LITERARY NOTES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13691, 5 September 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

LITERARY NOTES.

"Before Adam." bv Jack ' London.—Mr Jack London's gift of vivid imagination serves him to good pnrpo.se in his new story, wherein he recounts the adventures of a primitive being, half man, half ape, a being who was i-he mid-Pleisroeene forerunner of men like ourselves and Mr London. He has cast his "tale (this is not a joke) in the form of a semi-autobio-graphy. A modern boy has dreams, and they torment his childhood : 'a ■ procession of nightmares,' they are with h ; m till he grows up: and when he tries to explain them to other people, they first laugh at him, and then s4nm him as having about him something abnormal and not to be understood, for they did not know, as he knew in a sort of dim sub-conscious way.

'the. peace of cool caves in the cliffs. , the circus of the drnkiug places at tihe end of the day. They'hart never felt the bite of th« morning wind in the. treetops, nor was the tast*> of young bark - sweet in their mouths.' When tbe boy was made acquainted with tbt- theory -of evolution he realised that his dreams personality mnst be a legacy from a remote, ancestor, hundreds or thousands of generations back. Then his dreams fell inio a'definite sequence in his mind, he understood (heir significance, ami was able to shape some sort of connected story from them, the story of Big Tooth. The realism of this etory. as Sir London tells it, is simply amazing. He makes us feel the horror of Big-Tootth and his friends at the sight) of the larger beasts, sabre-toothed tiger* or snakes, the fascina:;on of the Swift. One. - Big-Tooth's gentle mate, the overwhelming dread of the marauding v Fire People, who are shown"'-'a* being contemporary with the cave-dwelling folk, as were the more primitive Tree People, and the fear of i the Tribe for Bed. Eye, who was himself an atavism, who rode roughshod over the customary laws of the horde by virtue of his great strength and ferocity. He t-ells how an -nvasioh of the Fire People all but exterminated his tribe, the few families"who escaped growing less and le>v? under the more rigorous conditions of their new; life in a severe climate. The whole story is a striking piece of work, and, ; Mr Bull's illnstraiions ca'tch-.' its spirit admirably.— (London: Macmilla'n and Co.; Timarn: P. W. 'Hudon and Co.)

A novel-writing contest; for a prize of £5.000 h:u9just b*?en decided. The! contest was between'Mr Max Pemberton representing England and Mrs. Mary ; E. \V ; lkins. representing America. The "New York Herald '* put" up the stakes and .provided- the arena by allot iing .space in itV columns for iti» display of the rival stories in parallel colunvns. The decision rested with the newspapers. readers, who were invited jo send in their votes. The result; ,wns ..that Mrs. Wilk ; ns polled the larger "number Her siory is entitled : The 'Shoulders of At W and deals with middle-class life in New' England. Mr Pembertoii's is called * Sir Richard Ks-" combe,* J and is mncemed with the adventures of a cavalier and his '-'lady-love in-the time of George the Second. The amaz : ng. thing is that it should pay a newspaper to spend so-considerable a sum for such a ''purpose."'-'.' Can it .b> that its proprietors trimmed their sails ,'to.' catch .somte *of the wind that is blowing in the 'Vo.w' for Women' movement? Presumably the great, -majority of'ro'fers in this contest were women, "for what mjm ever reads a serial ixsiieT

"The Shame of Motley," by Rafael Sabatini.—The dawn of the sixiieenth century in Italy ..serves as a background co a fascinating romance written in a. roost entertaining manner. The character of Lozarro » Biancomonte, the. hero, who in the end prefers the calm of his restored! patrimony to the ela*h_ of arm*, is sympathetically .handled;' for Boctadoro—as lie conks to be called—bv nature a po.»t and dreamer, is a. thoroughly manly fellow, resourceful and «»ti-ge'tic, a *chan soldier and clever diplomat as occasion requires. He starts his career with the idea of avenging his dead father's wrongs, and gets into the power of the uvrant oJ Pesaro. who spares his life ami »iakt» hun his conn fool, Through the, lady who for a time was Giovanni"* -wife. Lazzaro is put j n communication with tesare x ßorgi :t . There are many siirnn<* and picturesque incidents, » we'll as «.n?>

very horrible one. The Madonna Paolo is portrayed with a modern pen! Though rescued in several dire stroke by the hero, she is by no means the limp and weeping heroine "of the older romances of this kind; bu: a. spirited girl, who can show herself, unjustly cruel in her. youthful inexperience of hfe and the arrogance: of her caste; and yet, being truly . womanly and single-minded, recognises and reward's real worth in ,the end. —(London: Hutchinson and Co.: Timaru: P. W. Hution and Co.)

