LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 70

LITERARY NOTES.

— lii "Dante and the Divine Comedy.'' by Mr ~W. J. Payling "Wright, is comprised a collection of short studies intended to serve at once as an incentive to beginners and as a help to those who have already some acquaintance with the works of Dante, ilr John Lane will publish it. j — The Countess of Darnloy is one of the authors of a novel which Messrs Constable are to publish under the title "Elma Trevor."' She has written it in collaboration j with Mr Randolph Hudson, who is already known in the field of authorship. Lady Darnlej- belongs to Australia, where she and her husband, then the Hon. Ivo Bligh, so well-known as a cricketer, first met. — The work) of Hume, Robertson, and j Adam Ferguson in history, of Adam Smith ' in political economy, of Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart in philosophy, of Smollett and Henry Mackenzie in romance, of Allan I Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, and Robert Burns in song, of Boswell as a biographer, ' of John. Home as a dramatist, and of "Obsian'' JSlacpherson as a poetic my3tifier has , long ago been jiistly appraised, and the I . judgments are not now brought up for re- j vision. T]ie books of the Scotsmen who ! made Edinburgh a great literary centre in ' the eighteenth century may, with few ex- • ceptions, be now seldom read^ but they | illuminated the age in which they were j produced, and they gave distinction to their , city and country — Pall Mall Gazette. I — Ninety-four year* ago Walter Scott sat ! him down to write the autobiography of which he finished no more than the delightful fragment with which his son-in-law, John (libson Lockhart, introduced the "Life." "I have had more than my share of popularity," j wrote Walter, in his second sentence. In ; I the next he expressed a doubt whether his j "literary reputation" should "survive" his j "temporal existence." The writer's "Marmion" had just been published. "I have not been blessed with the talents of Burns or Chatterton," he continued, in the same strain of modest self-estimation. Scott was still in his bardic stage. His "Lay of the Last Minstrel" had appeared three years | I earlier. "The Lady of the Lake" had still I Ito appear. It came out in 1810. Scott, ' [ in short, had not yet discovered his true vocation, nor realised the fact that, as a poet, he must give place to Byron. Four years after "The Lady of the Lake," "Waverley" led Europe captive, and its author became Carlyle's "Walter Scott of the Uni- , verse." Contrast Scott's opinion of himself in 1808 with his deathless fame as we know it in 1902. Walter Scott's hold upon the reading- public is a phenomenon unique in literature. —We believe it to be a fact that the whole reading public is growing- a little tired of the serious novel of to-day. We do not ■mean the "novel wit/h a purpose." The ta&te for that went out long ago : only Mrs Humphry Ward and' her stalwart supporter on The Times care a jot for it now. We do mean the merely serious novel, the novel in which psychology, character, is all in all, in which everyone is tragically gra.ve — though for the sake of contrast, to make gravity appear arravor still, fortnin paces of machine-made humour are allowable. Has it not become something of a nuisance? When we read it do we not feel that the making of it has become" somewhat of a trick? We see not the fine, inspired, spontaneous artist at work, not the architect, lovingly, passionately designing and rearing a splendid building, but the hard-work-ins; draughtsman, in an, engineer's office planing a locomotive on lines broadly designed for him long ago. and thinking of nothing but gaining a little in speed, or ! economy, or perhaps simply a. slight difference in outward appearance. — Saturday Re- 1 view. — Probably the next great book of travel ('•ays the Literary World) will be Dr Sven Hedin's account of his* two years' wanderings in Tibpt. Western China, and tho d'e.sert of Crobi. He claims to have travelled^ about 6000 miles, of which only about S(T" were through known country. He left, his home in Stockholm on June 24-, 1899. for St. Petersburg, whence he journeyed, by rail to Andijan. and thence on horseback to Kaahgax. H© then, made hia way tc the Lake if Lob Nor, where liis 6000' miles of exploration began. One of the greatest dangers he encountered was the frequent sandstorms, in the f-k>bi desert, which occur on an average twice a week, making day as black as night, and laotinz from a day to two whole days. He did not; reach Lla««a. the- capital of Tibet. He lost four of his men from fatigue and privation, and sava that had he weighed the perils ahead }f him before starting he would never have achieved anythin?. Among hip discoveries were the remains of some ancient Chinepp and Mongolian oifcie-s. from the ruins of which he ohtuined many MSS. and sculptures. He has prepared a very large sca'e-inap of a huge (r.u-r of pr^vioivly unknown country. Dr Hedin ivax oxp«eted in Calcutta, on Ja.nna.ry 25 na the gwst of Lord Curzoii. t!i« Indian Viceroy, and will travel home to write hi- book and prepare an account of his scientific researches. There will probably be as groat a competition for the former a« for Dr Nanspn's book, which Messrs Archibald. Constable, and Co. obtained and bujuirht out. — Mi». Mary John-.lon''- last novel. "Audrey."' has ."m-t with as great a measure of , sue p=? a^ aftrndinl tho production of hor two previous bor:k". "The Old" Dominion" and "Rv Order of the Company." A sketch of thr- aut ; ior"--.'-< taroor appoar^ in a late i-^u? of tho Litorarv World, in whk-h it is stated that X[i«s Johnston's three novels Itai." ;i!l bo<'u written 111 ill-health and much bo'iilv wf.iUnpss: — Tlip viirmir and robust-ne-s of Mi-« Jlsrc Johnston's work do not =uetin-t rlip iiiwil'd. and vot her books have hi'i^n wriltpu wi<]» fr<V|M«»nfc intpf'iirctiom? from, .lino*-* and li-r «r=r book '"Die Old I'oiiiii'ion," w«« prni-tiojillv wriupn on a vie': bod In the winrei of 1896 =3io com- I m»Tfi! lip lvujk : for two years she wort i qu'otlv on, Tvr.itn" wirii a DPnoil. a little < at a t'r-e. Tn I^°^ ir was finished, and its < siw^ \ra: imrr-diare nnd oomplete. Th(» s ioiv of h^r «pconrl book) ''By Order of the C immnv " is ir > "i'*}i the "amf — steady pt-n. : "rn-a ;n «.t)ir» of fivouont failures of hf>alch, t . Up rT"wn»(l wir-li in -f nut and wido roooeiiifion f.f rhf» vnlii" of li«"' vor'r "W<).i'p it ; !,,.( th-<- <-nr, lfl o ' tl.p h^r l-r^-onirp hap : been pr I'lucod undov .similar conditions it ' woiiid be matter for &u^p ri £ C thai work at 1

