LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 73

LITERARY NOTES.

— The anniversary of Mr* PwidcliflVs death occurred 011 Tuesday, February 14-. How completely {-.ays ihe Wc^tmiiT-itr Gazette) thr novt-k of th : s -n liter have disappeared from tho <lv 11 of the prp-ont generation! And yet Sh Walter fiott described her as " tho first poetess of romantio fiction." She wa? certainly one of the most popular novolisls of her o-.\n day, Imt her books arc seldom seen now — not ev-en in the secon'J-hoad bookshops. '"The My--terk-s of TJdolpho '" was her be«t work, as iL was be: mo^C popular. Mr Lana hti-3 argued that !n another work of hor= — "The Sicilian Romance,*' published in 1790 — ''sue t > be found the germs not only of Byron's ' Giaour ' and of ' Northanger Abbey,' but of 'Jane Eyre. " Mrs Radeliffr died in 1823.

— Max Norda i has been interviewed in Paris by a Pall Mall Gazotce representative, who says the doctor speaks Engl'sh ■v.-ith ease and eloquence. This Jewish man of letters, born in Hungary and resident in France, writes a brilliant style in Germm, and is to-day the most prominent H?ure in the Zionist movement. In- the course of conversation Nordau remarked, concerning the writing of books. " Write, to please yourself, then you will surely please a few others ; but if you write to gratify the public you may please nobody, certainly not yourself. That is the principle I have always followed, and the principle I would recommend to others. The chief thing is oneness of purpose, clearness of aim striving for an end and refusing to be diverted from it. No matter what the end may be. ther© is always a nobility in the striving : it shows character. It is moit exceptional that any man produces more than one or two great books, and a genius appear? only once in about every 200 yoar«.''

— The Duke of Westminster is havinu a oommemorativp plate placed on No. 8 Victoria square. Buckingham Palace road, the house iv which Thomas Campbell resided between 184-0 and 184-3. It was there that the "Life of Mr* Siddons*" was completed: and "The Pilgrim of ("Tlencoe-,"' "Moonlight," and "Tho Child aud Hind" all appeared during the period 01 his tenancy of the house. Be/iH-;e tell= man} an-efl-dotos o£ the po?t's unbu^inessliko methods His gu-ests often found their meals served in the library famous for Hs " four sca^Uola pedesLal? waiting for thetv marli'.e bu^ts," aiid the story of tli3 slipper and tho bunctlo of bank notes which has been lop-eated recently, his ab.solute neglect of all

cidinary precautions in recrard io mou-ey mattirs. lie wot a to J'.jattio from Wio-^-bae'fu, a--kiag him to sojjic inoiif.\, which would 1 o found iv the pro--* in lii'bechvom. Afte- a lon-? and exhaustive s.aich a 1011 of bank jiolvs. of about £500 ip -wiiue. was found in Ihe pic=-. it is inir, but '-tufftd into tho too of an old -Upper.-- ■ Academy .

— Thero is «till, no doubt, a good deal of hteiaiy matter 111 the world that cksencto Le printed — no: the work of the o^pinivmodcrn. who usually inanns>(. s. in tin.^, t<> SLlutc th? public— but work which has K-cn accumu,'.i:'.ig du-t m forgotk-:: corners, or oulj e-'apinj: t ]i r ordeal of fi-o- by rra-on of some half foi-gotion tradiiioii — mdetd. wlicn om> thmk-3 h.,w o\on the printed word vi.'i \ vanish it is ■■jiiiifh.ug of a i->.ar\ol that tbo wiut.'n void r " oi'id m.iv- \ \c at all. Only the other- clpv a copy of th-j fir-.t edition ol iShakopi are's '"Titus Aii-Jroiiici.o " was di-sco\oieo in — the only known copy in e\'»*. cr.ee. first punted iii London m 159 4 : IVpys\ Diarj umanied 111 mauu=ci ipt until 1825. E-\cljn'p Di.iry until 1818. and his "' A[ai-&aret Goclol phin '" to a lutor dace Milton's ronia-ice

" Nova Solyma " was vccn\ ered and reprinted in i9JI. and certain of the> unpublished manuscripts of Ihomas Trahcrnc were discoveicd some so\en .^r eight yoais ago en a street bookstall, fri£n wh'cli they wore- rescued fo> a few jinee. — T. P.'s Weekly.

—Ai ropos of the decline of the short story u'emarks a writer in a Home paper), it is interesting to see that Mr Kipling's latest volume has met with adverse cutick>in in America and France on quite similar lines to that which it received over here. An American contemporary is -\ery &e\ere ,n its observations:- — -"Much reading of .Kipling's =tories must he, to a certain extent, c.n irritation. It 15 not plca«ant to be reminded in every few lines that there are many subjects of which the general reader is painfully ignorant. Few things are less -welcome than omnisc:enc& in a finite bemi?-. Exactly what charm Mr Kipling finds in the linco of ppeciahV.s only psychologists wxm'.d be able to discover. Thero is nothing- very difficult for a man of leisure, cleverness, and literary skill in acquainting himself even very closely with tho technicalities ordinarily known to men in a special trado, profession, or walk in lite. Undoubtedly the interlarding of a F-tory with unusual words give-> it an appearance of nrofundity, hut this is no more tliau an apparition. The real to?t of special know lodge 1% the ability to meet unexpeeU'l occasions, and this- a literary man has neves- to do. Like ihc dramatist, he creates his own circumstances, and has only to acquire suc-h spee.al terms as apply to the matter dirt-cHy wi hand. it is very doubtful, also, whe-iher the man wlio ically knows his subject intimately, to whom it is a part of his daily lite, is fond of gainislilng his evcuy-day talk with its technicalities. Certainly among Ijm.ii cf any calling, fpw thipas are more bort^ome than straight: shop talk "

