LITERARY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5427, 30 November 1895, Page 2

LITERARY NOTES.

[COEMBPOHDSNT " CANTERBURY. TIWES."]

London, Oct. 4.

Mr Hall Caine'a brother, who edits a penny monthly called London Home, says that if the laureateship is revived under Lord Salisbury, Mr Alfred Austin is sure of the first offer.

" Noemi : a Bomance of the Cave Dwellers," by Baring Gould, whioh ran through a number of newspapers early this year, is just about to be published by Methuens, who have also in type Gilbert Parker's romance now concluded in the Toung Man.

Scandal, not about Queen Elizabeth but about Sophia Dorothea, wife of George 1., will form the eubject of a volume of "revelations" which Ernest Vizetelly is preparing for immediate publication in a London periodical. 'It tells of " her unhappy marriage, her lover's murder and her bitter fate."

Mr Simß is at present busy with two or three plays and a series of short stories on the Ten Commandments for Lloyd's Weekly. Dagonet's up-to-date reading of the 'laws of the. decalogue are sure to be full of that robust common sense and good feeling at which superior persons scoff, but which Philistines like the writer find extremely refreshing. " Soylla and Charybdis," Bhoda Broughton's novelette, just published in one volume at six shillings by Bentley, is a very short and Blight, not to Bay trivial, tale of the love perplexities of a rather priggish and uninteresting young man with a mysterious mother. Misa Broughton cannot be dull, but ehe comes, in thia instance, perilously near being inane.

Life is too short to read the endless literary causeriea by minor poets and novelists whioh fill tho papers nowadays. Ear better, if you desire to found a sound taste in style, to browse on the essays of such living expositors as Augustine Birrell and W. E.Henley. I mention Birrell particularly, because a cheap edition of hia works (just commenced with *' Men, Women and Books") ohould bring his delightful chats within reach of everybody.

The author of "Dodo" comes to melancholy grief in " The Judgment Books," which is a feeble attempt to utilise the same idea that Oscar Wilde gave the world in " Dorian Gray." Mr Benson has not, unfortunately, Oscar's gifts. The situation the latter made mysteriously horrible the Primate's son merely succeeds in rendering grotesque. If Mr Benson is well advised he will return to his lighter and more natural vein in his next effort. At 6s " The Judgment Books " must be pronounced very dear. The lady who writes as "Viotoria Crosse," and has recently produoed a > choioe blend of vulgarity and sex-mania

called "The Woman Who Didn't," ib by way of being a disciple of " George Egerton." By this time tbe reviewers must have made her aware that she possesses mOßtof that fair original's faults without her redeeming force aud talent--. The worst mischief, indeed, which able but revolting books like "Discorda" do is to raise np hosts of feeble imitations. Not many, thank heaven, get into print, but publishers' readers just now tell us they aro deluged with manuscripts notable only for their nastiness.

Far the most notable of the Autonym series whioh Fisher Unwin has yet given ua is " Kafir Stories," by William Charleß Scully. What Louis Beok did for the South Sea Islanders in "By Beef and Palm " Mr Scully does for tho Kafirs and Zulus in his little book, and whilst his pictures are quite as vivid and in places as desperately and painfully realistic, they seem less lurid and brutal. There are Beven tales altogether, the best, perhaps, being "The Eumenides in Kafirland," "The Fundamental Axiom." and " Ghamba." The last-named is a ghaatly tale of African cannibals enjoying a meal of roast trooper, which I do not commend to ladies with nerves. Indeed, none of these " Kafir Stories " are exactly babyfood.

It would not have occurred to me that a new edition of Byron in ten sumptuous volumes was amongst the burning wants of the age. Apparently, however, Messrs Methuen think we badly desire eomething of the sorti According to them the "true public " has had enough of " fluent minor lyrißts and hide-bound sonneteers, and is disposed in the natural course of things to renew its contact with a great English, poet who wae also a prinoipal element in the aesthetic evolution of that modern Europe which we know." Perhaps so, but why an edition in ten volumes ? A single volume of carefully-chosen best bits from Byron, edited by Mr Henley, I believe wonld have sold well. Bnt where the "true public " is to come from whioh will bny the ten I cannot imagine. The "Penny Poets" are proving a highly successful enterprise. Of No. 1 (Macanlay's Lays) 200,000 have already been sold, and the regular issue iB now 100,000 a week. The selections from Mrs Browning, Lowell, Campbell and William Morris deserve speoial note. The latter, being a professed socialist, could hardly refuse to place his muse at the disposal of the masses, but it will surprise me if Mr Swinburne or the holders of the Browning or TennyßOn copyrights allow Mr Stead to •' scissor " them into pennyworths. The truth is, Mr Stead has a genuine gift for skimming cream, and those who turn to a complete Lowell or Browning after reading his selections will recognise with surprise how few of the poets' best bits have been over* looked.

