LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 73

LITERARY NOTES.

— Dr S(op£6r«3 Brooke has been very . busy witir literary work of late-, and, hesides his volume of Shakespeare "studies," a. new volume of critical essays from hirpen nray be expected in the rear future. The book will contain, appreciations of Matthew Arnold, Clough, Dante Gabriel Ros- ' selti, and William Morris. — Were Sir Frank Burnand's predecesscre at Punch really funny? One may rango through Tom Taylor's jokes in the Punch of his clay, and not find a. genuine smile (says the> London Evening News), nor in the "comb relief" of the sentimental plays which succeeded eac'a other in the theatres of bis time. Shirley Brooks had a quick pen at repartee, but «<jt in dialogue- that could raise a laugh. Mark Lemon was jcllier i.i private life than in print. On the whole, Sir Frank Burnard is the only one unmistakable humorist of them till; and he is the only one who has left fcbe chair aliv© and laughing. Sir Frank, it ia expected, will 'got a* baronetcy. — Dickens again, and Ihis time in the i>ather unusual garb of synopsis. Evidently in the. j*enejrat rush -of < things,, HaUie Er?" minie Rives, in L>e>r "Tales from Dickens,'* hopes to be able- to squeeze ai- a favouriCd author by small closes. Better that way than not" ai all. She has put heart info - hor work, and done it well. ~Sars the New, York Times-: — Miss Rives's boolr must have a .good influence: her summaries of the famous novels are lucid, tastt-ful, and sympathetic; she gives mv.eh in little; )er tribute to Dickens in the introduction is both reverent and enthusiastic. It is not ecsy sometimes for -a hardened reviewer, bound more or less by conventions, to get the right point of view in judging such a bcok. But one can scs that hero is no attempt to sail under fake colours. » The book 16 all as modest and straightforward a> any guidebook, and' it :s i>-<4 «-'*>- ■• ' - title says it is. — S. R. Crookett .i^. „. .. .. on behalf of his- younger .circle of reaver:. and ''Sir Toady" comes back in new surroundings. "Sir Toady Crusc-e" he is this time, apd hie residence is an island off tre coast of Scotland. Great times are his in his exile, and the discovery of kindred spirits in another boy and a girl of his own age and requirements produces «xperionees worthy of recording. "It- is a high art,'' says the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "this faculty for writing about a small boy ami hjs surroundings in a fashion that not only interests other small boys, but also delights older boys with imagination, i-.net a saving: remembrance of ihsix own youth. One feels that the author of 'Sir Tcady Crusoe' could not have written so interestingly, have drawn such a vivid p.icture, t-ncl have made his hero such a perfectly convincing boy if he was- not cne of those whose •youthfulness of- heart and sympathy with the ideals- of. childhood enable him t see things with their vision." -~ -• Something or, a very different. £iass is "The j. Menace of Privilege,-" by-* HenrysGeorge-, .fun.' (Macmillans). ' v *He has- pcod control of his -subject,- writes good English, j and the warmth -of personal opinion makes i the bcok alive. --The book is an .attack ca the- "favoured class." The Cona^vgationalist I and Christian. World says: — : "The son is not"" as judicious and fair-minded as his father was-, npr as careful of his authorities. His prejudices are strong, and " often lead to misstatement. He is a fluent and interesting writer, but must be read with the caution that is, given to 6pecial, pleading." /" — Dr Johnson's recognition has o> late years (says *he Athencsum) been universal, though it would, in some ways, surprise hi 3 contemporaries. We do not now think highly ol him as a classical scholar or ss a. stylist. His prejudices in oriticiem are butter known than his merits. But his talk is immortal, and more widely cherished and scrutinised every day. Indeed, his . fondness for paradox will always have an attraction for young n.en who go through that stage of literary measles, though his extraordinary intellectual alertness and Hs distaste for sentiment ar<» more valuable qualities. His "Dictionary" ia now only of historic' interest: his "Idler" and _ "Rarftblcr" and his "Rasselas' «re outdistance? by superior works of a similar sort ; b«s» Boswell's mnsterpiece was ' never W«S*e popular, a»»l "The Lives of the Pof-te remains tiiurapka-.ily alive. Home of hi.* r.oe's were not po»te • others were but moderate versifiers on the »6rge of oblivion ir. Oio : r own day': hot Johnson' Ims vivirl>«i tJ-c-i all. j —In some '''Recollections of ijJcojjre C»* sing," in the Gentleman's r ! friend of the late nov-eKst tei'i of Gi»ing'-< I "disastrous visit'" (o America w">«.i qiu*«J a' young man. Mf tL*-ap;ht he mt'vfc*. a market for his lHerft:-y wares th**t bu*. ! was told that' e<litor? could - "set"^ much of that Ktuff <is tli~y wanted wUhi-j!- pa.rhw for it." "Then (t»e ar«» tol' 1 ) follow! i nightmare of poverty. He ir.-.'ellcl ivr * tim& with an aprenfc of pntei-t ?*s &iiir,?a. The agent did the necessary boomlr.ir. »n£ Giesing the practical demonstration, K'jizo; to out-of-the-way places and seeing* »a America few English people know. Th» gas-fitting partnership came suddenly to ar. •end. . • • and after came weeks of misery, when he kept body and soul together on dough nuts and learned to lcno\v [ all the hardness of human hearts towards i poverty and misfortune." Only ottco in I America did Gissing meet with sympathy i and kindness, and that was from an old clerk in a lawyer's ofiice, whom he found reading the BiHe durinp the dinner hour. The old man did his best to help the novelist. .->nd Gissing never forgot this stranger friend. —An interesting autograph letter, in ! which. Scott refers to his denial of the authorship of the Wav<*rley Novels, i« - amonp the item* in an Edinburgh dealer s j second-hand book list. It ie written from, ' i Edinbureh, January 12, 1819, to his friend. John Richardson. "I own I did mystify Mrs S. a little," says Sir Walter, "about; the T>enort you mention, and I am glad to hear the finesse succeeded. She camp uo to me with a great overflow of gratitude. j for the delight and pleasure and so forth which she owed to me on account of these books. Now, as s,h&.knew very well that I had never owned myeeif the author, this. j was not polite politeness. . . . I nave " no notion o£ beinsj pumped by any qla dowager Lady of Session, male or feroalev In plain words, -I denied the charge, an^ as she insisted to know who eke was capable to write these novels, I puijgestecl Adam Fergusaon as a person having all the information and capacity necessary fee that rjurpose. But the inference that be was the author was of her own deducing/ and thus ended her attempt, notwithstanding her havinjr nriinpct the pump with ai good dese of flattery." Sir Walter mean* ia keeu his secret