LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 73

LITERARY NOTES.

— Messrs Constable will publish .almost immediately a volume .-entitled " The Chief American Poets," by Curtis Hidden Page, Professor of Columbia University. This volume contains all the beet works of the greater American poets — viz., Bryant, Poe, Emerson, Longfellow, 'Holmes, Wnittier, Lowell, Whitman, and Lanier. It does not, like the usual anthology, give' a few selections from each on© of " the many authors, but includes the,. chief poets, only, and gives to each one of them enough to represent fully the man and his work, •and to serve aa a thorough itudy of him. — Twenty years ago -Max Pemberton was one of the band of young journalists who helped Alfred Harmsworfch, low Lord Norfcholifte, to make Answers a success. There were anxious Jays for all concerned m the enterprise. Mr -Hannsworth sent back to "Max" all the articles he had written for one week. "I like your work as much as ever," he wrote. "I should like to print every line, but the paper is doing badly, and I fear I should not be ! able to pay you for your work. Perhaps you can use it elsewhere." Mr Pemberton returned the articles to the paper, telling his friend that he was ready to take the risk. Answers turned the corner, became a success, and enabled Mr Harmsworth in time to becomo a multi-newspaper proproprietor.

— "The Sonnets of Shakespeare" present what is allowed by common consent to be a problem of extreme difficulty. Commentators are divided into two schools, which may be briefly described ac the autobiographic and the non-autobiograpnio. That the whole- book may be an imaginative structure is certainly not impossible. Such a thing has occurred more than once in the history of authorship ; it was not out of harmony with the tone of the Renaissance literature. And beyond question one would wish to accept this theory rather than another. Some o\ the "Sonnets" sound' as if they had the personal note in them ; but then we must remember that their author was She greatest of dramatists. And here we must leave the matter. — Spectator.

— The Tallis Prees make a striking announcement— nanifilr. the withdrawal from

circulation of a volume published only & few months ago. In November was issued the "Four Just Men; "by Edgar Wallace, and in connection with this etory prizes to the value of £500 were offered for tho solution of the niyßtery of the murder of one of the characters which the author had left unsolved. Owing ,to the .necessity for closing the competition the book must },* ■withdrawn frojo sale &t the end *>f March. After the prizes haye been awarded, "The Four Just Men" will be jssued .in a complete form wjth ,the mystery .unravelled. Tho publishers announce "that the res'oJt of their experiment has been eminently satisfactory, and -the competition has -t±tnicted an extraordinary class of cpnvpetitors. The book had been translated into French, German, and . Spanish, and is now appealing .serially in many Continental newspapers. — London Daily Telegraph.

— The author of "Elizabeth and German Gardsn"^ confesses that she always carries the "Prelude? in -Mer pocket' for recreative reading duriag a holiday, though she admits, .with ]aughing toleration,'.' that jsnme parts of. it are stodgy. So also are too mnny parts of 'he ,"B.ingr and the Book," "The Revolt of Islam," and' even occasional parts of the "Farcy Queen" and "Paradise Lost.". ,Bu,t 4^ie ■fascination of discovering hidden * in 'poetic deserts even is reward enough to aiiy prospecting student; and what an admirable iojl are the stodgy parts to those luminous passages throughout the "Prelude," and notably amongst many i-otable, those which describe "Childhood .#nd Schooltime," beginning: Wisdojn and Spirit of the universe! Thou .Soul, that art-Jthe eternity of thought! — Letter .in the Academy. —In commenting on several late novels th<* Westminster. Gazette has pointed out a regrettably commdft " failing*. ' The paragraph is complete in itself:-^ "The scarifying of smart society is a. £a-vourite pastime of popular novelists. Some do -it to satisfy au appetite for snobbery, others because they genuinely admire tfie jgay world jn which the smart ones revolve, ,and jothers to point a moral of .which the present generation is supposed, to.jst»nd _\in need. In the average specimen . the. motives as a rule are mixed. 'The' Auj&xqr is generally convinced that .he is a -satirist, b!ut he is also aware that the*, depravity oi the ,rich is what the newspsaperfl .sail" \«ood copy,' and his efforts to turn the theme to. account in both jts aspects generally .result in apeculiar compound of .the unctuous and the sei£fttioa;»l." - /,'•">

