gardner has written a volume which will be of interest to lovers of art as well as to students of religion and anthropology. Messrs Macmillan and Co. have the work in hand, and will publish it shortly. • . • Mr D. J. O'Donoghue, author of "The Life of William Carleton," is now engaged on a biography of the strange Irish poet, James Clarence Margan, and is desirous of getting into communication with anyone possessing letters, reminiscences, or other material for such a life of Mangan. • . • Mr John George Marks's " Life and Letters of Frederick Walker, A.R.A.," which is likely to excite especial interest, is jußt published by Messrs Macmillan and Co., with numerous figures in the text and photogravures of 13 of Walker's most famous pictures. • . • A Swiss journalist, Mr Philippe Godet, has just discovered at Middachte, in Holland, among the archives of the Bentinck family, 39 unpublished letters of Voltaire, which are now being given to the public through the columns of the Revue de Paris. The letters are dated from 1753 to 1777.

' . * Messrs Methuen and Co. will publish immediately an important book by Professor H. Anthony Salmone, entitled " The Fall and Kesurrection of Turkey." The author '# intimate acquaintance with the country, its peoples and language?, as well as with the inner workings of tbe reform movement, gives considerable importance to the work. * . * Mr Morley Roberts is preparing si new book which has taken him into tbe regions recently exploited by Mr Arthnr Morrißon in his "Child of the Jago." East-end life in and around the docku should offer phases peculiarly suitable for Mr Roberts's ttyle of treatment, and hie knowledge of it Jb extensive. - . • Mr H. G. Wells is at present engaged on a new atory which will surpass in imagination and daring anything tbst he has so far given us. " The War of the Worlds," as it is entitled, will appear serially during the early part of year, and in book form at a later date. • . • Messrs Macmillan and Co. will shortly bring out a book by the late Archbishop of Canterbury, entitled " Cyprian : His Life, His Times, Hib Work." Dr Benson was engaged on this volume for many years in the rare intervals of a life of labour. Ho was fortunately enabled to put the finishing touch as to the narrative within a few days of his death. The book will contain three maps. ' . * A collection of the late Mr Da Maurier'g p'cturoß which appeared month by month in Harper's has besn made, and will shortly be published in volume form by Messrs O?good, M'llvaine, and Co. " English Society Sketched " is the tide that has been chosen for tbe forthcoming work, to which Mr W. D. Howells will supply an introduction. • . • Dean Farrar began hia literary career by writing stories for boys, and three that he published bsfore he was 30 wore very sneccKsful. In these books ha described, to some extent, his own school days at King William's College, lale of Man, where he spent seven years of bis boyhood. The most exciting episode of his life occurred during his school deys there, when King William's College was burned down to the ground and he was the first to give the alarm. • .• A new rival to the great literary game of " Authcra " is being introduced by Mi»s A. Monck Mason, of Mickleham, Dorking. " Quotation Lotto " takes those who play if imo the realm of English classics, and woe bebide the piayer who is unable at the psychological moment to tell who wrote such touching words, as "Wouldst thou both eat thy cake and have it 1 " " Absence makes the heart grow fonder," and " With thee conversing I forget all pain.". * . - All who are interested in firearms will appreciate the labours of Mr Wirfc Gerrare in compiling and revising an exhaustive and explanatory " Bibliography of Guns and Shooting." Mr Gerare was formerly editor of The Gunmaker, and has a thorough practical acquaintance with the subject that boa occupied bis time. The book, whioh is put together in a workmanlike way and properly indexed, is issued by the Roxburghe Press. • . • ' J. H. Rosny, the novelist, is engaged on a cum bar of short tales, an Egyptian story whose action occurs during the reign of Tholmes the Great, and a novel whose theme is la fetnme Hire. The aim of this last coruauce is to prove that women can scarcely ever be bappy in French society as it is now constituted, " because," as M. Rcsny puts it rather obsonrely in a private note, i " she sacrifices herself, if she is attractive, fo future hope 3." ! • . • This " eternal woman question " is quite to tha fore just now ia the French book , world. Basides M. Rosny's fictional study ' of the Bubject, two or three new volumes, j examining it from various points of view, ; have come out. M. Jules Bois's " L'Evo Nouvelle " (Paris : Chailley) also condemns the French social system in its treatment of women, and comes out squarely in favour of their " emancipation." M. Leopold Lacour, one of the most effective of Parisian confereyiciers, and an exceedingly brilliant conversationalist, published a few days ago a still stronger defence of the modern woman, " Humanisme Integral." • . • Mr Gerald Dv Maurier, who is staying in New York with Mr Tree's company, has given an American contemporary some interesting facts concerning his father's methods as an illustrator. For one thing, Mr Da Maurier says, his father had not the slightest idea of fashion or what was supposed to be the correct thing in dress. -'People supposed that he noticed those things, of course, snd girls used to come to call npon my mother and sisters gob up beautifully, and expecting that father would want to put them into his drawings, or would, at least, gat some ideas from them. But, dear me ! he hadn't the least notion of what they had on. My sisters looked to it that he got the right things in his pictures. He would come home sometimes and akatoh something which had attracted him in a passer-by on the street. Often it would b8 some impossibly queer arrangement, and my sisters would protest. • Wby, father, you mustn't use that in Punch; nobody wears those things now — they're dreadfully oldfashioned,' and he would give in immediately ; to what he recognised as their superior judgment. He was even putting poor 'Trilby' in those Latin Quarter scenes of 10 years ago into modem garments, and had to be brought before the family tribunal for that. My sisters bad to bunt up some old-style clothes for him to use. He did have some models, you know, for the postures and the clothes, though the face of ' Trilby ' was purely ideal. * Little Billies ' sigter, by the way, and 'Sweet Alice,' were both taken from photographs — I forget now of whom — I which we had in the house."

It is needless to mention names, for •' What's in a name?" Suffice it to say he was a celebrated actor of the legitimate school lately visiting New Zealand. At rehearsal one day he thus delivered himaelf : — O, I have passed a miserable nigbt, So full of fearful dreams— of iiglv sights, That, as I am a Christian, faithful man, I would not spend another" Buch a night Though I were to buy a world of happy days. " Whab was up, old man ? " a*ked a fellow pro. 11 The worst cold I've had for years, dear boy," was the reply, "but it melted away before Woods's Great Peppermint Cure, and here I I are." Excuse the grammar, and don't tread ] on the graea» •

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