LITERARY MOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2612, 6 April 1904, Page 66

LITERARY MOTES.

— Miss Gordon-Cumming-, whose travel books are so widely known, has written her reminiscences. She travelled constantly in all parts of the world between 1867 and 1830, beginning with a visit to India. Now sh© has gathered hc-r memoirs into a volume, which Messrs Blackwood will publish.

— Publishers view with something like dismay the outbreak of war in th© Far East. For several years past events have conspired against the success of their seasons, and although matters improved in 1903, thci© is still a good deal of leeway to make up. With th© prospect of th© attention of the public being riveted for a long time on the war news, the outlook for books do-es not seem encouraging, more especially as the trade was already in a rather depressed condition.

—On February 15 Mr T. Fisher Unwin published in his Red Cloth Library a novel by Professor J. Clark Murray, of Montreal, a son of the lat© Provost Murray, of Paisley, entitled "He That Had Received the Five Talents." The story describes the life of a Scottish village as it is gradually transformed from a horn© of antique idyllic quiet to the busy scene of a great manufacture. The title is suggested by the fact that th© manufacture, with its accumulated fortune, falls unexpectedly to a younger son, who endeavours to act up to the teaching embodied in the Parable of the Talents — that to whom much i' 3 given, of him shall much be required.

— Th© recent award of its first priz© of £200 by th© Aeademie de Goncourt to the sailor-author John Antoine Nau is another notable instance of the success of th© seafaring man as writer. The entry of the sailor into th© field of literature (in many cases quite without preliminary training in the ranks oi either journalism or bookwriting) has been a remarkable feature of the past decade-. The hitherto unknown Nau, originally a sailor, and said to have been a failure in most walks of life, is now a gardener in Andalusia. Among other names (says the Westminster Gazette) one might mention Louis Becbe, lat© South Sea trader; Frank T. Bullen, whaler and seaman ; Joseph Conrad, formerly master in the Merchant Service ; and Major W. P. Drury, who served on th© Camperdown as an officer of marines.

—On Friday, February 12, the Westminster Gazette points out, Mr George Meredith celebrated his seventy-sixth birthday. The following lines from a sonnet addressed by Mr Watts-Dunton to th© author of "Richard Feverel" on. his seventy-fourth birthday are equally appropriate for his natal day : This time, dear friend — tins time my birthday

greeting Come 9, heavy of funeral tears — I think of , y^, And say, '"Tis evening with him — that is true — Biyfc evening bright as noon, if faster fleeting; Still Jie is spared — while Spring and Winter,

meeting, Clasp hands around tho roots 'neath frozen dew —

To see the 'Joy of Earth' break forth anew, And hear it in the hillside warbling, bleating. By the death of W. E. H. Lecky the number of signatories to the "Birthday Letter" sent to Mr Meredith from 30 "comrades in letters" on his seventieth birthday- ie, it may be stated, now reduced to 24.

— Reference has recently been made to the excellent "Miniature Series of Musicians," now being issued by Messrs Bell. Praise having been given to the monograph on the late Sir Arthur Sullivan, for which Mr H. Sax© "Wyndham -was responsible, it is right that attention should be called to three other books that have appeared in the same set. They deal in turn ;vith Mozart, Beethoven, and' Gounod, the authors respectively being Dr Ebenezer Prout, Mr J. S. She-dlook, and Mr Henry Tolhurst. Naturally, in little volumes of such modest aim on© does not look for hitherto unrecorded facts in the lives of great men with whose careers biographers have long been ; busy. But this is, not to decry the con- ' scientious attempt here mad© to Drystallise ! with a few unpretentious pages salient and , interesting facts connected with the life ' labours of the musicians dealt with. As- a ' contribution to a "miniature" series, Dr ' Prout's "Mozart" is a tactful and commend- ! able effort, written with taste and discri- i mination, while, as might be expected, a ' critic of Mr Shedlock's well-known erudi- ' tion finds in the life and art-work of Bee- ' thoven a congenial theme. The little work \ on Gounod brings the series in touch with i modern musical art, and consequently with ' nmch that- is of comparatively recent his- , ' tory. But .the volume is none the less wel- I ] come on that account. Further ;ontributions to Messrs Bell's scheme may be awaited with pleasure. — London Telegraph. — Canon Malcolm. Mac Coll, who, after remaining a bachelor for 66 years, became a benedick on February 4-, was the "Junius" ! of a generation ago. Ria tetters to The i Tim*^ over the norn d© plume of "Scrutator," denouncing Germany in general, and Bismarck in particular, for the Franco- ' Prussian war, aroused tremendous interest. ] Everybody though Mr Gladstone was the I writer. Statesmen from all parts of Europe i wrote him at the office of th& paper, giving j him details of secret history, and treating ] him with the greatest deference. Max | Muller was deceived, with the rest, and in ; his letters paid him the highest compli- \ ments. Finally the- German Emperor him- J self sent word to The Times, saying that " he- thought the time had come when the ! writer might raise his visor and reveal 'jis ; name. But not for long after did the I Canon do so. The secret was kept from i Mr Gladstone, as well as from the rest of i the world. When, the secret finally came ; out it created blank astonishmnt. Bis- , marek, who was said to be contemplating , an action against him' for libel, sent him a : cordial invitation to visit him at his home at Friedricheruh. '' —In a very interesting- article which ' appears in the Academy of Literature L. I M'Manus, writing on Carleton, the Irish novelist, wonders at 4he neglect which has ; lately been the fate of that writer. This ; neglect (we read) is strange, for Oarleton's ' position as a novelist may be adjudged of | the first rank. Compared with him Lever ; is but a caricaturist, and Lover a buffoon. < Oarleton's works have the gifts of greatness, ; power, insight, pathos, Tnunour. His pic- 1 tures of. Irish peasant life in the earjj and i

middle years of th© nineteenth century arel mordant, graphic, and penned with th© osrtainty of knowledge. Brought up ' inwhat may be called a Celtic atmosphere (both his parents were Irish speakers, as ho was himself), he yet seems to have escaped its wistfulaess and glamour, and in his gloom and strength and fatalism appears to bo more akin to the mind of the Norse than to that of the Gael. His cloudy genius seldom lead* him into caricature, while his humour lightens th© underlying sombreness of his pages. Carleton's humour, in fact, is of the highest order ■ pure laught&r, without bitterness, nevef grotesque, rarely coarse. Bright, kindly, it ripples outward, to break against the iron wall of man's destiny. For everywhere hif» laughter meets and is checked by tho &ombreness of life. Passion, sorrow, death, h-e sees the three- in possescion of the world 1 ' and accepts their rule.