THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14139, 19 February 1910, Page 4

THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

INTO ITS HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. (By “Wayfarer.”) ‘•'By reading of books wo may learn something from all parts of mankind ; whereas, by observation we learn all from ourselves, and only wbat comes within our own direct cognisance.”— Isaac Watts; THACKERAY AT SCHOOL.' Thackeray’s memories of his old school, the Charterhouse, wore bitter, according to Mr. Lewis Melville’s “Life” of the novelist, just published, the masters of that day being, it is declared, brutes and the boys bullies. A now version of the unfortunate nosebreaking incident is given in this book. Thackeray, we are tout, had his nose accidentally broken by one boy, and, when it was well set and half-healed, deliberately smashed in by another, that it might be—as it was—a life-long disfigurement. The story hitherto told is that clumsy surgery did the mischief. A “KILMARNOCK BURNS.” Scotland’s recapture of a rare edition of Burns’s early poems is reported from Boston, whore, at the auction sale of the library of the lato Janies Brown, the Boston publisher, an octavo volume entitled “Robert Burns’s, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect,” and printed by John Wilson at Kilmarnock in 1786, when the poet was twenty-seven years old, was knocked down at 1023 dollars to Mr. George Clark, of Kilmarnock. The buyer, recently come from his home in the‘Burns country, chanced to hoar of the impending sale of this rare and valuable book, and made haste to secure the treasure for the sake of restoring it to its proper homo. Of this one item of plunder, at least, wrested from Europe by American wealth, remarks the Chicago Dial, our national conscience is now clear. SUCH IS FAME! One is glad to note thal.it is not onlv the assistants of the English press cutting agencies who are sometimes ignorant enough to address the classic and long-dead author in the hope of enlisting him as a subscriber, says an English literary journal. Recently Mr. Grant Richards republished in his series, the Elizabethan Classics, John Florio’s translation of the Essays of Montaigne, and there has come addressed to his' care, from Now York, a letter to “John Fiona.” “Are you curious;” the Clipping Bureau asks, “to sec what you missed?” and hopes that “John Floria” may be regularly enrolled on its .books. In replying, “John Floria” is asked to communicate with the Literary Department. This seems a case for Mr. Stead’s Julia Bureau. A GREAT MAGAZINE. The Cornhill Magazine, which has just reached its jubilee number, can boast of a career with which no other

magazine can vie, for, as the Manchester Guardian recalls, most of the great English novelists and poets of the last fifty years have contributed to it. There was Thackeray, of course, and George Eliot, Trollope, and Mrs. and something, too, of Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Reade, and Lever. “Harrj; Richmond” was a Cornhill serial, and so was “Far from the Madding Crowd;” early stories and essays of Stevenson were there, and some of us were first introduced to Mr. Henry James in its pages. Other contributors were Ruskin, Arnold, the Brownings, Tennyson, Swinburne, and Hood. Illustrations were by Millais. Fred Walker, Leighton, Pinwcll, Sandys, and Dicky Doyle. Such a catalogue is o'-hilr-nt-ing, and it does not exhaust the famous names. The editors must'have rejected sufficient to equip a few firstrate magazines, and it is wildly interesting to hear that Leslie Stephen would not have “The Return' of the Native” for tho same kind of reasons that will presently make tho libraries endeavour to extinguish other masterpieces. “Until this Last” was gallantly published, though it made respectability foam at tile mouth; hut Leslie Stephen oueerly rejected Stevenson’s '-'V'-v n Raeburn, and wc seem to have hoard, though it is not recorded here, that Thackeray declined a famous poem by Rossetti’s because “Jonnv” was such a. poor rhyme to “guinea.” IS IT ELIA? Several weeks ago I recounted the supposed discovery of a beautiful biscintwaro statuettejof Charles Lamb in the Brighton Museum, and quoted .from the interesting letter which Mr. E. V. Lucas wrote to The Times in support of tho Lamb identity. There is now great reason to doubt whether tho statuette represents Lamb, Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower seems to have convinced Tho Times that it is a plastic portrait of his grandfather, tho first Duke of Sutherland. There arc similar statuettes at Stafford House and Dunrobin, and a comparison of photographs seems to leave little doubt in the matter. But in view of tho fact that the statuette boars no name, Mr. Lucas suggests that Lord Ronald Gower should give finality to the inquiry by producing such documentary proof as is likely to exist. At present it seems probable enough that tho Brighton treasure is a statuette, of tho Duke of Sutherland by design and of Charles Lamb by accident. No one who has seen the photograph published in tho Sphere can fail to sco tho extraordinary likeness to Lamb (says a writer in T.P.’s Weekly). As a sculptured “double” it far transcends tho Camden Town statue.of Cobdon, which docs posterior duty for the late Lord Salisbury.

