LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2675, 21 June 1905, Page 79

LITERARY NOTES.

— For the idea of one of 3 us most successful storiss Julei Verne was indebted to George Stand. Tb.3 proof is contained in a letter published by M. Adolphc Brisson in "Les Armales Politiques et Litterairos." George Sand writes 10 thank her fellow-craftsir-an for tho relief which sho has derived from his romances at a time of trouble. "I have only one regret," she says — "thai; I have finished them, and that there are not a doaen more for me to ?ead." And she a elds: V 'l hope you will presently conduct us to the depths of the sea,, making your characters travel in such submarine vessels as your knowledge, combiner! with your imagination, will enable you to invent." Jules Verne took the .hint, and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" was the- result. —Jn celebrating Mr Frederick Greenwood's seventy-fifth birthday by a complimentary dinner, his follow writers did honour to the discoverer of Mr TLomas Hardy. It was, appropriately enough, the> Wessex novelist's "Under the Greenwood Tree" which caught the attention of the then, editor of the Cornhill, and the young author w&* promptly commissioned to do a serial for that magazine. Mr Barrie was another of Mr Greenwood's proteges. A tribute to the power of his leading articles was paid by Mark Rutherford, who said no one, whatever his politics might be, ever read them without being annoyed. Disraeli's dictum was: "When I read an article by Greenwood I feel I am in the grip of a statesman." — A pathological study of Edgar Allen Pos has been published in Paris. It is from the pen of M. Emile Lauvriere. Poe was from the first a physical degenerate. The son of a consumptive mother, and a father who was intemperate as well as consumptive, he had small chance, of coming into the world a sound and healthy man. Ho was also atrociously brought up. sent to absurd schools, and trained to extravagant habits. It is little wonder that he could not conquer his hereditary predisposition towards alcoholism and towards melancholy. He had long periods, however, of complete sobriety, and was cruelly treated by his biographer. Griswold. Wnether his peculiar contributions to literature could

have been rnado it h© had been a pros- / \ Every man 1 wants to lead, 1 : I but only the 1 .? I best wins. Vitality, 1 I energy and strength I I are the qualities that 1 I make for success. | 1 BOVRIL makes 1 I strong men. |

iciouo t'nd li'epcciable citizen of the Ui.iic! bUuus ia a question not e.isiiy to be an-o. t"ot2. — Sketch.

— It is not o.'i-n i'lat a millionaire has either tin*" or .p.cli'iaticn to write a boo'c. ljut Mr Carnegie has wiiti-on one, which -N'cssi'o Oliphiint, Ai.c'.cr->rn, and Vctri^v will puhu-h -hortJy in thu: ' i'<uueu.s fecotf" '■■lie-*. It i«, a ''LiTe of Jamc> Wait." In nis Mi Cavuosr.e sa\ s : — " Whon tiio jjiibli-j'neis. asked if I would write (hv 'lie if Watt I declined 'rating thai. ui\ d'ous-'iii-- werj uvo:i orher ;r.alteis. That •allied + lie qu°st : oii. as I supposed, bill, in rh 3, T i\as mistaken. Why should noi 1 write the life of the maker of the si earn engine, out of which I had made a fortune v Uasidcs, I knew little of the history of tho steam engine and of Watt himself, and the suresL way to obtain knowledge wns to comply with the publishers' highly complunpntarj- lequest. In short, the subject wouM not down. ar>d. Jinaiiv. I was compelled to vrit& again, tellmsj them that tho idea hauntr-d me, and :f they still desired me to undertake it T should do so with my heart in the task. I now know the steam engine, and hive- vls>o had revealed to mo one of the finest characters that cve i 1 graced the earth." Tho book should rrove at least an interesting venture in authorship

