LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2409, 3 May 1900, Page 66

LITERARY NOTES.

—Dr Sven. Hedin's book, "Through Asia," is about to_be issued in fortnightly parts at Is each. ' - — Dr Martineau has left ample material, for a full biography in the form of journals and letters.

— Mr A. Hope Hawkins ("Anthony Hope") has been elected chairman of the Society of Authors for 1900.

— The "History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds," compiled by Messrs Graves and Cronin, is now complete, and ready for the subscribers.

T-In the new edition of Borrows works now in course of- publication by Mr Murray,"Lavengro" will bs the next volume, and will be ready immediately.

— The most popular book" of the month is' Baden-Powell's '-"Aids 'to' Scouting." " This 1 " volume "has had an extraordinary sale, .more than 50,000 copies having already been issued.

— The articles on "Modern France " which M. Pierre de Conbertin has been contributing to the Fortnightly' are to be published Aortly in book form under the title of "France Since 1814." —Mr Heinemann announces in his--"His-tory of Literature" Series a history of Russian literature, by Mr Waliszeweki, the author of that remarkable study of the life of- Catherine- ili&"'Griea£. I^.

— Before he left for South Africa Dr Conan Doyle passed the proofs of a new book, which will be published shortly. The title chosen is "The Green Flag," and the volume will consist"- of short stories.

— Two" new volumes of Sir M. Grant-Duff's Diary ere promised for immediate publication. These are likely to be the most interesting of all, as they record Sir M. Grant-Duff's expediences right up to the end of last year.

— Two volumes of short stories, both by American writers, are announced by Harper Bros. — the one by Miss Wil'kins, and called "The Love of Parson Lord" ; the other entitled "The Monster," by Mr Stephen Crane.

— The official biography of Ruskin is to be written by JL Wedderlrarn. It will, of coarse, not be published for some considerable time. Messrs Blackwood are preparing a volume on-the aiithor. of /'Modern Painters'' by Mrs Mcynell.

—M. Alfred Ivinnear, who went out to South Africa for the Central News, and was invalided home early in^the year, has a bock in the press entitled," "To Modeler River with Methuen." It will be published immediately by Air Arrowsmith.

— Between his sonnet; sequence "The Silence of Love" (published last year) and his new volume of poems,^ "Without and Within" (now 'in the press), Mr Edznond Holmes has issued an essay of a hundred pages on the question "What is Poetry?"

— The Religious Tract Society has in the press, and will shortly publish, a work by Mr W. Holnian Bentley, entitled "Pioneering on the Congo," which relates the author's 21 years' experienca of life on the shores of the great Congo River, and among the tribes which inhabit them.-

— A volume of Rectorial Addresses, delivered before the students of Edinburgh University, is in the press. It will contain addresses by Gladstone, Carlyle, Moncrieff, Iddesleigh, Derby, Stirling-Maxwell, Lord Rosebery, and others. The volume is being edited by Dr Stodart Walker.

— A forthcoming book which will prove of value to strategists, amateur and otherwise, is the new issue of General E. B. Hamley's "Operations of War." Five editions of this work have already appeared. It is freely illustrated with maps and plans, and Messrs Blackwood are the publishers.

— "Wagers of Battle," a little volume of verse, published by Messrs Macmillan' and Co., is an old book with a new name. In the days of the Crimea some martial verses, entitled "Points of War," were published by two brothers. One of the two, Sir Franklin Lushington (the well-known metropolitan magistrate), survives, and has -thought the present a -fit moment to reissue his "Muster, of the Guards" and the rest.

—Mr Andrew Lang is editing a series of books dealing with the romance and history of the great families of the United Kingdom, which is to be brought out by Mr S. T. Free; mantle. The first volume, by Mr Gerald Brenan, will be devoted to the house of Percy, Mr Lang supplying a preface for the series, while for his own particular subject he has selected the Douglases.

— A new edition of the autobiography cf Thomas Ellwood has just been edited by Mr G. 0. Crump and published by Messrs Methuen. Thomas Ellwood was boi'n in 1639, and it was owing to Ellwood that Milton wrote "Paradise Regained." . Having read that poem in manuscript, he remarked to Milton, "Thou hast said much of 'Paradise Lost,' but what hast thou to say " of 'Paradise Found'?"