—Mr Owen Seaman ha- bren delighting !•>.•* -Krigl'^h pres- with a collect. on ol -has ofintribution<i to Punch undor the title "A Harvest of Chaff." 1 lht> Manchester Guardian thinks that " iv parociy the -catching, npr criticism thai gives all the delight of a half-forbidden sin. . . . Mr Seaman i-. h.-i'liant. The of William Morris, Tenny-o.i, and Bronnuia i^ exqtu-itc, and Mr Kiplins is fairly r ddled with explosive shot — of which we may gi-. p au example: I am the Bard, it .s I that mal:e t-ie Catr.-

logucs, I that give the Orr.c'.os that otherwise tveie

dtimb : J ain Kipling. I'm thf Voioe. I'm the Chosen Pcop'e's Choice, I'm tlie Y\*ord« md Music also, I'm the Diuinmei and ihe Drum. Ii i'ia po=sil ly more legitimate eri-i t.^ir> of moil and methods the is equally olo\er and =earehin"". 'The Aetor-manag-ev discourse i- ru+h'ecsly pungen., p,i.-l tlv addre-s to Sir Thoma* Lipton, with

i'^op'e of iiielig-ious mind, whose nerve is Such tl'.a*- ttiey ne\er know when they have tinned. • Gravely poruscd the Church ol England fier-

To find a prayer foi wind, a masterpiece of the Occasional

"Covert Love,' with its sudden, well-delayed di elo-ure, is stvonglv re mini see 'if of Cal\e vley; but, or. ihe whole, Mr Seaman is a lihle more vers.1 1 ile and torieal than Cal-

\olk-y. On tho othT hand, h-c is a iittlc less academic and scholarly than Mr Godley. In the more gcruus lriocd Mr Seaman 1- scarce. v r ucc -s -fill." —Mr Unnin 1* iid'lin^ to his Colonial Libiary s-eii^s a no\tl by Miss Mabel Barnes Grundv. author of "A •Thames C&mp."* ontHeJl ''The Vacillations of I-fa?d." The ho mon Morning Leader t-eys cf the look: — " lleathcrland. — Thirty years a:o there was no quainter oof. f more pio-Uuv-que district. and none richer in archaeological interest, in the -whole of Eng. lpnd than the iittle peninev.la that runs into the sea between the mouths of the Doe and the Mersey. A huge slice of it has now becomo a mere residential suburb of Liverpool; railways and tunnels and bridges have opened it up. It now owns a golf links, and an Eiffel tower, and other attraotious. and excursionists of all kinds overrun it. But ewrt yet, -especially on the Deo-sicle. it retains much of its beauty, and, in places, its out-of-the-world charm. In this delightful spot Miss Mabel BarnesGiundy has laid the scene of her vivacious story, ' The Vacillations of Hazel.' Heaiherland, where the capricious but fascinating little heroine has her home, is probably Heswall, from which one looks out of velvet greenery 'across the sands of Dee.' Hero we find Hazel, a bught. imaginative, impulsive creature, living with her mother and her sister Angela, the last a prcsaie. vigorous, virtuous, and unsympatl.etio^ Philistine. Har-.-'l's escapades, ler narrow esoine from a ' cultured ' London literary man, and her awakering to the fact that she \va* in lov& with her old friend aiifi comratlo. who ad-srrd her, make a very peasant a.ud enjoyable «torv. The author's tiiuniph 's perhaps in her drowinsi of the character of Aunt Mer.elophe. a deav. old, -HorlJ'y-wiso lady, with a son-e of humour e\en stronger than that of Hazc>l, who acts a» faiiy godmother. 'The Vacillations of Hazel ' i- a delightful book."

—Mr TTrrwin is al^3 issuing a colonial edition of George Hiding's "By the lonian Sea." a book whi<_h, cci.t ranting almost i-hart I ingly with tho powerful but glooniy studies of Lion^lon life v. hich rruide the author's faaie, v. by ma - iy ci Itics veokon-ed his bf st wot'k. It coiiM<ts of chapters of narratho. description, and reflection, th© iesults of a ramble m that pait of Southern

Italy which is- least vi=itod by -iouw.si..V Aco-s Iho mouiiMi i sof C\ila' ri. iHen iiom Taiaiitu to Rr^gio. olonw the liAciy v hich one \\a- ilajna G'sec.i. the w ntor wandered as it pleas-.-d hii>i in -olii Litlo. thinking- of tho old world anJ mi-pi vlng tli- life of to-day. I'uii of pc-tit. 1 ! f-ol-m<_, iiiul rcfln-ed <lp-->cal v ho'iuship. i*~ 1* a pi i' of liter ituio v lucii lia-s ■euthiimS \aluc.

— • Pii'-ino son" 1 xnoi .incuts v. ith rif°s, carl) v.c~, and mstol-, m Svwd >: un. 1 '' 1 ihcdirect inn of ihe Uovmnr<!it, th<- bullets failed to p.Mi^tiau- l-usr^ ].<a<> o r , f=rc-V-oard din in tlnc'.H' --. jo' _i'>y w='ly raised throu«h nlanki 5 m ill i\