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Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 66

LITERARY NOTES.

— "Rue" is a A'olume of verse by Laurence Housman, published at the sign of the Unicorn.

—Mr O'Donoghue is preparing a revised and enlarged edition of his biographical " Dictionary of Irish Poets.' — John Strange Winter will contribute to "The Woman at Home" this year her new serial, "The Married Miss Binks," a story of English middle class life. — The paper on " Sir Robert Peel," Avhich Lord Rcsebery contributed to the AngloSaxon Review, is to be issued as a separate book by Messrs Cassell and Co. --The biography of Mr Grant Allen, Avhich Mr Edward Clock! has undertaken to write, will be of mode&t proportions. It Avill preface one of Mr Allen's volumes of scientific ebsnys. — Miss Beatrice Harraden, avlio is now on a visit to friends in Calcutta, expects to return to England in the spring. She will go on to Norway, where she intends to make a start on her new novel. In the meantime^ Mis? Iliirraden has completed a play. — Mr "W. W. Jacobs, the author of " Many Cargoes" and "Sea Urchins," has engaged to do 12 stories for Haiper's Magazine this year, anc 1 has signed a contract with the proprietors of tho Strand Magazine to supply stories for it for the noxl three years. — ISfe-srs Mothuen are about to publish a new edition of a famous book on sport, Peter Beokford'fc " Thoughts on Hunting." Tho book has an introduction and many footnotes by Mr J. Otho Paget; it contnins eight illustrations by Mr G. H. Jallaud, and also a portrait of Beckford. -Mr H. Belloc, author of the "Bad Child's Book of Beasts," has written a satire on Oxford dons, called " Lambkin's Remains," which will be published shortly. It consists of a series of sketches in verse and prose, Avith such headings as " Lambkin's Letter to a French iFriend," "Lambkia'a

l^oreign Correspondence," and is impartially sarcastic on philosophy and life at Oxford. — The first tAVo volumes of "The National Gallery,"' edited by Sir E. J. Poynter, P.R.A., director of the National Gallery, Avill be published by Messrs Cassell and Co. The Avork is issued under the sanction and AA;ith the authority of the triibtees of the National Gallprv, and will illustrate every picture in the National Gallery. — Tho fir,t two A'olumes of the edition de luxe of Mark Twain's Avorka consist of "The Innocents Abroad." It i= curious how, after the lapse of years, the Avit is ju»t as freih and i enjoyable as eAer. }Ir Harland, in his ex- ' haustive " Chronicle " article, rather falls foul of Mark Twain fov Ids irroveront criticisms on art and all that pertain, theieto. But. surely, underlying all Mark Tvain'o fun, there is a quiet reverence tor whatever is great in art ! How the small Mark Twain, in the days when he went fishing chastely attired in a pair of old troupers guarded by one suspender, would have chuckled had he been told that his orks would «o-ue clay appear in all the glory of mi edition de luxe ! — WentAVorth Sines. — Miss Austen was an artist to the tips of her fingers, and she had the inestimable gift of u.ylerritaiiding her own limitations. She never ventured far into unfamiliar country; for, a» with Miss Ferrier, her casual allusions to the fashionable" life, about which she knew little and caied less, are the weakest passages in her boo!:-. Sir Walter, the most capable of judges, admitting that no one could do the big bow-wow style better than himself, added that the exquisite touch ha.d been denied to him Avhich invested commonplace things with interest. He had taken the reading Avorld by storm. Miss Austen, simple as &he seemed, self-retrained as her own Misn Bennet, A - >as nevertheless the object of patsion at first sight. With her exquisite finish and subdued dramatic power, she Avas a family Mnissonisr. — Saturday Review. — The letter of the Prince of Wales to " MA r dear Archbishop," printed by Mr L. G. Benson in the newly-published life of his father, will be read Avith delighted surprise. It refers to the pre^s comments on a certain notorious case in the Law Courts som^ eight years ago. "I have a horror of gan'oing," Avrites H.R.H., " aud should always do my utmost to discourage others who have an inclination for it, as I consider that gambling, like intemperance, is one of the greatest curies which the country could be afflicted with. Horse racing may produce gambling, or it may not, but I haA'e always looked upon it as a manly sport which is popular Avith all classes — and there is no reason why it should be looked upon as a gambling transaction. Alas ! thofe Avho gamble Avill gamble at anything." It is too true. Among the contributors to the Christmas number of that interesting paper, The Pelican, are Mrs Laugirj', ATiss Edna May, of " The Belle of New Tork " fame, Miss Ellaline Terriss and Miss Marie' Tempest, Messrs George Edwardes, Seymour Hicks, Arthur Roberls, Himtley Wright, and De Wolf Hopper, the American composer. The i«,sue presents quite a budget of brightly written articles, short stories, and also Aerses about the stage and stage life, admirable portraits — over 30 in number — are given of the authors, who are all clorely connected Avith tbe profession, and altogether the publication Avill be very attractiA-e to those interested in theatrical people aaO their doingj.

