LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2524, 30 July 1902, Page 66

LITERARY NOTES.

— Messrs Cassell and Co. are issuing a new sixpenny edition of Lord Roberta's "Rise of Wellington." It is dedicated to the British Army by Lord Roberts, who writes also a new prefatory note m defence of the British soldier.

—Mr George Allen promises a popular edition of Ruskin's works. The price of the new library edition (30gs), which Mr E. T. Coo'i and Mr Wedderburn, X C , are editing, is, of course, more than most admirers of Rnslrin are able to afford.

— The second part of Mr W. F. Kirby's admirable work on "The Butterflies and Moths of Europe " has jusfc been published by Messrs Cas s ell and Co. The exquisite coloured illustrations are a feature of tho book, which entomologists cannot fail to prize; and which is being issued in the popular form of =evenpenny parts. -- The last thing which Lord Dufferin wrote was an introduction to the new edition of the plays of his great-grandfather, Sheridan These are reproduced for the first time from the onginal manuscripts. Besides Lord Dufferin's preface, giving personal impressions of the plays, the editor, Mr Fraser Rao, has gathered many contemporary comment, on Sheridan as a dramatist.

— Tin-re have already been some 48 editions of BJackmore's celebrated novel "Lorna Doone." The publisher*. Messrs Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., have now a second sixpenny edition in baud. Some five years ago it was is-ucd at 6d : but the edition of 150,000 was exhausted in the course of two or three months.

—It is said that a somewhat <=en-ational volume of letters written by Jane Welsh Parlyle ib in procet-s of publication. The letters have been collected from intimate friends of the Carlyles, and submitted to Sir James Crichton Browne, who has advised their publication on the ground that they will throw fresh light on the domestic life of the Carlyle*. — The Earl of Aberdeen has expressed a desire to contribute to the Nejv Spalding Club's series of histories of the Gordons a, volume dealing with the Aberdeen branch of the family. The proposal has been gratefully accepted, and the preparation of the volume has been undertaken by the Rev. James Brebner, of Forgue, who has had access to all the relative papers intheachives of Had do House.

— Acting on the suc-Ece=tion conveyed to f.M.'s Inspectors of Schools, that the reading of good lyrical poetry will be found of special value in tho higher classes, Messrs Macmillan have prepared, and will publish directly, "The Globe Poetry Reader," at tho price of Is 4d. The book includes 183 pp. of selections from the best poets, from Shakespeare down to Mr Kipling, and the extracts are carefully chosen so as to be of general interest to young reader*, but mingle with the more stirring passages, such as Byron's description of the "Eve of Waterloo," much also of a purely lyrical character, as, for instance, Shelley's, "Ode to the West Wind."

— Mr Cuteliffe Hyne, the novelist and traveller, tho creator of Captain Kettle — an individual ho by no means resembles — is 36. He is an old "Clare," Cambridge, man, who a» soon a.s the ties of 'Varsity lifo were broken, started on his wanderings round theglobe. His great idea is to cover at least 10,000 miles of new ground every year. If he were a^ked what his method of work was, ono is sure" that the unqualified answer would come- that he had no method. Just as the mood comes he write?, anywhere. The plots for his stories are obtained from the morning papers, and ho consider-, it a very poor day when material is not forthcoming. His first novel was published in 1892, and entitled "The New Eden,"' "Captain Kettle" not appearing until some six years later. —It was Edmund Spenser who was Laureate under Elizabeth, who desired that the poet should have a pension in acknowledgment of the merit displayed in "The Faerie Queen." Burleigh is said to have raised tho objection. "What ! all this for a rhyme" The Queen then replied, "Then give, him what, is Tcafeon." Thus appears to have originated one of our best-used English proverbs ; for having heard of what hn*l occurred, tho poet one clay handed Elizabeth this verse : I was piomised or r time To have reison for >uy rhyme; But from tim~ unto tins season, I have had nor rhyme nor reason.

— Tho Bookman, speaking of Rudyard Kipling, sayh : — "He has got the ear of the whole English-speaking world to a degree that is guile unparalleled, and when he sends forth a blast of powerful appeal or of flaming indignation, he speaks for the whole race and to it. His words fly underneath tho seven seas, of which ho himself has written, and within a few hours, not only Englishmen, but American?. Australians, South Africans, and Anglo-Indians, arc reading his vigorous lines, while the newspapers of four continents are filled with excited ooinments upon what he ha« «een fit to say. There i^ no statesman living who lcceives so instantaneous a response to his pronouncements at) dof- this remarkable- writer."

— Robert Laitz, the Stuttgart publisher, has. been eiidea\ouring to mako his fellowcountrymen acquainted with the be«t English and American fiction through translations. His efforts have not met with the desired response, and lie sends to the Borsenblatt an account of his keen di'-apnointment. A translation of Barries "Window m Thrums" in two year* reached a sale of 202 copies. Blackmore's "Lorna Doone" in seven years bold 825 copies. Miss Corelli's "Romance of Two Worlds" in the same time sold 688 copies. Crawford's "A Cigarette maker's Romance" in eight years sold 513 oopie«. and Hawtherne's "Scarlet Letter" 507 in four years. On two only of the books has the luckless publisher got hU money baok — The mo-t -alient m-Unce. of a writer who could not be called a "great" writer and could not be called a "mediocre"' writer i» Mr Henry James, that perfect master of a small method, ami, accordingly, that perfect type of the modern artist in literature. Many wise very like unto him, in the younarer generation, aprjears Mr G-. S. Street. Both writers, in their outlook on life, have the- 'ame- fastidious coyness, the °aiT>.e unwilliußiiPs to stray Ijeyoiid » certain riifflily (inli-rtl radius, tli© same fear of penetrating into the pass-ions of those who revolve in that radius, the- same way of looking askance at a definite event in that radius, as though it were a rather vulgar thing, to be hushed up, even to be denied. — Saturday Review.

— ''New Glimpses of Poe" is the title of an American booklet by Prof««sor James Harrison, of Virginia Univer^itv. The- professor saw Edgar Allan Poo in 1849. the la«t vekr of his life of 39 year?, in. Richmond, 3>>. "H.e was lodjgag «t •js3&jj£O£jal*Da.

in Broad street, if I am no.t mistaken. At least, I saw him repeatedly in that thoroughfare — a poetical figure, if there ever was one, olad in black, as was the fashion then — slender, erect, the subtle lines of his face fixed in meditation. I thought him wonderfully handsome, the mouth being the only weak point. I was too shy to seek an introduction to the poet, bu£ John R. Thompson procured for me Po ( e's autograph, a possession of which I was naturally very proud. While Poe was in Richmond some of hia friends got up a reading for his benefit, and I heard him read "The Raven" and some other poems before a small audience in one of the parlour* of the Exchange Hotel. In spite of my admiration for Poe, I was noB an uncritical listener, and I have retained the impression Jhat he did not read verywell. His voice was pleasant enough, bufc" he emphasised the rhythm unduly — & failing. common, I believe, to poets endowed writh vakeen sense of the music of their own verse." - Poe about the same time delivered a lecture, which yielded a net profit of £300. "With tho proceeds he starttti to New York, but never finished the journey. Stopping in Baltimore en route, he was invited to a birthday party. During the feast the fair hostess asked Inn* to pledge with wine ; and he could not refuse. That glass of wine was a spark) to a powder magazine. He went on a debauch, and a few days later died iv a hospital."