LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2523, 23 July 1902, Page 70

LITERARY NOTES.

— A new novel by Lucas Cleeve, entitled ■ His Italian Wife," will be issued at an early date by Mr John Long. It is described as a society novel, aimed at the blots on our social system. Lucas Cleeve evidently writes with full knowledge of her subject, inasmuch as she is the wife of Colonel Kingscote and daughter of the Right Hon. Sir Henry Drummond Wolff.

— Mr Herbert Paul is engaged on a "History of Modem England," which is expected to occupy him for «ome years. The worki will be m four volumes, and will deal wrh the period beginning with the Anti-Corn Law agitation, and ending with the fall of Lord Rofcbery's Government In ]895. The first -volume of the history '"«s ]>ro-ji'--:d fy Messr- Macmillan next year. — There aie families in which literary and other talent is hereditary, aa. for instance, the families of Coleridge and Wordsworth; but, as a rule, the "-oils -jf poets cie dull dogs We have in mind (says the Lancet) three m-ano descendants of famcus poet*. It i« po*«ible that the children cf poet 3 are bored m early years by their surroundings and the mental attitude of their p*roins, arrd mako haste to become prosaic. — A book on the great Marquis of Argyll is promised from the pen of the Rev. J. Wilh'oek, of Lerwick, whose recent biography of Sir Thomas Tlrquhart, of Cromarty, the translator of Rabelais, was received with so much faumr. Mr Willcock's new work is largely based on hitherto unpublished historical material, and throws a fresh and interesting light on the character ancl career of the Duke of Argyll's famous ancestor.

— Lord Ronaldshay's new book, "Sport and Politics Under an Eastern Sky," is announced as nearly ready. Tho author, vho was formerly on the staff of tho Viceroy of India, is already an experienced trav2il3\ although it is only four years since he attaint his majority. His latest journey was to cross tho Himalayas in winter, and to return to England via Turkistan and Persia. Bis adventures and impressions are described in the forthcoming volume. -- Mes.srs A. and C. Black promise r,n interesting work shortly— namely, "The Book of Jubilees," edited by Professor Charles, of Dublin University. Written in Hebrew towards the end of the second century, v.c., the "Book of Jubilees" is the oldest commentary we have on Genesis ancl the early chapters of Exodus. From Hebrew it was translated into Greek, and from Greek into Ethiopio and Latin. The entire Ethiopia version has come down to us, but only fragments of the original and the other \cr."'oriS have- been preserved.

— George Eliot is dealt with in tl c supplementary volumes of the "Encyclopedia Britannica." by Mrs Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes). Here is an extract from the estimate of that writer: — "Her sensitiveness to criticism was extreme; a flippant paragraph or an illiterate roview with regard to her woik actually affected her for clays. Tho who> history of her union with Lewes is a complete illustration of the ,force of sheer will— in that case partly her own and not inconsiderably his — over a nature essen*«.i!ly unfitted for a bold stand againft attacks.' — The first of the three additional animal stories which Mr Kipling has recently finished will appear immediately in serial form. It is to be called "The Cat That Walked by Himself," a>nd explains how tho dog's antipathy for cats came about, and why it was part of their fate that boy 3 should throw stones at them. Mr Kipling arrived in England from South Africa recently.

— As the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy is e\ er with us^ Messrs George Newnes, Limited, have decided to add Bacon's works to their "Thin Paper Series," which already includes a Shakespeare in three volumes. The rew Bacon will be complete in one volume at 3s 6d not. bound in lambskin.

— The late Bret Harte's works were first brought before the British reading public by that enterprising publisher, John Camden Hotten, in 1871, just two years before the latter's death. Mr Hottpn. who, together WjUh Jacob Larwood, compiled '4'listory of Signboards," and did other excellent literary work, had previously introduced several other Transatlantic celebrities to a new and most appreciative audience in Britain. Their names have long been household words here, and the- li&t includes, besides Bret Harte. James Russell Lowell, "Artemus Ward,' 1 Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Leland ("Hans Breitmann"). Mr Hottcn's business was bought -from his widow by Messrs Chatto and WincKxs.

