LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2902, 27 October 1909, Page 81

LITERARY NOTES.

I — "All at Sea" is the title of Mrs Lanrji try's novel, which Messrs Hutohinson wi-1 publish, and the title is twice applicable. The story .concerns a pretty woman, who goes on a voyage in the same boat as her husband. By a.rrajigemer.t they keep apart, and she posss as a widow, he a3 a bachelor, with amusing results. — A volume of Sir TV. S. Gilbert's Sa-.oy Operas will shortly be published by M«sws George. 801 l and Co. It will contain ''The Pirates of Penzdnos " "Patience," '"Prince-?? Ida," ar.<l "The Yecmsr. of the Guard." The plays have b*3n revised by Sir William Gilbert, who a)«o contributes an introduction. — On September 7 Sir Isaac Pitman a:i.J Sons were to publish the long-promised ' edition of Shelley's letters. The two volumes, which Mr Roger Ingpen has had ' in preparation for som« time, contain a total of about 480 letters— that is to cay, considerably more than thrc-3 times as many as have appeared in any one previous collection. — The unique association of Messrs Passmore and Alabaster, the publishers, whose business has just been acquired by Messrs Marshall Bros., with the late Charles Haddon SpuTgeon is generally known. When but a young man beginning- in IfOndon his wonderful ministry Mr Spurgreon was prevailed upon to permit tha publication cf a sermon each week, and from that day till this tho we?kiy is?u-c has b?en continued . without a break. "Al iho pre=ont time there 1 are no fewer than 3157 sermons of the famous preacher in pi int. of which over 100 million- copies huve been bold, while , the t,toek of unpublished manuscript is sufficient to maintain the weekly public*1 tion for the nexr 10 yeais. Though 17 jears ' have passed since the d-eaih of Mr Spurg-eon : the demand for liis sermons continues in I a remarkable way i — "Conccinins Himself," a novel by the j Rev. "Victor L. Whitechurch. author cf that immensely populaT story, "'The Canon in i Residence," is a recent addition to Unwin's Colonial Library. It is Mie imaginary autobiography of a young parson. j -Many of the soenes are laid in a cathedral j city, and certain phases of religious thought . j and influence are- dealt with, as the hero, in tha course of his life, develops his convictions. The atmosphere of a theological college and aspects of clerical life are presented with much humour. There is a consistent plot running through the story, and the characterisation i-> vivid and lifelike. — A subscription has been .penod in Switzerland for the purpose of p;intin f < and publishing the mathematical "romiun*" of Kuler, tb? savant, whose nai:w is familiar in fonncction with various recondite mathematical fornulc. It is fittinjr tKit some such tribute should b? paid by his nat've country, for the University of Basic i was foolish enough to reject him as a professor, and ha had to go, first to Russia, and afterwards to Prussia, in ord-sr to- find '•copo "or hi- abilities. In tilit former country hs was noted for his taciturnity, and | was asked the rea-sor of it. Ec replied that, in Russia, a man could only op?u his mouth at the risk of beinsr han#"d by tho neck. His posthumous pint-rs aro fro numerous that it is complied thai the production of them will cost £12,000. I — ''Two Women,'' by Baroness d'Ane- | than, is a new novel in Unwin's Colonial i Library. This story of the moral struggl" of two women, a mother and a daughter, is out of the common, and intens-ely modprn. The author in two contrasted characters has succeeded in depictins the difference between tho old spirit and the new. Tho scene of the first part U laid in England and in Belgium : then it changes to Japan, and some vivid descripticr^ of Japan-* 1"'1 "' soenery, moods, manners, amj inoral> aia> given. The author writes of Japan with no small knowledge, for she has lived theio for many yea re ac the wife of the Belgian Minister to tho Japanese Court — Young authors have no occasion to feel discouraged by initial rebuffs. Consider these facts: — Gur Boothby served 10 years of unpaid apprenticeship before ho struck gold with hi« stories, and S. R. Crockett once confessed that a few years ago he was delighted to get a guinea for -a short story, and considered 7s 6d a column from a Glasgow paper great success. H. G. Wells first earned « guinea for a short story in the Family Herald, and k»d to struggle through