— A book I have been* reading, and which is worth recommending, is a A'olume of sermons. There, mucst be o, great many people in the country avlio are unable xo get to church or olnvpel, to whom a volume of good sermons v/ill be siinmlatin 1 ? a»d inspiuug. I "confess for myself that I am not a great reader of sermons, but now and then I do drop across a volume of discourses so fresh, so helpful, so invigorating, that it i? a plea-^ sure to turn the pages, and an equal pleasure* to recommend one's friends to browse in the same field. The A'oluine I refer to is by the liey. W. L. Watkinson, an ex-president of the Wesleyan Conference, and is entitled " The Blind Spot." Mr Watkinson is known as one of the most original and thoughtful preachers of the day. His quaint and subtle humour is always delightful, his short and piegnant sentences full of suggestion. It is not merely Avhat Mr Waikinpon says, nor the manner in Avhich he says it, that constitutes the chief charm of the&e discourses. They are suggestive of so many other thoughts, : they lift the curtain, as it vifre. from the Avindows here and there, and give you beautiful glinrpses of distant landscapes as you travel on. Constantly you pause to follow some fresh train of thought that has beea suggested to you, and altogether the book is fresh, helpful, and stimulating. — Silai K. Hocking. — The year 1599 has added but little to our poetry. The days when we were all reading the yearly volumes of Tennyson and Browning, with occasional but precious booklets from. Arnold and Swinburne, are OA-er for eA r er. E\'en the young and promising poets of our own day are for the most part silent. Mr William Watson gives no sign of another " Wordsworth's GraA'e," Mr Francis Thompson has long been dumb. One little voHimc of A-erse I naturally think very beautiful. It is called "Ballads and Poems," by Dora Sigerson : but then the Avriter is iriA^ Avife. Three little books of poetic drama have interested me as much by their subject as by its treatment. Mr Swinburne toll" one good "Story in his "Rosamond. Queen of the Lembards." Mrs Ciaigie another in her "Osbern and Ursyne," and Mr Stephen Phillips trest* Avith much skill and rare grace an imperishable theme in his "Paolo and Franceses." The poetry, however, which is to inspire and delight as Wordsworth inspired and delighted our grandsires and Tennyson our fathers ; the fiction which is to set us all in antagonistic camps, equally enthusiastic, as did that of Dickens and Thackeray in an earlier generation ; the enthusiasms which were kindled by Oarlyle, Emerson, MacaulaA\ De Quincey, and by numbers of other prose Avritcrs, are not repeated at the moment. There Avere giants in those dayn. Perhaps the closing year of the century Avill give promise of yet other giants. Assuredly the twentieth century Avill piocVuce them. — Clement K. Shorter.

— The inequality of Mrs France? Hodgson Burnett's work, according to a writer in the Sunday Sun, of December 9. once more finds illustration in "The De Willoughby .Claim." Avhich shows the gifted authoress at her best. The novel is full of that sweetness and pathos Aye have come +o_ look for in Mrs Hodgson Burnett's work. The characters arc all lovable — the big bumping Tom de Willoughby, the girl lie loves and avlio loA-es his brother; the old black wompn, and all the other personages avlio take part in the tale. The story tells of a Southern family; the burly, big-heaired 'mm de Willoughby is not made of the s-tunMhat produces the carpet courtier, as is his brother Avho boats, him in love. Tom takes a store at Talbot's Cro&s roads, North Carolina ; one day he is called by a btram?er to a cabin Avhero lies dying a, girl of 19. Tom had studied medicine before he found that his 8PQB& io_ving heart \yquM mk allow. hi». to

practise sursrery ; and now, with such knowledge as he has, he does his best. But thegreatest skill had been of little avail. The finger of death is iipon the girl, and she passes away as soon as the child is born. The broken-hearted man who had called Tom to» her willingly lets him take caro of the child ; and after the simple obsequies have been performed the cabin is lefl empty. Thenceforth the book shows in charming contrast the child Sheba and the big. rough Tom, who loves her like a father. There is a cross web in the story which tells of the child's uncle., her mother's brother. Latimer, a? his name is, lives hiding the secret of his •.isiei's shame. To only one friend does he confide the story, and that friend is Baird, the child's father. Then tragedy has play, a id the subsequent scones are the more powerful by their very simplicity. Then comes the Confederate war, which ends by wipincf out the best of America's men. Only Rupert, of all the de Willoughbys, is 'left. Rupeit is the son of the woman Tom had loved, and who had preferred his brother. The story ends with an idyllic love story between Rupert and Sheba, with the radiant happine=s of big-souled Tom de Willoughhy looming in the background. It is the biggest tl.intr Mr, Hodgson Burnclt has attempted, and she has been rewarded -with conspicuous buccess.