LITERARY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5273, 1 June 1895, Page 2

LITERARY NOTES.

[fbom oub own correspondent.]

London, March 30.

•. Clarke Eussell thinks his novel " The Convict Ship," which is due in three vols. on May 17, excels in thrilling intereßt and Workmanship anything he has yet produced.

The next novel to appear in the Times weekly edition will be the,,," Light cf Scarthey," by Mr Egerton Ca3tle, who besides being a, novelist of repute is the finest living amateur at all descriptions of iwordsmanship. . Mr Walter Bajmond, whose aweet and wholesome little tale, " Tryphena in Love," received such a splendid notice from the Kmei last week, first attracted attention by his'" Gentleman Upcott's Daughter "in the. Paeudonjm scries. He is an elderly mab, a glover in Somersetshire, and he knows his own county through and through.

Mr Archibald Porbes's " Lord Clyde " in Macmillan's admirable " Men of Aotion" series gives a vivJd sketch of the long and energetic career of a truly great soldier. The Indian ..Mutiny scenes are particularly well done, and several stories told illustrating Colin Campbell's extraordinary popularity with rauk and file.

The best proof that we do not overestimate the terrible u_ischi*f dono by sex-maniac fiction lies in tbe heavy sales of these morbid snd disgusting books, viz, "Keynotes," 10,000; "Discords," 6000; "Episode," 2000; " (iroat God Pan," ,2000; "Earl Lavender," 1000 j •'Gallia," 2000; "Woman Who Did," 8000.

Newspaper meu could hardly believe that when the time cunio Mr Astor would really __6%i the Pall Mall Bud.. ef,- but' stopped it wsb yesterday, and some twenty men in theemploy dismiseed. Mr Cust,. disgusted, has gone off to tbe Eas', _ick of millionaires and all tbeir works j indeed, of the original Aatorian staff only Mr Mullins and Mr St'evsns remain.

Mis» K>Ra Mnckenz.H 'Kettle, who dird at. her residence at Cnl'ender, -N.8., last week, belonged to the Miss Austin school of novelists, and never wrote anything particularly thrilling. She had, however, a public of her own, and brought out some dozsn hooka altogether, which, I suppose, paid their way. The Daily News mentions "The Magic of the Pinewoodo" and " The Old Hall Amongst the Water Meadows" as her most popular tales, but I fauoy myself " The Mistress of Langdale Hall " is better knowo.

It was inevitable that tho success of " Barabbas" should lend to other literary backs trying to turn an honest penny by iniprcving, or rather embroidering on scripture. "Aa Others Saw HimV i a a retrospect written a.d. 54 by one who fcn&w Christ. The author's idea seems tobe to give us some idea of the manner in whioh the Jews of the period may naturally be supposed to have looked on our Saviour. Mr, Gladstone, to whom "As Others Saw fiim" was sent, cinfesees to reading it with '.'nnexpected interest." "The Book,"

he says, " brings into series many of the latest acts of our Saviour's life." Dr Cunningham Goikie praises " the learning that shines through each page." Mr Price Hughea finds the volume "striking and suggeßtive." That Mr H. *W. Massingham would sooner or later oust Mr Fletcher from the editorial chair of the Chronicle, has, for some time been certain, but it does not reflect much credit on the perspicacity of the Messrs Lloyd that he should have bucceeded thus early. Meesrs Massingham and Fletcher are intemperance and temperance personified. It was the sterling common-sense of the latter's articles that made the Chronicle the organ of tens of thousands of anti-extremists. Mr Massingham's bawling and brawling appeals to quite another order of reader.

Tbe copyright of the six shilling volumes of Kipling's Indian tales, which were originally publiahcd in Thacker's Eailway Library (and in London by Sampson Low)', have now passed into the handa of Messrs Maomillan, who are re-issuing them in two handsome volumes, uniform with "Life's Handicap" and "Many Inventions." Looking through these volumes for the fifth or sixth time, I found they held one faßt aB ever. Even in " Life's Handicap," that gorgeous collection of masterpieces, in which Mr Kipling's genius reached its high- water mark, there are few things_fitronger than " The Man who would be iung," " The Strange Eide of Morrowbie Jnkeß " or " Only an Ensign."

I The Bupremest proof of a writer's popularity lies in the fact that bis books are unobtainable second-hand. In all the years I have haunted the bookstalls and bookshops of East and West End London, I have never eeen a book of Barrie's, and only on two occasions a book of Kipling's offered for sale at less than the ordinary discount price. Mention of Barrio reminds me that he and his wife, after spending a quiet winter at Fowoy, have gone north to Kirriemuir (" Thrums "), where they will stop for soma time. In the ■ current Woman at Home, tho Scotch schoolmaster, who recently described a visit to Gladstone, tells how he interviewed Barrie, or rather how he didn't. I gather that marriage has not made the creator of the "Little Minister" more resigned to . being "lionised," and that the dominie waa hard put to it to turn "copy " out of him.