In the following issue of T.P.’s Weekly tho sara(J writer says:—Mr. 15. V. Lucas has written what will probably bo his final letter to The Times on tho statuette which ho took to represent Charles Lamb, but which, on more substantial grounds, Lord Ronald Suthorland-Gowcr asserts to bo a plastic portrait of the first Duke of Sutherland, There is one matter on which I should like again to support Mr. Lucas. He was under no delusion as to the extraordinary likeness which tho statuette bears to Charles Lamb. By tho courtesy of Mr. Roberts, the curator of the Brighton Corporation Museum, I have been able- to examine tho statuette at close quarters, and I have no hesitation in saying that iF must bo as good a portrait of Lamb as of anvpno else. Mr. Lucas now writes; “Personally I do not concede that anything has'been proved; and on my side no proof is possible. Lamb and proof have always been at enmity. Lord Ronald SutherlnndGower, however, is in a position to bo deferred to; and the projected memorial is at an end. Doubt cuts at the heart_ of a thing of that kind. Whether it is more honourable for a duke to bo mistaken for an essayist or an essayist for a duke I leave to others to- deckle; but it- is amusing to recall that a hundred years ago pins a few weeks Lamb anticipated for himself this very apotheosis. Writing to Manning on January 2, 1810, ho says: ‘I have made a little scale supposing myself to receive the following various accessions of dignity from the King, who is tho fountain of honour: As at first, 1, Mr. C. Lamb; 2. C. Lamb, Eeq.;.B, Sir C. Lamb, Bart.; 4, Baron Lamb of Stamford; 5. -Viscount Lamb; 6, Earl Lamb ; 7, Marquis, Lamb; 8, Duke Lamb. It would bo like quibbling (he adds) to qarry it on further. . . That is a very pleasing sine die adjournment of tho discussion. NOTES.

“True Tilda,” Mr; A. T. QuillcrCoueh’s la’icst novel, has been amongst the best selling novels of the past year. A' fourth reprint has been issued’. Another very successful novel of the year was Ralph Connor’s “The Settler,” which is already in its two hundredth thousand. : , In the United States the best selling novels between November 1 and December 1 were T. N. Page’s “John Marvel, Assistant,” and Robert Hichens’ “Bella Donna.’” Mr. Winston Churchill’s (the American Churchill) new novel is to bo published shortly. It will bo entitled “A Modern Chronicle.” The New York Bookman again points out that the title of each of Mr. Churchill’s novels contains 'the letter “C”—“The Celebrity,” “Richard Carvel,” “The Crossing,” “The Crisis,” “Coniston,” and “Air. Crowe’s Career.” . There is more than coincidence in this. A now volume of short stories by “0. Henry,” entitled “Strictly Business,” is to be published by Doubleday, Pago, and Co., shortly. Mr. Lewis Melville’s latest,biography of Thackeray, in two volumes (published by Air. John Lane) has received high praise from the critics. Professor Saintsbury, whoso knowledge of Thackeray is so well known, is particularly .appreciative of Air. Alelvillo’s hook Messrs. Smith, Elder and C;>. have completed their reissue, in a cheaper form, of ‘“The Dictionary of National Biography.” Every word contained in the original 66 volumes has been reprinted in 22 volumes, at lus nct each, in cloth, or, 21s in half-morocco. It is good news (says the p.'-itish Weekly) that Air. Sidney Colvin D preparing a new edition of R. L. Stevenson’s correspondence. The whole correspondence will ho incorporated in one work, and I understand there will bo additions. Many of Stevenson’s host letters are still in manuscript. But the reasons’which have postponed their .publication are passing away. . Readers of Air. Meredith Nicholson’s very clever novel “The House of a Thousand .Caudles,” will bo rather d'snppointpd with his latest work, “The Lords of High Decision,” judging from American reviews to hand this week. Air. Nicholson appears +o have been somewhat spoilt by the successful dramatisation of his earlier n~vel. for it seems that hr (Vennent "-p.,, of a development to come ho has spoilt in several cases what might otherwise! have been a nleasant surprise for the reader. Nor is the plot at all new. It is one of a typo rather too common in present day American fiction.