LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2274, 30 September 1897, Page 50

LITERARY NOTES.

• . •It is rumoured that the scene of lan Maclaren's next .volume of storieß will probably be laid in America.

• . • Tbe novel of the month in the colonies bids fair to be Guy Boothby's " Fascination of the Kiag." Readers of the South Aus<tralian author's "Beautiful White D^vil" and " Dr Nikola " are eagerly inquiring for the new book.

■ . ■ Hsrbert Spencer, in his anxious desire to bring the biological portion of hia work up to date, is said to be assisted by fire secretaries, but his progress is still very slow, as owing to his feeble health an hour a day is all he can devote to literary labour.

• . • The new novel, entitled " Paris," on which Emile Zila is eDgaged, will, it in reported, include among its incidents the late lire at the charity baziar. Qaeitions of taste are, indeed, not likely to give pause to M. Zola when realism is hia object, and, abore all, realism of the sensational order.

• . • Mr Millais, son of the late P.R.A., who has just brought oat his new book on great gnme, is probably the greatest living authority on tho Bubject of stags' heads and anil era, to which he has devoted long and careful study. He has- measured some thousands of heads during the last few years.

-.- "Anstralian Fairy Tales " i» the titr« of a new illustrated half a crown volume, by At.ha We'ntbury, of Melbourne, to be ready in October. Produced uniform with Ethel 'Eavritr'a unccesafal books, this collection of fairy etories will form a welcome present to the yonr.g folk readers of Hans Aadcrien and the Brothers Grimm.

■ . ' If there be anything in a name, a forthcoming book of Mr Ofockefcv'* should certainly be a tale o£ trass love, and ot love that leaps over alt obstacles. It »tob« called " Loebinvar." Another ttoty which Iff Crockett has in found, and for which h* baa recently collected material' oa fits Continent, will have if.* temsa- laid its Fotasiania, and be entitled " Tfve Red" kvj*

* . • One qaalir.y wriicSs' fn grea.fi wife* f» so often wanting la fan. The pres-ames of ! tax predicates a humane nature j win fii eitz&n merciless and uasccupTtlbus, Lovd 1 (Jfossfterfield w&s witty, bat he had n« f tin*. Hi* wit was always at someone' else's expense; 6ia victims could never laugh coo. Johnac* bad little fuu, Jeno'd had none. Oa the other hand, Sjdaey Smith was foil of it. and so was Hood. Curran, Er^kine, and Lord North all had fan. — Academy.

• . • The " History of Margaret Haitland " was published when Mrs Oiiph&nt was a girl in her tesn c , and had passed through three editions by the time she was 21. She had then received for >it £150. Ie would .be interesting to have a full record of her receipts from her vast library of books, aa it would afford a good idea of the rise in literary prices during the last 40 years.' • . ■ Miss Ethel Turner's new work for trie coming season is entitled " Miss Bobbie," aad will arrive early in October. An increased number of illustrations by Harold Copping will form a special feature of the book, which wilt be enlarged •in aize, although the price will Remain the popular half a crown. The favourite authored has dedicated this volume to Mr W. SteeJe, Messrs Ward, Lock, and Co.'s Australasian manager, who has been closely associated with the fortunes of her previous bcokß.

* . * Mitts Jean Ingvlow, whose death was announced recently, was one of 11 children, and she was not esteemed the cleverest. "My favourite retreat," she onca wrote. " was a lofty room in the old house at Boston, where there was a bow window overlooking the river. The windows had oldfashioned shutters which folded back against the walls. I would opea these shutters and write my verses and songs on them and fold them back again. My mother came in one day and discovered them. Many of them were transmitted and preserved."

• . ■ " Gyp " and 11. Zola are almost the only French novelists whose works find a profitable sale in English translations. And " Gyp " is very difficult to translate, an adeqtiate rendering of her style and ot the peculiar fashionable slang which so many of her characters use being hard to achieve. Her novel " Bijou " is to. be dona into English by Alys Hallard, a lady living in Paris* and the version will shortly be published by Messrs Hutchinson. "Gyp'a" " Chiffon'a Marriage," which was the last of her stories to be translated, had a sale of some 10,000 copies in Eaglisb. • . • Oaly last January, in the "autograph book " of a baz*ar, Mrs George Linnaeus Banks transcribed, in her old-fashioned handwriting, the well-known verse :—: — f . I live for those who love me, For those who know me true, For the heaven that smiles above me. And awaits my spirit too ; For the caus« that lacks assistance, For the wi'ong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that I can do. To which she appended the explanation.: — "The above, quoted so frequently by De Guthrie, was written by my late husband, George Linnaeus Banks, during our residence in Harrogate, Yorkshire, about the year 1849. It is the fifth and la»t staDza of the poem, ' I live for those who love me,' and has gone the world over."

KIPLING'S LATEST VERSES.

Those critics who expressed a not very reasonable surprise at Mr Kipling's courage in writing the hymn " Recessional " will no doubt be relieved by bis latest verses, in which he returns to commoner' matters. For our (Literary World) own part we accept both poem 9 gratefully. " That strain w«s of a higher mood," but the verses in which (in the summer number of the Graphic) Mr Kipling does justice to the sergeantinstructors attached to the Egyptian Army are none the less welcome. We quote one verse : — Said England unto Pharaoh: "I must make a

man of you, Tbat will stand upon his feet and play the

game ; ■ That will Maxim hi 3 oppressor as a' Christian ought to do;" And she sent old Pharaoh Sergeant Whatianatiie. It was not a Duke nor Earl nor yet a Viscount — It was not a big brass General that

came ; But a man in khaki kit who could handle men a bit, With hia bedding labelled "Sergeant Whatisuame."