LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 72

LITERARY NOTES.

— \ bioeraphy which involves southing o< a literary qrisfon and a literary vinai,Sikm h»s just boea published by the \l™-s Dent. This volume is Mr Jam** Al"ckenzi^s "Lifo of Michael Bruce, Post o LoS liven.- The question that cccupLrtho writer is the authorship of It? "Od- to the Cuckoo," generally attributed to John Logan. Mr Mackenzie «efa to vindicate the claim of Michapl Bruce to teS. and woukl show in other respects how "much Lo-an owned to Bruce. '_Tn "The Secret Passage' (Long 6s), Mx F«gu& Hume gives us the detective Ssrv"ii*»d« to order. It is long, its charac uS cle only half alive, and its mtncaoics make "the brain reel. Murder and coming ro "hand in hand, and a beautiful Jewoss fcadf them. The detective has been counted at Eton, and seems (possibly lor that rea-on?) to have plenipotentiary poweis from Scotland Yard. l'heie is somo love interest of the conventional kind. The hook will make good enough reacting tor v. lazy holiday.— Field. _ !-'o ?ieat has been the eucccss ol the Cameo Llavics— tho rocsitly-mtroduoed sixienny library of the Worlds Best Books, bound in cloth— that the publishers (tile Libraiy Press, of 9 Duke street, Charing Cress. "London) aie about to make a fetill ir-oie carmg move by issu.r:L' series in paper covers at tt.c small price of 3d a volume. The Ca.rr.oo Cuu=:cs include such bulky books as "A Tale of Two Oities" ar-d -The Lart Days of Pompeii." — ilessi-s Header and Stoughlon aniiounce the eariy publication of a new edition, carefully revised a.vu in part rewritten, of Di- J. A gar Beet's work on "Tho Last Things,"' which was withdrawn from circulation some six ycara ago in delerenco to ser.ous opiiosition aroutcd in certain \\esleyan. c-:rcie-. In view cf the great cnangc of opm.cn in al! churches during ths last half century, Dr Beet imesti gates in this volume ihe" teaching; of the Bible about the Doom of the Wicked; and endeavours to show tint, v.hile the Now Testamentaffords decisive proof that Christ anj His apost'es taught that ruin, utter and final, awaits all uho reject and disobey Him, we have no adequate proof that their sufferings will be endless, or of the endless permanence cf all human souls. — One of the greatest popular successes of ih= summer is Mr Uny Thorn ':> fctory, "When It Was Dark." A ieferencc to the volume made by the Bishop of L-or.J- -. in Westminster Abbey, no doubt, did v. c-h to start the talc, and the book ha.? &ono on circulating in the shilling edition to the tune of nearly 100.000 copies. " Guy Thorne" is, I understand (says Dr Rofcortson Nieoll, in the Sketch), a pseudonym for Mr Ranger Gull, vwio-e spirited stories have made his name well known. As "Gry Thorne" he has engaged to write two more nenc'-s. One n to ''ss published by Mr John Long, and the oth->r by Messrs Ward. Lock, and Co. "Guy Thorne" seems likely to bo ihe popular novelist of the High Church party, and one, at least, of his new books is announced as decidedly antiProte«uint. Tho Protestant parly in the Church of England has constantly employed " fiction. 'Ihe Anglicans ha\e hitherto been silent, or at least novels written fioin tlicir standpoint have been without interest for the man and woman of the world. Mr Thorne has written a story of modem life, with a sUong love interest, in which the methods of popular Protestantism arc vigorously attacked. Whatever the public- opinion of this book may be. its success from one point of view is ahead* a^urc-H — Thar the centenary of Xcl«on's last and greatc-t battle would not br* allowed to pass without some sign horn the compile) s of bocks was tolerably certain, more especially in viow of the present year's nsnal events in tho Ka=t. 1b p campaign of 1805 is the bcst-reinpmbered of ihe many glorious deeds accomplished by tho British navy, and Admiral Togo's recent fcignal' success m the Bea, of Japan has called foith frequent reference io it. and also to its hero, tie greatest of English admirals. The two thing's should go far to ensure for "The Tear oi Trafa-lsjar" (London: John Murray.

