THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14347, 27 October 1910, Page 8

THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

INTO ITS HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. (By “Wayfarer.”) The pleasant books, that silently among Our houscnold treasures take familiar places, And are to us as if a living tongue Spake from the printed leaves or pictured faces! —Longfellow. THE TOMB OF SHAKESPEARE. Complaint is made at Stratford-on-Avon of tho irreverent behaviour oi a certain class of American visitors who, it is represented, attend tho services in the jinrish church with tho object of visiting Shakespeare’s tomb in the chancel, and not for tho purpose of Divine worship. This practice is incoming so general that on Sunday immediately alter the service a card is placed across tho west end of the choir on which it is stated that Shakespeare’s tomb is not shown on Sundays, and on other days a small charge* is made, tho proceeds being expended upon tho church and its services and the care of the churchyard. Still further and more serious complaint against a section of Americans is that they have been seen to go through their purchases of pictorial post cards and actually address them during tho time of Divine service. The vicar and the churchwardens, in barring access to the choir as soon as tho service is over, publicly announce that they have taken this step in tho hope of putting a stop to the practice, which is the outcome very largely of the modern laxity in proper observance of the Lord's Day. A PREDICTION. It is inevitable, writes tho New York Times Saturday Review! No announcement has come from the publisher, no hint from tho author, no interview secured with “great difficulty” hy the author’s journalistic friends. Still, it is inevitable —that the next novel to come from the versatile pen of Hall Caine will have for its scene the City of Paris. More than this—it will bo the Left Bank with occasional excursions to Montmartre across the river. This is not a surmise, but a perfectly rational hypothesis based on deductions—as Sir A". Conan Doyle's favourite hero would S ay which' are drawn from a very simple fact. The fact is that for a month Mr. Hall Caine has been staying at a little hotel in the Latin Quarter, and during that time has occasionally been seen m the vicinity of tho Boulevard des Italians. That is all. To another’s forthcoming novel such a residence might mean nothing without confirmatory evidence. With Mr. Hal! Caine it is sufficient—that is, if analogies still weigh with his genius. A lengthy sojourn on the Isle of Man proqeded “Tho Manxman” ; settlement work in Whitechapel, “The Christian” ; two months in Rome, “The Eternal City” ; two weeks in Iceland, “Tho Prodigal Son,”, and, finally, a few weeks in Egypt, “The White Prophet.” It may also be added with equal confidence. if the length of the various sojourns means anything, that tho forthcoming Paris novel, while it may not bo quite so trim to Paris life ns “ The Eternal City ” is to Roman, should at least bo truer than “Tho Prodigal Son” is to Icelandic. AN AUSTRALIAN NOVELIST. Tho Loudon Daily Telegraph has been publishing a serial story ol Australian lile, by Mr. Albert Dorrington. Tho paper gives the following sketch of .Ur. Dornngton’s career: "The author, Mr, Albert Dorrington, who came to London a couple ol years ago, loft little oi tho great Southern comment unexplored uuring his sixteen years’ wanderings through the Eastern and Western Elates. At tho age ol seventeen ho loft his native Warwickshire for Australia, and within a year ol his arrival found hirnseh adriit with a small army of starving gold-seekers on the historic lield of Teetulpa, in .South Australia. It was Julian Francois Archibald, editor of tho Sydney Bulletin, who first detected gleams of gold in Dornngton's ' copy,’ and straightway rescued him irom the needless hardships which befall so many English public school boys who dritt to tho -Antipodes. ‘A child-genius’ the editor dubbed him alter reading a series of grimly humorous sketches depicting life on a played-out goldfield, sketches written 'on the truck' in a drought-stricken country hundreds of miles Irom tho seahoard. Then Dorrington became a literary journeyman, and for several | years the Bulletin printed almost con- ; tinuousiy his vivid descriptions of life ; in the West, stories of the great water ; famines among the isolated groups of ' prospectors who had ventured into the j arid regions beyond Koolgardio and the | Murchison. It was in Queensland, how- : ever, that Dorrington gained most of | His colonial experience. His grim sketches of Australian bush life aro illumined by kindly flashes of humour. Curious enough, these earlier writings are as yet unknown in England, while in Germany they have been freely translated by the Into Steiun von Kotze. Frank Norris, the American editor, who liberally supported Dorrington, spoke of him as ’young Gorky’ from ’down under.’ ”

NOTES. Mrs, Humphry Ward has written a new novel, which will bo published by Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co. after it lias run its course serially. Mr. Joseph Conrad will complete before long a now story on which ho has been engaged for a year or so past. It will bo called “Razunov.” The latest novel from the pen of George Barr M k Cutcheon, tho wellknown author of “Graustark,” “Brewster’s Millions,” etc., is entitled “Tho Rose in tho Ring.” Miss “Rose Boldrewood,” tho daughter of “Rolf Boldrewood,” tho wellknown Australian novelist, has written a novel entitled “The Complications of Cellared,” which will bo published by John Ouseley shortly. A novel of the sea that has received high praise from English and American critics is “Tho Brasshoumler,” by Mr. David W. Bone. Mr. Bone is chief officer on tho Anchor Line s.s. Massilia, and is a brother of Mr. Mnirhcad Bono, tho well-known etcher. Ho is now at work on a new book of tho sea, to bo called “Tho Queer Fella.” Mr. Maurice Hewlett’s now novel, “Rest Harrow,” will be published by Messrs. Macmillan. It continues tho history of Sonchia Porcival, the headstrong and somewhat unfortunate heroine of “Open Country.” John Stonbouso, tho amusing idealist- and gentleman gipsy of three of Mr. Hewlett’s previous books, plays his part in tho development of tho story.

The Comte Do Lovonjoul has presented hy will to the French Academy a valuable collection of letters written and signed by Balzac. Tho Comte De Lovcnjonl became possessed of them in a peculiar way. One day he saw a cobbler lighting his pipe with a twisted letter. The ink on the letter was old, and tho handwriting interested the Comte, who asked the cobbler to let him look at it. He recognised Balzac’s handwriting and signature, and gave tho man sixteen shillings for his letter. Tho cobbler told him he had got a lot of them. He had bought them in a heap of waste paper to wrap shoes in, and ho sold them all to Comte Do Lovonjoul. Mr. Arnold Bennett’s next bonk, “Clnyhaugcr,” will ho the first of a trilogy of novels dealing with the Five Towns, the central theme of which will bo the breaking down of tho old spirit hy the new in the central provinces of England. The first volume relates tho history of a certain Edward Clayhanger, a master printer and son of a piaster printer before him, from the time of his leaving school to his somewhat belated marriage at the age of thirtyfive. His state of subjection to his father, and the latter’s justification of his tyranny on the ground that eventually tho son will “come into everything,” are only one part of the old order of things which Mr. Bennett will show in his now work to ho slowly breaking up and passing away. It is interesting to note that the form of trilogy is growing in favour among tho more serious of our younger novelists, who recognise that a single volume gives a rather narrow canvas for tho treatment of big sociological problems with anything approaching epic breadth. Mr. Bennett is hut following the example sot hy Zola in ‘‘Los Troi.s Vdlcs,” Frank Norris in ‘‘The Epic of the Wheat.” and John Trevcnna in *‘Heather,” ‘‘Granite,” and “Furze tho Cruel.”