LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2263, 15 July 1897, Page 53

LITERARY NOTES.

• . • " Little Lord Fanntleroy," the hero of { Mr 3 Burnett's story, is a man now ; hs passed his twenty-first birthday a week cr ' two ago. ■-- A visitor at Harvard, where he is now 'studying, says :—": — " I found an exceedingly sturdy and substantial young man of medium stature, with a good profile, good square chin, dark hair and eyes and brows, and a fresh, rather English, complexion." • . • Mr Gissing has often hesitated in his ; stories between the commonplace and the impassioned ; yet even when be was moßt commonplace it has been easy to perceive how closely and faithfully he can produce the phenomena which have passed before his eyes, and bow conscientiously he strives [ to place upon bis canvas the figures and ex- ■ pressions which attract him. — Athetseum. i • . • Gibbon narrates that his power of polite irony was brought to the degree of excellence which it reached by tho yearly perusal of Pascal's "Provincial Letters." Lord We stbary, as appears from a passage In the recently-published life of Professor Jowett, attributed his skill in the use of the same weapon to his study of Plato in the translation of the " Master of Balliol " — a daring autobiographic anachronism which illustrated the gift in question. — World. [ • . • Mr Georga Meredith regards the literary profession as an exceedingly poor one, and very seldom advises /any young author to persevere in writing. Yet it is said that when he " discovered " Miss Olive Schreiner (whose " Story of an African Farm " was published through his advice) he wrote to an intimate friend, " I have found a new genius who will demand success." Mr Meredith's letters are more often than not long, witty criticisms of modern affairs— literary, social, and political. • . • Mrs Oliphant would seem, if we may judge from the statements in various biographical dictionaries, to have had almost as many birthplaces as Mr Gladstone. For example, Vincent's «• Dictionary of. Biography " and the well-.known French "Dictionnaire dcs Oontemporains " concur in giving Liverpool as • Mrs Oliphant's birthplace ; " Men and Women of the Time " and Allibone's " English Literature " give the honour to a little village called Wallyford, near Musselburgb, in Midlothian ; while Sheriff Mack ay, in his recently-issued " History of Fife and Kinross," claims that she waa born and brought up in Fife. • . • Another of the gradually-decreasing living links with Scott, James Hogg, and Professor Wilson has been discovered in the person of John Burnett, now resident in Ayrshire. He was herd-boy to James Hogg from 1824 to 1834 at Mount Benflrer. Jsirrow,

and to s writer In Chambera's Joursal he bas given sorno interesting recollections of Hogg, with visits from Sootr, and angling excursions in Megget with Professor Wilson. BnrnetS, from information which he has furnished, make 3it certain that Hogg was really the author of " The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner," upon which much doubt has been previously thrown. • . " Brahms is certainly with Bach, Mozart, and Wagner in point of musicianship; in fact, these four might be called the greatest masters of sheer music who have lived. A Brahms score is as wonderful as a Wagner score ; from beginning to end there is not a misplaced note nor a trace of weakness, and one stands amazed before the consummate workmanship of the thing. The only differonce between the Wagner Bcore and the Brahms score is that while the former is always alive, always the product of a fervent inner life, the latter is sometimes alive, too, bat more frequently as dead as a doormat, the product of extreme facility and an extraordinary inherited musical instinot divorced from the power of exalted thought and feeling. — Saturday Review. • . • Wa think (says the Literary World) on the whole that the advantage in the matter of public librarians rests with us, in whatever other direction our American cousins may surpass us. Some prominent members of the American Library Association have ruled out Mr Arthur Morrison's " Tales of New Streets," Mr Harold Frederic's " Illumination," Mr Stephen Orane's " Red Badge of Courage," and Mrs Hodgson Burnett's " Lady of Quality " as being undesirable, not to Bay dangerous, literary fare to set before the reading public. Another member has fallen foul, and with better reason, of the works of B. P. Roe, and refuses to ha'sa the lost and damaged copies replaced, on the ground that they are " printed on poor paper, badly bound, and high in price ; further, that they are trash; and finally, that the argument that people who read this rubbish would go on to read something better has been disproved by experiencs." * . • In " Uncle Bernac " Conan Doyle has caught the true spirit of the times of which he writes, and the characters are skilfully portrayed. The sketch of the French Emperor might have been made more prominent, instead of playing a minor part in the story. The hero, Louis Da Laval, Is the orphan child of parents who, to save their j livee, fled from France to England at the ! rjeriod of the Revolution. Their estates were I confiscated and given to the uncle of Louis, [ who was ready to side with those in power ; as a friend of Robespierre and Barras, ami after thejr downfall he managed to cum favour with the Emperor. For certain reason.he seeks out his poverty-stricken nephew 1 and inviteß him to France, and during this ; visit to his native land most of the incidents ; occur. The story is certainly most interest- ; ing, and written in the author's best manner. ! The book is fully illustrated. A FORGOTTEN NOVELIST : ANTHONY TItOLLOPE. ; Trollope was in his lifetime more popular 5 than any of his contemporaries. Twenty | years ago it would hardly have baen an ex- j aggeration to say that half the novels on the railway bookstalls were hia. Now his books are never seen there, and seldom seen anywhere else. Why Was be popular 1 Why has he ceased to be so ? It may be doubted whether his political stories had much to do either with his rise or with his fall. If his surviving admirers were asked to name bis best book there would probably ba a majority for " Orley Farm," which is a smooth tale, chiefly of forgery. If I myself were invited to pick out from all his books the best bit of writing I should put my hand without hesitation j upon the character of the ideal master of f hounds in " Phineas Redux." I But there can be no doubt that the volumes I which made him a public favourite were the | famous Bareetßhire series, beginning with j " The Warden," and ending with " The Last i Chronicle of Barset." These, as it may be ' necesaary to inform the younger generation, i are all descriptive of country life, and cape- j cially of the country parsonage. With the j exception of Mr Slope, a canting hypocrite, and Mr Crawley, whose character is rugged, lofty, and dignified, Trollope's clergy j : are worldly divines of the old school, Erastian | in principle and lethargic in temperament. When he was congratulated upon the success of his Archdeacon Grantley, be said that he felt the compliment the more because he had never known an archdeacon. No I man in after life could have associated lees j with pardons than Mr Trollope of the Post I Office. Bat he was a Wykehamist, and as a Win- j Chester '.' man " must have seen a good deal of life in a cathedral close. It is to be feared that Trollope's books are dead. But it is a pity. He never wrote any- \ thing on a level with " L'Abbe Tigrane," the j best clerical story in the world. Bat " Bar- j Chester Towers " is one of the mosc readable of books, and I do not envy the man who preserves his gravity over Bertie Stanhope or Mra Proudie. Conversation in Trollope's books seldom reaches, and never maintain?, a high level. " 0 Nature and Menander," exclaims an ! ancient enthusiast. " which of you copied the other 1" " O Mr Trollope and secondrate Bociety," asked a modern joker, " which of yon copied tbe other 7 " His popularity was due partly to bis cleverness, liveliness, and high spirit?, but partly also to bis never over-taxing the brains of bis readers, if, indeed, he can be said to have taxed them at all. The change in the position of bis books produced, and produced so rapidly, by the death of the author may, I think, be thus explained. He stimulated the taste for which he catered. He created the demand which he supplied. — Hehbeet Paul, in the Nineteenth Century for May.