: once bo strong, co finished in style, and exhibiting so true an insight into character should have been produced amid so much bodily weakness and w eariness. It suggests, j after all, that there may be compensations I in enforced letirement from the distraction of aocial life when the literary gift is one of Nature's endowments." — The "Autobiography of Sir Walter Besant," just published by Messrs- Hutchhison and Company, forms an intensely interesting and entertaining volume. Of Sir Walter's remarkable and persistent industry we have had ample evidence during- the past quarter of a century, but it is sometimes I profitable to get inside the maphine and dis1 cover how it works. The author gives us a glimpse of his methods when he tells us that: "In my own case I was endowed bynature with one quality which, I am sure, I may proclaim without boasting. It is that of untiring industry. It Is no merit ■ in me to work continually. I am not I happy when lam not working. I cannot j waste the afternoon in the club smoking room; nor can I waste two hours before dinner in a chib library; nor can I wast© a whole morning pottering about a garden ; and in the evening, after dinner, I am fain to repair to my study, there to look over , proofs, hunt up points, and arrange for th© j next day's work. Again, when I have fiction in hand I cannot do any good with it; for more than three or four hours a day — say. from 9 till half-past 12. In the afternoon I must work ait other things."' If; , took Sir Walter from eight to ten months to write a novel, and for years after Rice's death, whan, the famous collaboration ceased, Ihe steadily produced one novel a year. It ; requires unlimited perseverance and patient j industry to do that., especially if the work jbe conscientious and thorough. And cex--j tainly no one will accusfi Sir Walter Pesanfc '. of mere book-making. — London Sun.