— Some idea of the present stagnation in the literary market may be gained from the following figures supplied (rays the Westminster Gazette) to the Society of Authors by a member who has a syotem of bookkeeping which admits of leady reference. Dm ing tlio quarter which ended Lady fiay la<.t, he offered work in 82 places. Forty four of these offers related to MSS. on a subject of which ho ha.= .special knowledge. Ihiee were placed, 31 rejected. iJ offers were bt ill under consideration. Thirty-eight offeis were of MSS of a miscellaneous rliara< tor ; of tliepe two were accepted. 25 rejcited, and 11 htill under consideration. A novel offered in three places »as not ae-c<-|jted, ancl nearly all the MSS. sold were phoit. the- lon£;e-t realising only £15. — Professor Bury's admirable- book. "A History of (Jiceee to the Death of Alexander the Great." has been issued m a new edition by Me— rs Macmillan and Co. The text, though carefully reused, ha-» been little < hanged with the exception of some additions amounting to about 10 pages. The chief additions are a fuller account of the diplomatic transactions between the Peace of Xuia- and the fii^fc battle of Mantinea, a short biographical notice of Herodotus, and a dearer statement regarding the character of Tlmeychdes as a hif-tormn. Moreover, the notes have been considerably expanded, and the-c now form a very \aluable part of the honk — "A Woid for the Laureate, ' by a writer in the London Sun: — It ha« never been mggc-tf.d that the present Poet Laureate is a poer of transcendent gifts, but that he has written much passable and e.\en readable \er t e cannot be gainsaid. Indeed, before he became Poet Laureate, he was spoken of with respect as a poet of the second flight, and the reviewer who ventured to bait him ran the risk of getting his knuckles rapped. Since Mr Austin succeeded to the laurel, however, nothing has been too bad to say about him. The man cannot open his mouth, in a metrical way, without being immediately assailed by every common wag that dabbles in ink. In view of the »»blushiu£ abuse which, has been, showered ;

upon him by certain journals, it is astonish", ing that Mr Austin should care to publish anything at all. Possibly it is his official position and not his will that consents. Aa I have said, I do not for a moment believe that Mr Austin's poetical gifts are extraordinary, but I think that reviewers might remember that he has been a figure in English letters for many years, and that on the whole his services to literature entitle him to a certain tenderness of treatment. To review a man's books, good or bad, with the mere purpose of making a laughingstock of him is neither criticism nor decent form.

— Mr W. S. Lilly was at one period of his career Under-secretory to the Madras Government, but ili-health compelled him to leave a eourftry in which he was, as lie tells us, absorbingly interested^ and quit- "a service to which he was deeply attached-" But though force o£ circumstances necessitated Mr .-Lilly's departure from India, if; did not diminish the fascination which ifc held fm- him. The outcome of his personal acquaintance with that great Empire and of his siibsequent painstaking research ia't<> be found in his new volume, "India and Its Problems," published by Messrs Sands ancl Co. Mr Lilly's hook is not a long one, but in the space of its 300 pages he has contrived to give us some very entertaining glimpses of the -country and its people, and: to diccuss with great acumen' and intelligence not a few of the problems which confront the British Eaj in India. Mr Lilly presents a very level-headed and comraoit sense view of the heavy task) which- the British nation has taken upon its shoulders. India is still the victim of frequent and devastating famines. Many millions of her people still live on the verge of poverty, but these lamentable facts notwithstanding, India is vastly better off than she would be were her multitudinous races left to their own devices. "I think," wrote De Tocqueville, "that the English are obeying an instinct which is not only heroical, but true, and a real motive of conservatism, in their resolution to keep India at any cost." Mr Lilly fully agrees with this view. Certain ii; is, he says, that to fail in that resolve would be to bring unnumbered woes upon India; to abandon her to the confusion and misery which preceded the rise of the British Raj.