LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Volume 12, Issue 2639, 12 October 1904, Page 73

LITERARY NOTES.

—a. The Daily Chronicle is. shortly to publish a serial story by Mr Pett Ridge. If a-ny one can induce the British public to want a serial in it 3 morning paper, it will be Mr Ridge, who knows precisely how to hit the taste of the Brii-is-h novel reader. It is true that the serial story has been tried before by other daily papers mora than- once, but the Chronicle has been the first of the great morning dailies to give its readers a daily instalment of a novel. A change is certainly coming over the English daily papers in more respects than in respect to price, and we may yet live to sea a humorous serial in The Times and a sporting novel in the Daily News. — The- latest addition to the "World's Classics" series is Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero-worship" (Grant Richards; Is). The inftue-nc© of this book, so full of enthusiam and personality, has been very great, particularly to the young. It h perhaps, doubtful whether Carlyle appeals strongly to the mature mind, but on the restless and insurgent spirit of youth he acts, and will always act, as a healthy tonio. The people who- listened to these ketur-os—^'the accomplished and distinguished, the beautiful, the wise," as- CarlyTo call&d ' them— recognised that here wak a. brilliant mind bringing forth from its treasury things- new and old. And -leaders to-day "arW the "richer for the viijality that inspired them. — T. P.'s

—Mr William Wa-fcson, the poet, was born of Yorkshire ance&try on both sides, in Burnley, in Wharf dale, 46 years ago on Tuesday, August 2. His first volume of verse, "The Prince's Quest, and Other Poems,' w££ published in 1880, and was followed four \ears later by his "Epigrams o£ Art, .Life, and Nature." While these me-5 with acceptance by a limited circle, it wa? no* till the* appearance, in 1890, of his I volume, "Wordsworth's Grave," that Mr Watsen obtained general recognition — due ; in great measure to a discerning and appret ciative -article en the poet and his work by the late Grant Allen in the Fortnightly Re- ! view. Mr, Watson's unconaprosnising poli- | tical attitude is evidenced in "The Purple jEast," "The- Year of Shame," and "For ( JSagJand," dedicated to Mr lieonard Ccvurti'«»y, and issued at the beginning of this ; year. r -«■ Mr A- E. W. Mason, author of "The 'Vans' ffeairaers," is enthusiastic- on travel "fsr novelists, 'and claims that it keeps the ,fresh as nothing 'else ever will;' "If you stay amidst one set of surroundings always you aro apt to get pretty-stale. That is - ona of the- reasons which .take 'me .into uwtravellcd parts. I thank it Is an" advantj. age, too, to. be- quite alone for* time; you -get together what you have thought over, and th* solitude itself sets you thinking. > And when- you come back you enjoy meeting your friends again ever so- much move. ■> You see, modern life, with its steamships [ Bind its railways, offers one so much now in the way of contrast that it seems to me rather a pity not to take advantage of it when you can. It is contrast, I think, 'whicili helps to keep you fre.^h and ale-rt to new ideas and new presentments of Iho old ones." What the novelist has to avoid more than anything else is. according to the author of "The Four Featiiers," writing without having anything new to say. —In reviewing the "Life of George Eliot " at the time of publication, Mr Jno. Morley recalled a discussion in which the moralist took part one day at the Priory in 1877. She spoke of the different methods of imaginative arj, saying that she began with moods, thoughts, passions, and then invented the story for their sake, and fitted ifc to them: wfeeread Shakespeare- picked up a story that struck- him, and then proceeded to work in the moode, thoughts, passions, as they came to him in ihe course of meditation on the story. "W« hardly need the result," says Mr Morley, "to convince us- that Shakespeare chose the better part."- This comment strikes us_as beg- ' ging a vexed and still obscure question. Shakespeare no doubt chose the better part — for Shakespeare. But it is conceivable also that George Eliot chose the better port for George Eliot. — Times. «» — If you are anxious to know the ppet in a way that should be sufficient — his life, his longings, his- experiences, his loves and ambitions, his impulses of passion and patriotism, and the virtues that have inspired 'his muse — you have Swinburne in his work. H© disguises nothing. He is frankness itself^ but you niust bring to your reading the sympathy that accompanies all true criticism and a loving appreciation of the poetic nature. Indeed, to understand Mid estimate, the highest poetry, yon must be &om-oiihing of a poet yourself. It is to the inner consciousness of the dumb poet, the poet who only lacks the power of expression to become a great singer, that the message of Swinburne makes the most inspiring- appeal. I say if you want to know Swinburne you must read him. 'You will not find him in tlie journalistic "At Homes of Celebrities." You will not find him among the interviewed oi the alert reporter. You AvilJ rarely find him even in the "Literary Gossip" of the day, and . then without his connivance or consent. An onlooker of the world's doings, he t-ces deep down into the under currents that are unsuspected of the ordinary reader. Happily for us who reap the fruits of his culture, and his rare imagination, the days of his youth befell in pleasant places. His was mo ihired nruee. ""No landlady knocked at his door while be wrote verses for ihe printer. His education, his picturesque environment, his southern travel, his love of j the sea, at home, alibe on shipboard, rambling on it* stormy coasts, or a,s a swimmer battliner with its waves, must have greatly strengthened his naturally fervent and ■poetic temperament — Joseph Hafcton, in I Cigarette Papers.

— Mr G. S. Street soys in the September number of the Pall Mall Magazine that the English novel, as we know it from Fielding to Mr Meredith and Mr Hardy, is in point df artistic significance dying, and nearly d-ead; that, on the other hand, tho art of narrative fiction generally is ex-trem-ely vital in itself, and even important in our lives. "Consider," says Mr Street, 'of what elomeuts th-e- English, novel, en the average of its greatest examples, was composed. First, there was the story, the yarn, with ibs "incidents; secondly, there was the examination or development or psychology generally of the- loading characters, who, it is important to remark, were usually not extreme or out-of-the-way characters, but fair exajgples of averasre

humanity, like Tom Jones,. Arthur Pendennis, Clive Newcoaae, Harry Richmond, Evan Harrington, or any cf Miss Austen's characters; thirdly., there was tho 'draiviutf of remarkable or out-of-the-way characters, striking or humorous, subordinate in the schecne of the boot, or the subordinate treatment ot Epecial phases of life. My poiafc is that with Mr Meredith and Mr Hardy the novel, as we have so far known it, has reached it* last vital exemplars. It continues to be written, but there is little energy or worth of art left in i*. I am not denying all merit to writers, either; observant, aocomrlished, humorous a-9 they may often be. I think merely (hat as artiste they are otiose, not vital. It seems to m® that the threa <^err.ents which T have mentioned are no longer fused in fiction, but arc taken separately for exclusive treatment The artist no longer contemplates a. largo and eomnlicated picture, compact of th-ese elements, but takes one. and J,<» wholly occupied by it, concerns himssK with ops motive, is driven by one impulse."