six years of rejection. Barry Pain's early rejections weie so many that he has been able to paper one of his study walls with tho refusal forms, and that inimitable humorist, W. W. Jacobs, during his first four years' straggle with the editors, showed as the total result the magnificent sum of 3^s. ! — CuTious statistics regarding the growth of insanity have been published recently. "Literary and scientific persons," it is con6oling to note, coma out pretty well at , 19.4 ; there is something to be said for the- ' profession of letters after all The maddest i of all men (T. P.'s Weekly remarked) are ) the civil and mining engineers, with a score ' of -19.8; and close at their heels are the' Jester-mongers and hawkers, who are marked at, 40.3. The sanest of all mankind I are the clergy, who are only 10.7. On .the ] whole, the statistics of lunacy tend to con- , firm the theory that the exercise of the imagination, taking the word in its widest S3nse, is the best preservative of the human mind. It will be saen that the "scientific" are included with tho "liteTary," but it must be remembered that the scientific man of these days is also a man of ircagina- ' tioa. Wo ore clearly not meant to be mere Gradgrinds — dealers in hard fact, — and if we shut the dcor against poetry, romance, fantasy, we are bound to suffer. I trust that the novelist, mourning over his diminished profits, may find some consolation in the thought of his (comparative) immunity from mania. — Bibliographies are being prepared at the present time of Robert Burns, Allan Raxrsay, ami Robert Fergusson-.' The bibliography of Burne has for come time been engaging the attention of Mt J. C. Ewing, of Glasgow, who, in a preliminary ! paper, privately issued, removes some misconceptions concerning th-a dates of issue of the indivwiual posißs ard tba "get-up" of the Kilmarnoc'k edition. Mr Ewing's bibliography will supersede Craibe Ar.gus's full bu>fc badly arranged, wort- of this oharsctai. Th-» bibliography of "honest Allan," who has not yet beep honoured in this rosn-ocfc, is near completion ; while that of Robert Fergus?or is -having the attention of a member of the Edinburgh Bibliogra1 pliical Society. R. L. S., the last of the "three Robins," wrote from Vailima, it may ba recalled, to Craibe Angus to "remeinbei 1 our poor Edinburgh Robin, and if you collect bh-2 strays, command roe to write i the preface." j — September was the jubilee of the ap- i pearance of Samuel Smiles's "Self-Help." j Dr Smiles had already wen considerable ! reputation by his "Ufe of George Stephencon." published in ISSB, and the eueoess of "Self-Help" was immediate. Twenty thou-" Far.d copies were disposed of within the first 12 months, and the total sales to date ' <unnot fall far short of half a million, j a very short time vernacular cdi- , tions were published in every European country, with the significant exception of Turkey, and it was translated also into .Japanese. Outside England and America, tl>e country in which tho book -enjoj-cd the greatest vogue, wos Italy — ihen but recently free from the dominion of Austria. "You have done more to m«.k.<> Italy than Cavour ' or Garibaldi ever did," wrote enthusiastic j Italian's to the author, and when he visited ' the country the "illustre Sanutele Smiles" found himself a "lion." Queen Mars,<herita sent for him, and Garibaldi on a sick-bed related to him the slory of his life. Dr Smiles built liimsolf a house with part of , the profits of "Self -Help," and buried a copy of ths bcok in the foundations. j —It is by no means easy to think of any possible combination of circumstances [ which should link Lord Byron and Charles ! Dickens with the late George Manvillo i Fcnn. But thore is euch a link in exis- | tenco (says the Westminster Gazette), and ' op of a very interesting charactsr. Among tho curiosities treasured up for years by .Mr Fcnn is a Ictlsr in Dlck-ens's au'ojTaph upon a shset of old-fashioned, blue, wircv.oven notepaper. It remained for yean before Mr Fenn received it apon the billfile of the tradesman to whom it was sent, with the result that it is pierced by three j-ousrh holes whore the wire passed through | the original fold* of ihe time-stained paper. J The letter relates to Lord Byron's flute, j Dated in the older novelist's characteristic ! way, "Devonshire terrace, Twentieth June, f 1848," the document reads: — "Mr C harks ' Dickens is much obliged to Mr Claridge for th« offer of lj<-rd Byron's flute. But, as Mr Dickens cannot play that instrument himself, and has lobody in hU hous<> who can, he begs to decline tho purchase, with thanks." As Mr Fenn ueed to say, ir showing the reik- to his friends, "You cannot j see a smile upon the paper, but there seem? ' to be one playing among the words." One thinks of tht melancholy young gentleman at Todgcrs'3 and the flute serenade, arxl oi ; Dick Swiveiler'i mournful nocturnal performances on the s.arne in3trument when Sophy Wackles had been lost to him for ever. — -\viation i- fio much "in the air" just now that the temptation to drag it even j into a literary note is irresistible. Not j is thcro any roa'.on (says T. P.'s Weekly) ; why tho temptation should be •e3ist-&d"; j for the beginnings of a\iation can be eonrwcled with the beginnings of the Romantic Movement The first man who aeeended in a balloon inflat?d with hydrogen gas was th© eminent scientist -M. Charles, of whom one rrs.<h as "Chemist Charles" in Carl.vle's. history of tho French Revolution. M Ch.ules, as a middle-aged man, mar- i* ricd a young wife— Julie Bouchard dea | >lorPtt<'=. Ma.laire Charles was a. sufferor i from consumption, a.r.<) was sent, im- i attended and unohaperon-ed, to Aix-les- I Bains for a "cure." She found no cure ■ Ihere but she met Lamartine, who had re- | raired to the same resort for the benefit j of his ns-rvos. Sh» fell ir love with him, > . and ha fell in love with her ; and, though ( there was no tragedy and no breaking up j of homes, the wife of the man of science- j inspired the poet to write immortal verse. ' Madame Charles, in short, was the Elvire ' of the "Meditations Poetiques" — the collection of verses which inaugurated the Romantic Movement. Sh© was also the Julie of Lamartine'a "Raphael," published a. ' good many years later ; and anyone who ' likes to road "Raphael" will find in it , the true story of LamaTtine's first love ' affair, just a3 he will find in "Graziella" ' the true story of Lamartine's first flirtation, j (

— "Sine© we're living in the country I take long walks for my complexion, dear." — "Yes. That's the worst of living in the country — the chemist's shop i« always so far *w*y."-