price ss), now presented by Her.ry Newboit, a large amount of attention. In this work is included a collection of Hie- Foeras and ballads written upon the (Treat noval event, but the book itaoif is by no means ono of Ibc author's poetical efforts. It is an attempt to condense tlie evidence relating to the year of Trafalgar info "as small a composs* as possible, and, by making the actor 3 and documents tell the story in their own words, to eliminate altogether the voice of ths twentio>h-e?niury airlhor." Mr Newbolt has closely studied a number of records and narratives ; he has also takou the opinions of living naval authorities, and the result is a book in which the events and tactics of Trafalgar aie set down and discussed in a manner that should appeal very strongly to those who take anything like a, keen interest in the subject. A portrait; of Lord Nelson, reproduced from the original painting in St. James's Palace, forms the frontispiece of this work, which is also furnished with a map of Nelson's search in the Mediterraneaji, a map of the chase to the West Indies, and other maps of the Trafalgar attack.

— The world is full of young men and women who desire to become writers. Provided the talent exhts, it is a very sensible desire ; in one instance out of, say, ten thousand such necessary talent does accompany this very common ctosire. In th© other 999 cases the talent is absent, ilio desire being a mere vague stirring of iho appetites towards easy work well remunerated, Drmgmg with it the admiration and envy of our fellow-men— this being the literary carc&r comrncnly imagined by those outside it. I have just laid down c fascinating book, which i would strongly recommend to ail literary aspirants. After reading ib th-ey should find themselves asking themselves this question : Am I worthy to be a literary man? Am I capable, of sj much self-abnegation? Is my kne of humanity sufficient to lead me to face cheerful i/ the possibility even of martyrdom? 'i'i-o book in question is Prince Kropotkin's Li=torioal review of Russian literatuie. I.i lansia men and woaivon are living--noi playing at life as we Westerners are doing-. Literature to them is one of the forces of progress. In Hmsia tho literary man star 's in the forefront of a gigantic struggle. Literatuie at the best brings him a wust; much more certainly exile to Siberia, lifokmsf imprisonment as a soldier in tho ranks, the knout, or the gallows. — • Jerome K. Jerome, in "To-Day." — Tho foilo'tviug no-.v novels aye being added by Mr T. Fisher Unwin to his Colonial Libraiy : — '"A Passenger From Calais," by XEajor Arthur Griffiths. The World says of th:s: "*~viajor Arthur Grifiuhs ig in. line form. We have not seen anything so good in tho railway mystery line for a long time, and the author has not written anything better worth reading than tins slory. The story is very clever in invention, and admirably so in its distribution, but on quite a ctiffc-i-enfc system, after the fashion of Wilkie Collias, into lopswte narratives oy persons concerned in tha events, a:i arrangement which gives us excellent character sketches by tho several original? themselves.'" "JRo.-e of Lone Farm," by Eleanor (.<. Hayden. This is a <.tory of rustic I'.ic. '"Jhe piet'UTS of country soeiiiC-: and country life which it contains ai<?," says tho World, "almiraHe. jlios Kaytlen plainly knows the ccuntiy, its clays and its niglvte, its sounds and its silence, its &ced-time and hs>rvc?r, ;aid she equallj' plainly loves well Mhafc s;ie has c'ravrn sd ".veil." "Two Moods of a IvEan," by Eorcce Hutchinsoa The simple, cemal straishtawuy style of Mr Koraco Kutchinson, 'Lig fendneos for the things of the open a;r, and his delight in Kngli-h characteristics male© him. more like Henry Kingsley as a winter than on^ might think a modern man could possibly be. Is is Henry Kingsley plus a problem. The enthusiestie burst of adjectives with which Mr Hutchinson introduces us to a beautiful woman is like an echo of ths introduction of, say, Alire. Brentwood in l TieofFroj r Hamlyn." On tlie other liand, what could be more modern Ihan this cslzq of a man with two mood", who Itives two women? Or v»'hat, rathei, could !:e njore modern than the admission and disoiKsion of that very ancient and common ca^e? The story, which opens with deceptive Inhtness. and seems to be leading us to a tale of roving, caravandwelling existence on the country-sides, •turns to a very melancholy drama of entangled hearts when it becomes plain that the hero (a modern hero full of human weakness) is not s : n gly devoted to the beautiful child of Nature whom he introduces as his v.-'fe. Mr ITutehinson makp<* a very- good story of this material, and the thing we feel most thankful for is the breath of the Downs (hat teems to blow all through a noiel whose theme miehfc --Th^Outlook ' SCJ " SiCkl7 Stjl§ enOUSh -"