- — A volume which bears a certain interest in relation to the present war is Dr W. H. Fitchett's "Story of the Great War," which Messrs Smith Elder have been publishing in parts. The fourth and final volume, dealing with Waterloo and the fall of Napoleon, will be issued at an early date. The third volume, which describes the Peninsular war, is ready for immediate publication.

—Mr Basil Worsfold, who is to contribute a History of South Africa to Messrs Dent's new series, -the "Temple Encyclopedia Primers," has been a prolific writer on this subject during the past few years. Having- resided in South Africa for several years, he knows the country well, and is thus able to treat his subject with local knowledge.

—Mr Andrew Lang has completed his monograph on Prince Charles Edward. The book will present the Young Chevalier in something .of a new light, the result of diligent research among the Stuart papers in Windsor Castle, and from information gathered by Mr Lang during" some years past in various parts of the country. The "study" will appear in the Goupil series, and may be looked for very soon.

—An interesting reprint is that of Trollope's novel, the "Three Clerks," just issued by Messrs Macmillan. The story has a biographical interest, since Trollope, in his memoir, notes that he himself entered the Civil Service under the circumstances there described. But the, "Three Clerks" has never been ranked with his best work, and

which is, in its way, one of the best works in the language, remains unprocurable, except at second hand. "Phineas Finn" is in the same case.

— Miss Alma Tadema, who is to have aT little play of her own produced in London, has . already displayed her interest ' in things dramatic by her' translations into. English of Maetrelinck's "Pelleas et Melisande" and "Les Aveugles." - These appeared in a volume of the "Scott Library," with, al preface exhibiting a keen appreciation of Maeterlinck and his work.

—Mr Wiiiiam Le Queux has returned for a few weeks to San Eemo, where he has some literary work to complete before setting out' on his long journey to Russia and Siberia. The Czar has given him permission to visit' any of the prisons of Russia and Siberia, at; any hour of the night or day. Since Howard's time, no foreigner has been more generously treated. - "- ]

— Lovers of Montaigne will welcome .a small and highly-interesting volume from a Frencll critic ("Introduction- aux Essais de Mon-" taigne." Par E. Champion. Paris:, Colin) „ The author, who has evidently given enormous time and study 'to his work, throws imich light not only on the essayist, but the man. And Montaigne was first and foremost a thorough, typical Frenchman and revolutionary. - Well written, .well - planned,this study is an admirable specimen of con? temporary criticism in France.

— .Blackmore has laid his prohibition upon' the biographer. He has expressed in his will hisr wish that no life of 'himself should: be written.- "This -is quite in keeping with all we know of "BlaCkmore's character, but" it is not to be supposed that this pvohibition,however much one may respect the feeling that dictated it, will altogether and for ever prevail. " "Lorna Doone" (not in its author's' judgment his best book) "will certainly live for some* time to come, and lovers of Lorna and Jan Ridd will want to know, and will have to know, something of the man who endowed them with their delight. — There is a passage in "The Kendals" (published by Pearson's), writes Wentworth Siviee, in the Sunday Sim, to which I should like- to call attention. I thought Shelley could 'Vuss hisself black in the face" when he let himself go. Here is a sample of what Charles Dickens coukkdo when routed. It must be remembered, however, that he was boiling over with indignation at what he considered an unwarranted attack on a private reputation : "When I -.think," he wrote to his friend, the great actor, Macready, "that every dirty Bpeck upon the fair face of the Almighty's creation, who writes in a filthy, beastly newspaper; every rottenhearted panderer who has been beaten, kicked,' and rolled in the 'kennel, yet struts it in the editorial "We' once a week ; every vagabond that an honest man's gorge must rise at : every living emetic in that noxious drug-shop, the press, can have his fling at such -men and call them knaves and fools and thieves — 1 grow so vicious that with bearing harcViipon my pen I break the nib down, and with keeping* my teeth set make my jaws ache."