— Novelists cannot hat e\haust thcr materials early (Mr Lang writes in Longman* Magazine) unless thoy fcegin late, hk& t: cott, or are historical novelist*. ''N>n fica of Histories is inexhaustible. But the novelist has usually bill a few typjs c. f character that he can draw, and many minds are furnished with few set? of situations. E\en Shakespeare- has certain typ-"s of character v, ho recur, wiih variations, in several iilays ; even he had his limitations. A distinguished writer of Oriental novels has lately said that she was occupied for 20 years in learning enough about the Easi to write one of them. But one, of course, cannon exhaust her maierials. A go n> x-3 of 20 has l-e-en occupied for 20 y^ars in learning: of life — as much as he 'knows, — but ho can use his knowledge for several novels, of course, if he ha& the gift of inventing new situations. It is in types of character that the novelist runs dry. Some statistician has calculated that Thackeray created o^er 30GO characters, all as distinct as the Bishop and the Chaplain, suffering at sea, in Ifred BayhanVs imitation of these ecclesiastics. Thackeray's lowest supernumerary is a distinct and definite character, every thumb-nail sketch in the Irish torn is a separate masterpiece. The thing is oiot to get into a groove; bub the "grooviest"' people are the .dull people who, in literature, and science, and art, never could do anything at any age.

— Joseph Hatton, in Cigarette Papers, writes as follows a-fcout some "famous literary advisers" : — "It is interesting to read that Mr John Morley was one of the literary advisers of the firm of Tinsley Brothers. Smith and Elder for many long years were guided in their consideration of proffered manuscripts by Mr James Payne. It was he who. after other eminent publishers (even Mr George Bentley) had refused it, accented aL once and with a roar of appreciative laughter Mr Anstey's delightful story 'Vice Versa.' Mr George Meredith read special manuscripts for Chapman and Hall. One of th& novels that did not succeed financially, chiefly because it came out jnst as the big libraries had tabooed three-volume novels, was approved by Mr Meredith. I knew rhc fact from Ml- Fred Chapman himself. And so I am able to console the lady with a compliment that 15 far more refreshing rhan-a mere money success She blushes at the- very idea of George Meredith having read her story — and liked it ! From Air Edmund Downey's 'Tiventy Years jAgo' I learnfc that Mr Byron Webber,, as well as Mr John Morley one of the literary advisers of Tinsley Brothers, was the chief advocate for Mr George Moose's first novel, and 'passed' for publication Richard Bowling's first novel. 'Ihe Mystery of Killard.' "

—In a synipathctic reference to the memory of Charlotte Bronte "Jackdaw" writes as follows in the Leeds Mercury: — "The fiftieth anniversary of the death of Chariot] c Bronts has, I learn, taken not a few pilgrims to Haworth and its breezy moorland dur'n? {he past c ew days. The affectionate hold) this brave and gifted genius has upon her readers is shown also by the many references to her career that have appeared during the week. By some few persons still living she is lovingly spoken of by her Christian naire ; by everybody else, in keeping with an old North Country custom, she gets her full maiden designation. She is never spesken of as Mrs Nioholls. Perhaps one reason is that, to the world she is known only by her books, and th<??s became public property before her marriage. .Another reason, no doubt, is that sha had barely enjoyed nine ropntha of weddted life when the end came. Crowds seek out her shrine to-day, but there were not many mourners, apart from the leai-hearted village folk, to see the poor remains laid to their i-est in that sad Eastertime for Haworth. 50 years ago. As Mrs G-askell tells us, Charlotte Bronte had more of her kith and kin in the grave than among the living. Of the few she had at hor funeral, the cMef mourner survives. Her husband. Fhe Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls, is, in Jbis great age. living in peaceful retirement in Ireland. -Charlotte Bronte did little with her pen beyond letter writing after her marriage. But she was very happy, and in a domestic way, very busy, and a sreat hope— alas ! not to be realised — was bers. 'No kinder, better husband, it seems to me, can there be 'n the world.' she wrote ; and she had, in addition, the joy of knowing "that her booli6 were not a drug in the market. She had seen them pass, into successive editions, and there was much comfort for her in the thought that she was not without honour in her own countryside."