The fact; recorded by Dr. Robertson Nicoll about his father —that on an income never exceeding £2OO a year he collected one of the best private libraries in Scotland—leads Mr C. K. Shorter to ask {in 'Literary Letter' in "The Sphere") whether any young Englishman of the middle or poorer classes to-day goes without' a meal to buy a book. He "adds, M can honestly brag tha: I did this in my yoUng days.'. He confines his question To the middle . oil poorer classes because * tha wealthier Englishman has lost, the inspirations which' led his great grandfather in' an earlier, period to gaiher round him a fine library.' ■ These remarks oi Mr Shorter's - suggest a number of others on the .same topic, in which the influence of Mr Carnegje as a founder of- new libraries would figure. - As "regards the alleged decay of book-buying in proportion to population, we should doubt if it is quite capable of proof. There never was a time when so many books were brought, put. and they must be absorbed somewhere or the supply would surely cease. It is true, also, thai never were good books so "cheap and therefore never was ii so easy to collect a library without denying oneself necessary snsrenaiu-e.

"The Tree of Heaven," by Robert. W. | Chambera—The first few pages of the | first; chapter" of " The Tr<"e of Heaven" | prepare you for some of the weird, mystic, wonderful tales that are ttft follow. A young, but great " Psychic Scientist," auther of several works of occult, philosophy, who had been absent from New York since the happening of a grange and awful evenC in which he played a part, is entertaining a .company of his friends at the Lenox Club before departing to resume an appointment he holds in the East, and towards the end of the evening he suddenly awes and mystifies them by exerting his psychic powers, and in veiled and figurative language foietelling of what in the bidden. future awaited each of them. "The Carpet af Beh»hazzar" unravels the truth abouc that eerie and haunting event that had driven the young Scientist into banishment some years before; then follow* Ihe nine stories in ■ which whai he had foretold of hj» f riemK lives • comes to pass; admirably varied storie* of the supernatural, of pity and horror, of romantic advanture. of .love ami happy living. . They are vividly and brilliantly imagined, and writ; ten very ingeniously and with a ripe cunning in the at 6of narration that, few living novelist' could equal.—(London: Constable and Co.; Timaru. P. W. Mutton and Co.) ■

" How to Paint, in Oils." J by FuracWaHh.—This is a practical little, bandbook, full of many good hints, tmemkd to help tho*>e 'who, having mastered ifie elements of. drawing, wish to practise painting in oil, but ban* not. the ad van* tage of a master. Technical details, such ;is ilu» mixing of colour* and the u«e of brush and pale.te knife, are dealt with, and good counsel is clearly and brieily g : v»u on t'«>ui|H>skinii. tone, values, and tbf like. While. Furze Walsh advocates waimiy tbf uteUiud of painting in which *.!><» \tn\i been trained, she readily admits that titer*? ate other school* and other me-hods. A melancholy iinetvst, it, may bo added, attaches Us thin little book. It is tlifc work of the lady, Mrs, Alexander (iood. who recently committed •-uk-ide, along with her hu.sband, because they found the. 'straggle for existence' in an unsympathetic world tiw* hard.— (London: Fitu-ld; 'limam: P. \\\ Hut ton and Co.) .

The days when Dame, the outcast ■ ofFlorence, walked in biltef*Ut» up and i\o\rn Delia .Sealla's stairs, its at an end. Ho is now the petted gueirf of the highest aristocracy. Tb» l)uchess of Sufher* land entertains the Dante Society on -'one. occasion. Sir Kdward Sassoon and t<ri Lytton putt'onise- it on another. On Ai«ril 29 the Society met at-tlte l>eautiful house of the Karl of Plymouth iu Mountstreet, ami the- Cotmtes* took the cb:u*r. The occasion was a leetur* by the Poet Laureate on ' Dante's Conception of Women.' .On* <h»e.>* not usually associate the Italian poet's thong hi of women with the domestic hearth, but- Alfred Allien held thac no poetical conception of woman ciudd exclude itt»r housewifely duties, and that Dam* regarded her as* the goddess of the iirajid*-, as well as the celestisd guide to Paradise. . Sir Theodore Martin, who spoke at a Inter stage, combined the two ideas l»y reminding the audience chat Damn's iast-born child was christened Beatrice, ji he thought, of'his openness and affection for hi* wife? and their perfect mutual understanding, as well as of his unchanging devotion to she memory of Heat rice. The lecturer dwelt, long on the episode of Paolo and Fran«i*a, and he i-ame no the conclusion than the poets have, »s & rule, a higher conception "* w, *n»s» that the imvebs.s.