LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2397, 8 February 1900, Page 64

LITERARY NOTES.

— Te the very attractive Lyric Poets series, issued by Dent, have now been added "English Madrigals in the Time of Shakespeare, "' edited, with an introduction, by F. A. Cox. — "The Orn.nac Girl," by Sir Walter Besant, the fifth edition oE which is just out, is an excellent story, full of pow erful and tellincscenes, and will rank high in Sir Waller's best work. — Under the title of "According to My Lights," Mr John Hollingshead is publishing a volume of reminiscences of London theatrical and general life. Home recollections of Dickens and Thackeray also appear in the volume, which Messrs Chafcto and Windus have in hand. — The Duchess of Su Midland is now engaged in -writing a book, which, unlike her last, "One Hour and the Next," will beVholly devoid of social problems, and will depend mainly lor interest on the love story which forms the basis, of tbe work. — Messrs Cassell and Company will shortly publish a new work entitled "The 'Death or Glory Boys' : The Story of the 17th Lancers/ by D. H. Parry, author of "Britain's Roll of Glory." etc. In this volume Mr Parry followa the career of the regiment from the time when it came into existence — just after the death of Wolfe at Quebec — down to the present day. — The Hon. J. Fortescue, already known for his "History of the 17th Lancero," has been engaged for some years on the first two volumes of a, "History of the British Army," which^ Messrs Macmillan and Co. hope " to publish. The present instalment brings the story down io the Peace of Paris in 1765, and the book v. ill reach 1870 in two more volumes. The work is iliusiraled by maps, and has plans oi battles, specially prepared. — Mr Kiiskin's works, one volume or many, ; are always safe to make good piesents. Nothing is better for the puipose than the "Uni- I form Edition" that is published by Mr George i Alien. Opinion:, aie not -\ei-y decided as [ to which is the most popular ;" but there is j .i v.-,de choice, and there are no books that give ' such general, satisfaction. The more recent ', woris are not included in the abo\ e-mentioned ! edition; the "Stones of Venice," for in- ' stance, in three volumes, costs 10s per volume. ' It is a sumptuous work. — Many wild ideas are current, remarks Mr Belloc-Lownder, in the Sketch, as to the J Quean's favourite authors. Certain it is | her Majesty has a cultivated and catholic i taste. Like thousands of her humblest subjects, the Sovereign laughed and cried over '"Pickwick" and "Nicholas A'ickelby" Thiickeray's works are among the many books at Windsor, at Osborne, and at Balmoral, and there also the presence of the "\ 7 icar of Wabefiekl," "Barchester Towers," "Adam Becle," and "The Saint's Tragedy" shows how eclectic is the Queen's i taste. — Messrs Smith, Elder, and Co. have published "Recollections, 1832 to 1886," by the Right Hon. Sir Algernon West. .Sir Algernon was for many years private secretary to Mr Gladstone, and was subsequently chairman of the Inland Revenue Board. His recollections will be universally read, and the bode will be one about which everybody will have to know something. In a manner, the book is history ; it throws a strong light upon many i^olitical circumstances which have hitherto remained unexplained ; and besides being interesting from this point of view, the "Recollections" are highly entertaining. — The late Mr William Simpson, R.1., who was widely known as a draughtsman for the llustrated London News, was also an author of much ability, as his "Buddhist Praying Wheel" and "The Jonah Legend" prove. It was not only on the latter of these books that his mind was busy during the last years of his life, but he was at work olso upon his reminiscences, soon to be published, and upon a monograph entitled " Glasgow in the Forties," illustrated by drawings made by him when he lived in the city in his youth, which were redrawn for the purposes of reproduction. The book is about to be issued in a limited edition by Messrs Morison. — Sir Herbert Maxwell's "life of Wellington" will be ready in a few clays. It is expected to prove exceptionally interesting in the attention it pays to the civil career of the Duke, which has hitherto been obscured in the pages of his biographers by the brilliancy of his military exploits. The present Duke has, however, given the author access to the drafts and originals of the correspondence preserved at Apsley House, which throws light on many points which have hitherto not been clearly understood. Sir Herbert Maxwell has further had the advantage of examining, by the permission of Lord Salisbury, the confidential correspondence between the Duke and the second Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury, and also her ladyship's journals, which furnish much interesting matter. — A book on Paris is generally more welcome than one on London, as the subject lends itself the better to description by reason of colour. The Bohemian life of that city has always been an attractive subject, since Henri Murger told of his Bohemian life there, and again since the pathetic life story of Paul Verlaino found its way into print, and once more since Dv Maurier made it the setting to "Trilby." More about modern Bohemiaiiism may be learnt from a very interesting book wiled "Bohemian Paris of Today," by Mr W. C. Morrow. It is delightfully illustrated by M. Edouard Cucuel. —We are so accustomed to look aghast at "the overwhelming flood of now boc-ks" that it is agreeable to be reminded by the advertisement of the "Library of Famous Literature" being published by the "Standard" how slow our own country stands in the international statistics of book production. According to the diagrams which head the advertisement, Great Britain produces less than a third of the new books produced by Germany, and not many more than half of the new books produced by France, and considerably less than the total produced by Italy. The numbers given are : Germany, 24,000 new books per year; France, 13,000; Italy, 9500; Great Britain, 7300; United States, 5300; Netherlands, 2500. If, however, England is thus low in the general production of new books, she leads in the production of novels, heading the list with 2438. Germany leads in educational works with 5442, arts and sciences with 2938, belles lettres with 2453, and travel with 1139 ; while Italy leads in political economy with 2994, and Franca in history with 1164. — Home paper. — The following deserved rebuke is administered to a presumptuous author by the writer of "Literary Notes" in the Sunday Sun: — I have received a letter which, for sheer impertinence, would be hard to beat. It runs as follows: — "The publishers of the above tell me they much desire to see a kindly review of it in the Weekly Sun. I hope when it is convenient for you to have it noticed the comments will be favourable ones, as friendly recommendations considerably, accele-

