LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2387, 30 November 1899, Page 59

LITERARY NOTES.

— Owing to the announcement by. a rival firm of publishers in their autumn list of an edition of "loin Brown's Schooldays" Messrs Macmillan and Co. have deemed it desirable to point out that the copyright does not expire until the spring of 1903. — Tho final volume of tho Spurgeon biography is well advanced- It covers the years 1880-1892, the year of Mr Spurgeon's death, and wilL deal, among other interesting mattery, with the great " down grade " controversy.

—Mr W. Clark Russell has another sea story in preparation for publication itf the spring by Mr James Bowden. It is the story of -tho salving of a ship and cargo in-" the Atlantic by a man and a girl, and will appear under the title of "The Ship's Adventure."

— Miss Braddon. is revising her novels for a sixpenny edition which is in contemplation. " Lady Audley's Secret " has already appeared in this form. "Henry Dunbar " will come next, and will be followed at short intervals by "Eleanor's "Victory," "Aurora Floyd," and "John Marchmont's Legacy." —Mr Murray announces a novel dealing with life in tho Transvaal at the present timo, under tho title "Under the Sjambok." The author, Mr G. Hansby Russoll, who we regret to hear has recently lost hi* eyesight, formerly lived for a considerable time in Africa. A

"' Sjambok" is a leather whip used to keep " black? " in order.

— According to a statement in the Outlook a pretty exchange of compliments has occurred between Mr Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain. Mark Twain, so runs the legend, would rather have the "Jungle Books " than even his immortal frog to his credit ; while Mr Kipling would rather have written "Tom Sawyer " than any of his own works.

— A New York citizen, who regards Mr Edward Markham's poem, " The Mau With the Hoe," an insult to the American farmer, has offered prize 3of £80, £40 and £20 for poems that " shall sing the song of the incompetents, those who would rather starve than do honest labour." The New York Sun guarantees the offer, and Messrs T. B. Aldrich and G. 0. Stedman are named as judges. - — " .Aniina Villis " is to bo the title of a new novel by Marya Rodziewicz, a young Polish authoress, which Messrs Jairold and Sons will publish shortly. The scene is laid in Siberia, and the book gives a very different picture of life amid the great steppes from that derived from previous impressions of Siberia, as a land made up of only two classes — inhuman Ru&siau police officials and hapless political exilea.

—Mr Fisher Unwin is p\iblishing shortly, in his series, " Builders of Greater Britain," a monograph on Admiral Phillip the founder of New South Wales. Mr Louis Backe and Mr Walter Jeffeiy have collaborated in this work, aiid have found that their task naturally assumed the shape of a narration of the founding of New South Wales rather than of a specific biography. It was not until the end of 1897 that Phillip's tomb was discovered in the ancient parish church of St. Nicholas at Bathampton. Mr H. T. Wilson, the editor of the series, has had the good fortune to make an important "find " in some Portuguese lotters of surprising interest dealing with Phillip. These are printed in the " life," and should add greatly to its interest. ,

— The classical author who has been most frequently translated into English is, Migual de Cervantes Saavedra (generally known as Cervantes), the author of "Don Quixote," who was born at Alcala do Henares on Sunday, the 9th of October, 154-7, and died in 1616. " Don Quixote " has been translated into almost every-. European language, but no other nation so fully appreciated its standard merits as the British, and the author's works have been more frequently translated into English than those of any other classical author. Amongst the most important English translations of Cervantes may be mentioned the following: Shelton (1608-12), Phillips (1689), Motteux (1702), Ozell (1725), D'Urfey (1729), Jarvis (1742), Smollett (1755), Duffield (1881), Ormsby (1885), Watts (1888), and Nutt (1898). Two other classical authors frequently translated into English are the great philosopher Aristotle, son of Nichomacus, physician to Amyulas, the grandfather of Alexander . tho Great, who was born at Stagyra 384- 8.C. ; and Thomas a Kempis, who was born at Kempen in 1379, whose "De Imitatione Christi " has been translated into almost overy language in the world.

— Miss Elizabeth Banks has an interesting article in the Nineteenth Century on "The American Negro and His place," which gives some remarkable instances of tho prejudice of the American white man against the black man. Miss Banks, always candid, is not at" all backward in letting it be known, that she shares tho prejudice of her eountrypeople in this respect. The pathetic aspect of the negro's position is shown by Mi 33 Banks in thr- several stories she relates concerning the isolation of tho man or woman-in whom thero can be traced oven the smallest drop of African blood. There is no society for such persons, outcast from the whites as they are, and not wishing to associate with the thoroughbred blacks. In order to find out whether a girl, apparently white, but confessing to a slight tinge of negro blood, could be received on the same terms as white students in the American colleges, Mies Banks wrote to about 30 colleges. No door of equality was open to her in America, but it goes without saying that English colleges, among them Girton and Newnham, would receive her. We understand that Miss Banks i» at work on a. novel into which Western politics and politicians will enter to a certain extent.

— Autobiography is always an attractive human document when events are looked at in the right perspective, and personal vanity is disallowed. " Quaker Campaigns "is a book which has distinct merits, and many people in the northern counties who know Mr William Jones, of Sunderland, will doubtless be glad to learu that he has jotted down in artless, vivid fashion his reminiscences as Commissioner of the Society of Friends' War Victims' Fund at the time of the Franco-Ger-man War, and when the indignation of Europe was aroused by the Bulgarian massacres in 1876-77. Tho book, throws side-lighta on the treat historic .struggle which ended with tho

downfall of the Second Empire, and it also shows how terrible was the condition of affairs in Bulgaria when the unspeakable Turk, as Carlyle grimly called him, made- a reign of* terror in the land. There are other points of interest in the narrative — for these " Quaker Campaigns " were sometimes made in peace as well as war — but the fascination of the-nar- • rative lies in its evident fidelity to truth, and in its revelations of social conditions which' seem almost incredible. Perhaps the.ohapters whioh relate to the Franco-German War are the best, but the book as a whole is uncommonly well worth reading. - Mr Jones was at Strasburg just after the bombardment, and had a talk with Count Bismarck: yon Bohlen — cousin of -Prince Bismarck and first - General of Alsace after ',the surrender. Conversation turned 'on the difficulty of quelling the hostile feeling's, of the vanquished people, and Count Bismarck" "made no secret of the German programme: — ""We shall bring up their young children in our German schools. "We shall take all their y.oung men and pnEs them through the drill of our Great German. Army. It may take us half a generation to effect the desired change, but if you are able to come back to this country in about 15 years, you will find these people as. deeply loyal to Germany as they, now are^to France."- That was too sanguine & forecast. Still, now that nearly 30 years hays* elapsed,, it is rapidly coming true. Only the .old people in Alsace and Lorraine talk 'bitterly now of the war. The young ones have other interests and have grown unp under other laws. — Leeds Mercury.