— The fanciful .idea, of a renjaritableadditional sense has induced Louie ""Isacy to wrjte his latest novel. "IJLarl CJiier :• The Strange -Story of a 'Man with «a -Sixth Sense," 'published by .Edward if. Glpde,, contains -a >fi^nd of amusement in the .uses' to which this jsense, /or 1 .ac it is called, is pu<% /Thtt^hero is best described as a human induction coil, and is enabled through this , -force tf magnetism to hear and see at tremendous distances:— "The JJrefcty thing- about the story," says the STew'York' GUpbe, "is the way the scientific marvel "creates romance and works.it put. Karl Grier is an Oxfprd undergraduate, with very human sensibilities. The reader is not to suppose that the fancy of a human dynamo cannot lightly turn to thouffhte of lov,e, nor --that Mr Traoy cannot deftly, construct episodes, both dramatic and sentimental, out of telenomic or .any othe-r material. This 4s a thoroughly magnetic novel, approach it^as you will.

— Any book* of the nature of "The -.Reshaping of the Fur East." by B. L. Putnam Weale (New. York: Maomillan Co.), will bs popular for some time to come/ aa it wil! take- long for the novelty to weai off such .a big and comparatively new question. He is rather inclined to think that, very settled opinions, antl 1 one to whon; travel has .given considerable .chance- t< study his subject from personal observa* tion. He is rather inclined to think that having stirred the dragon from "its fleep, Western civilisation should eeo ; to it thai it is well under control before it is full j auake md realises its unhamflssed -power. The N«*y York Independent ,take» £im rather to task for his inability to div^efc himself of pronounced .British -jjpjafc' of view, but commends his book. The London Daily Telegraph says:— 'There can Jbie little doubt that by the publication of this work Mr B. L. iPutnam Weale. already favourably known by hi&^Mancbuand Muscovite, 1 has placed himself in the forefront, of. writers on the ;Far Eastern .question. .The boqk is, untruth, an^extraordinary complete compendium for the student of modern international. politics in Eastern Asia. The 50-naae prologue, dealing .with the histpry of China., is .a model of what «ueh a sumwary shidd be, ' and the author's singular lucidity of -style and aeutenees of observation .never .desert ?bim -throughout tht/ thousand odd pages .of hie. two volumes. Whether he is relating a. sequence of historical ©vents or recording -his own personal experiences he Js '-equally perspicuous in his ..-descriptions and shivwd ,in /his comments." - * — A new novel entitled "Brownjohn's," by Mrs P*rcy De*ri»er, author ,of '"IJheDifficult Way," is being added to Uawim's Colonial Library. It relates what happened when two ladies conspired to shako off care 'by sending, the one Rer two charming but irresponsible step-daughters, the other two not less troublesome small boys, to vegetate in the country at a. village poefc office, Brownjohn's. A comedy of bewildering complications, into which not a few tragic emotions are interwoven, is the result. — Another new addition to the series is "Fenny Lambert," by H. de Vere Stacrxx>le, author of "The Doctor,? "The 'Bourgeois," and other stories. The London Times thus sums up the book: — "Fanny lived with her .uncle at Highgate, Hie daughter of an ancient and decayed house, of which the head was |;he defendant in this hotly-fought case" of Sevan v. Lambert. But Fanny was also a very pretty' and lively joung lady, who devastated male hearts; t>vd whan she took the case into her own hands the irascible plaintiff and hjs respectable old solicitor joined the company of her victims; and we are launched on a sprightly, vivacious tale, full oi taking situations and characters cleverly touched in." v

His mind imbued with noble thought For the good of all mankind. A Chemist patiently ,work'd and sougbl A cur© for colds to find.

The ceaseless toil of an active brain *"^ Its reward did at length ensure; And the Chemist gave to the world in Sain — "Woods' Gseat Peppermint Cube.