LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2664, 5 April 1905, Page 69

LITERARY NOTES.

o | — Mi.-s Marie Corelli'fi last novj-1 "God's Good Man," is now celling in the one hundred and twenty-eighth thousand. Her "Temporal Power"' has sold 150,000 copies, and her "'Master Christian 165,000 copies. —An interesting experiment is to b© '• made with two of Mr William Morris's i poems. The 3' are to be issued, by Messrs ; Longmans, for the n-e of schools and col- ' leges. One is "The Man Born to be King," | fiom "The Earthly Paradis?," the other "The Glittering Plain." Both volumes contain a biographical sketch of Mr Morris by Mr Mackail, and also notes. i —Mr John Murr ty (says the Athenaeum) will publish a little posthumous work by J Lady Dilke. which she Called "The Book of Praise," aid wiMi it in the samp volume i two of her fanciful tale=;. "The Last Hour" i and "The. Mirror of the Sotil." These j latter were ready for an intended volume of stories and bear on the same subjects ' as "The Book of Praise." A memoir will be prefixsd by Sir Charles Dilke, relating chiefly to the life and letters between 1853 and 1884 inclusive.

— Miss Greio;, who writes as "Sydney C. drier," lias for some time been edixing the letters, hitherto unpublished, of Warren j Hastings to his wife. She has finished her ■ task, and tha book is about to he issue 1 , by Messrs Blarikwood. The letters are of ' &ingular interest and charm, .and throw a i new and pleasiag light on tho personality of the throat uro-Coisul. ! — Messrs Maemillaii proceed apace Wii.li their new series^of "Enprlish Men of Letteiis." Mr .Stephen Gwjnn's "ThomasMoore" has been closely followed by Mr , Gorge RufS'H's "Sydney Smith." Mr , Birrell's "Marvjll,"' Mr Shorter's "Mrs J flaskpll," Mr Chosterton's "Charles Kings- ' ley." Mr Macanlay's "Thompson"' (of "The .Seasons"). Mr Gosse's" Sir Thomas Browne." and Mr Arlhur Beaison's "FitzGerald" and ' 'Pater" are all in preparation. Last, but very far from least, there is to be Mr \ Raleigh's "Shakespeare." ! — Some interesting glimpses into a num.- i her of Mr Gladstone's "books are given in ) an article on his library at Hawarden in j the Book Monthly. A personal element of j the library lies in the pencilled marks and 1 ; annotations on the volumes by Mr Glad- j stone's own har.d. These, we are told. ; occur freely iii his best-used books. "Ver- ' tical feingle or double lines or a small V- i shaped mark call attention and generally j imply approval : dissent is signified by a J cros3." '"N. 8." and "qj-." or a note of j interrogation are frequent. Books read in j Mr Gladstone's closing years are as fully , marked and indexed a.s if he yet had a life- j time in which to u?e them. i

—Mr Thomas Hardy was originally an ; architect, and his fir=t published work boro , tho alluring title, "Coloured TSi'iek and j Terra Coita Architocture." and received ; the 7)! ize and medal of the Institute of I Briti-h Architect;, in 1863. Eight years ! later he published ''Desperate Remedies." j a no-iel of a vory sensational order. It [ was not much of a success, and Mr Hardy j was seriouilv rhitikiujy of going back j to his *xt squares and coinpases when J ih© reception of "Far from the Madding | Crcwd" assured him of fame and fortune, j Tho King has a great admiration for Mr , Hardy's works. I

— Mr? Sit«,4l. now Mi- Sidney Cohin. wa« the friend vho bore 'O larp;r a part ( ia R. L. Stcvpn=oa's development and ou- j courascturnt durina his transition period.