rate the sale of a book." Of course I must decline to name the book, and as the author is seeking for the advertisement of being "named" in the Parliamentary sense, I must decline to name him also. But since he refers in these terms to his publishers, who I can hardly believe to have counselled the sending of this letter, I do not mind mentioning their name, since I think they would perhaps be glad to know of the misuse that is being made of it. They are Messrs Digby, Long, and Co. — The Field shortly criticises Mr Bullen's late production, "Life at Sea." and is of opinion that the author should have given sufficient data, to enable his readers to verify the truth of his well-v ritten adventures. The writer says: — Mr Bullen would seem to have been extremely unfortunate in the choice of the ships in whicfh he served the first four years of his sea-faring life. " They all, without excaption, appear to have been ill-found and badly commanded, and, from the description he gives of them, belonged to a class of vessel that it would no-.v be hard to find. The author does not gne the date at which hp first went to sea, and so it is somewhat difficult to e\piess an opinion on the accuracy of hi-s statements. Fifty years ago, no doubt, ftich ships as he describes were not uncommon, and, in foreign port?, a shirt at the fore-yard-arm (a signal for a man-of-war boat) was often to be seen : but tilings have greatly imj proved in the mercantile marine since then 7 | and the pictiue the author draws must not be accepted as the state of affairs at the present time, or, for that matter, for some time past. If dates had been given we would have been better able to form a definite opinion with regard to the merits of the book. Like all Mr Bullen's writings on sea-faring life, this book is entertaining, and will no doubt be read with interest by many. — The ]a>e Mrs Lynn Linton began to keep a record of her literary life at the request of Dr Robertson Nicoll. At her death it was found that only three chapters' were finishctl. and the=e have been issued under the title, "My Literary Life."' by Messrs Hodder and Stoughton. Miss Beatrice Harraden contribute-; a, short pieface. In the fragment Dickens. Thackeray, Lander. George Eliot, and other literary celebrities are introduced. Mrs Lynn Linton met George Renry Lev/es on many occasions. Tins ii her portrait of him: "Lswis was- a singularly plain man, deeply pitted with smallpox, with narrow jaws and somewhat drawn-in cheeks. He had bright, vivacious, and well-shaped eyes, a quantity of bright brown hair, and a fle.-dble mouth of singular moistneps. He was the first of the audacious men of my ac- j quaintance-, and about the moF'l excreme. I)-< j ; had neither shame nor reticence in liis choice j of subjects, but would discourse on the most | delicate matters <?f physiology with no more perception that he was tiansgressing the | bounds of propriety than if he had been a j learned savage." His manners and talk were disturbing, and Mrs Lynn Linton declares that some of the latter was so free that it upset her "moral arithmetic" for many days. She got on v. ell with Walter Savage Lan dor, and was very friendly with him for many years. He was past his prime when they first met, for she speaks of him as "an old man, still sturdy, vigorous, upright, alert. He was dressed in brown, and his whole style was one of noticeable negligence. His clothes were unbrushed and shabby; his shirt-front was eoarso and plain, like a nightshirt; a frayed and not over-clean blue r.ecktie, carelessly knotted, was awry ; his shoes were full of bumps and bosses like an apple pie. . . . But the face beneath the somewhat shapeless hat was one Kot to be passed unremarked even iri a crowd, j

. . . "With all the shabbiness of the outward man, the dignity, the superiority, the self-respect of his bearing, and its wonderful courtesy to women, all made him noticeable, even to those who did not know who he was."