It was iindor her influence (the Sketch jiosiits out) that hi- began, foi- tl'« first tin:e, to b?lie\e in h^s own powers. During i'ic most unhappy and u>i:ettl°d yens of his lift-, he sent her journal-letter- made vp pirncsfc weekly, chronicling his n.cnds and doings, while his lettprs to Ins fnonc 757 5 hy general were saappy and infieqi-eni. A long tiroe after ho wrote 10 h''! from Hycros: —''If I am horo and happj' I l.ncv to whom I one it, I know who made my way for me in life, if that were oil. and I 1-em.ain. with love, yo'ir fj'thful friend, Robert Louis Stevenson." — Those who have read cx-Lieir^r.-.vjt Bike's "Jjife in a Garrison Toy n" wih j'^t be surprised nc the. tone of hi; "Jjcar Fatherland" (London: .jol.n Lone, Tl:e Bodley Head, 6s). issued samjuLat recen'.Lv. The military system of Geimany is again attacked in a noiel in which ib-e worst sh'.o of human nature is frequently laid bar". ] J 3n!shing an officer +o the f-ontkr to effort a moral curs is regarded by o"e <•£ iii-e chair.ctcrs ri« a case of out of the f.yn.g'yie.r\ into the fire, and if it is a true picture that has bran drawn of a froi'tier regiment by Lieutenant Bilse, the correctness of the assertion^ is fully proved. Indeed. one marvels how militarism of an e.Tectho kind exists al all in such circums-tr.-jcDs. The book is. well written, though some may think the author too plainspoken in regard to the conduct of his female characters, ond it gratifying to be atle to tav that those who are bro'tght ;nto the -(?-:v are not all bad.— Field. — We have; before us (says "the Fitjci, tuo volumes of short stories by tv. o accoirsplished story-tellers, both traveler;, both at home on sea and both full of rcKenttirea in places where moi carry their l.vo-s lightly in ihoir hands. "Under Tropic fcfcice" IT. Fisher Cjnwin), as will be surmised, n by Louis Beeke. and the arc- amon-jit pearleis, kidnappers, and the hkc amonctst the South Sea Inlands or the wilder parts of Australia. "Atoms of Empire" (Maemil'an and Co.) is by Cutcliffe H3ne, and the chapters are briskly told, boldly realistic yarns in the good eld Captain Kettle manner, laid in various parts of the world. Comparisons are as invidious a,s eve.* they were, yet it may be said without offence to either of these favourites that in the books we have a-:«3-c:ated in this notice their peculiar c : arae1 eristics are clearly marked — Louis Becko with his glowing colour of coral strands and langourous islands; Cuteliife Hyne with his nervous narration of grim deeds and more or less tragic conclusions — and that both excel with the short story. — Messrs Chatto are about to i=sue a si*i enny edition of Robert Buchanan's "God and the Man." which, it will be n embere-d (says T.P.s Weekly), was dedicated to Rossetti in 1881 in token of its author's retraction of his attack made- upon Rossetti and Mr Swinburne 10 years earlier. The attack, called "The Fleshy School of Poetry," created a sensation at the time, and caused Rossetti to withdraw one- sonnet from that magnificent sequence "The House, of Life." Mr Swinburne^eplied with characteristic energy and point in a paniphler, "Under the Microscope." Ten years sufficed to convince Buchanan that his attack on Rossetti was unjustifiable, and his withdrawal was as graceful as the assault. He wrote in his dedication : I would have snatch'd a bay leaf frcin thy brow Wronging the claaplet on an honoured head ; In j^eace szid tenderness I bring thee now A lily-flower instead. — Your reference (writes a coi respondentin Modem Society) to the fact that Hi Ix 3 Henry Wood drew her characters in "East Lynne" from Worcester and the neighbourhood reminds me of another interesting circumstance not very generally known — namely, that the scene of Miss Braddon's rnos>t famous novel, "Lady Audley's Secret." is laid in and around the beautiful old Elizabethan manor-house of Inmate-stone, in Essex, owned by Lord Petre. I have often looted at the tower clock in the stable yard, with its one crazy hand ; as well as the lime-walk, and the old well down which the golden-haired heroine dropped the unfortunate George Talboys. The manorhouse was at that time (perhaps sfcill is) let out in suites o-f apartments to various tenants; and one of f hese was a grey-haired gentleman who was suppo'ed to be the prototype of Sir Michael Audley.

THE (JTTIDE STNfiS. (From the Norse of Welhaven.) To mountains that shadow +he thorpe I go. When cuckoos in. Bummei are crying; — Come, them, where the upland pastures grow, For the sunbeams high on the mountain glow When the valley in s-loom is Wins

The path thi-ottgh a durden in shadow dips, Where the elves have a hidden dwelling. Remember, your fingers must press your lips, For even from rixies' finger-tips Harp-throbs are in whispers welling. But up on the mountains the echoes throng, "With laughter and singing laden. 'Mid tinkling of bells in the gTasses lciig. AVith music of old and alhinng song, There s.ts my faery maiden. — JOHA.KXES C. AKDEHSEN. Chriatchurch, March, 1905