George R. Sims'e " J)agonet Abroad " relates in our Cockney idol's brightest vein his experiences during a long ramble on the Continent with Albert Edward. Many of the pubiio suppose the lastnamed functionary to be ," a figment of the brain, a false croation," living solely for and in the Referee. On the contrary, he is an exceedingly solid fact, and Dagonet'e chief private secretary as woll as his friend: To Count Albert Edward von Armfelt this new book is indeed affectionately dedicated by Mr Sims, In the preface the latter gravely states ■— " In no instance have I described a country without visiting it," adding, "I trust that this admission will not in any way injure my reputation as a traveller or aB a journalist." Colonists coming Home next year and meaning to take a run on the Continent should expend 3s 6d on "Dagonet Abroad."

I wonder, by the way, how many of the Australians and New Zealanders who come home via Naples and Florence every year refresh their memories en route with the "Laat Dayß of Pompeii," or "Komola." To read the latter in the City of the Medicis and Savonarola adds immensely to the interest of one's visit. " The Honour of Savelli," too, is a capital book for Florence, and, of course, you all know "The Improvisators," Venice, Milan, Marseilles suggest other suitable books wherewith to lighten the long continental railway journeys. Next spring I will make a proper list.

Miss Braddon'a fifty -soventh novel, "Sons of Eire," is now published in three volumes, on the old guinea and a half terms. She still has an enormous andience, as the large number of copies subscribed for by tno big libraries evidence. The sale of her novels in the 23 edition also continues wonderfully regular. Of "Lady Audley," "Henry Dunbar " and " Aurora Flcyd" almoat exactly the same totalß were disposed of in 1893 and 1894.

Mrs Hungerford is another writer who neither falls off much nor improves materially aa the yeara go on. The thin and ekimpy plot, the bright and lively style, and the objectionable present tense mode of narration are the distinguishing features of " The Professor's Experimont" to-day just as they were of " Mrs Geoffrey " twenty summers back. The plot of the former discloses itself painfully patently in Chapter I. When the hero has a young woman bequeathed to him under mysterious and embarrassing circumstances, and begins by disliking and distrusting her, " often bringing teare by hiß brusque replies, to her beautiful eyes," we cannot possibly be in doubt ac to the denouement. With crass stupidity the man believes the damsel to ba an illegitimate nobody, but the reader, possessed of a fair amount of intelligence, will "place" her— as the Yankees aay— on her entry. Nevertheless the atory is quite readable, and, according to the reviewers, an improvement on come of the author's later work. As I only sample her at intervals, I cannot speak as to that.

Mr Edwin Hodder, author of the "History of South Australia" and the lives of John Fife Angus, Bob Boy Macgregor and Lord Shaftesbury, is about to take in hand a memoir of the late George Smitb, of Coalville, whose labours (not always aB wise as well-meaning) on behalf of children employed in brick yards, canal boatß and gipsy vanß resulted in important legislation. It was George Smith's unluoky fate to be detested by the classes for whose welfare he strove. I remember well the fury and indignation of the travelling show folk when Smith tried to make them educate their children. At a meeting held in the Agricultural Hall, Islington, George Smith sat qnietly on the platform whilst one showman after another spoke "giving it him hot" for " interfering with the liberty of the subject." At length a large red-faced cirbus proprietor, wearing diamond rings and a pot-belly disguised in a puce plush waistcoat over which a heavy gold chain meandered rose. " Eddication " said he solemnly, "eddication is dam rot. Look at me, I never 'ad no eddication. I can't neither write nor read, but I oan count the ' dibs ' (money) with a slate and a bit of chalk, and I knows 'ow to keep 'em, too. Look at me, I Bay — — " " Yes, my friends," interjected George Smith. "I beg of you look at this man. Look at him, listen to him, and then say do you desire your children to be like unto him." The meeting broke up iv disorder.

A lady at Tooleys, La., waß very sick with biliouß colic when M. C. Tisler, a prominent merchant of the town, gave her a bottle of Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Bemedy. He says she was well in forty minutes after taking the first dose. Por eala by Wallace and Co., Chemists, Christchurch.

Baron Hirsch has thus far sent about 4000 Busaian Hebrews to the Argentine Bepublic, and hopes to have a Hebrew community there of 100,000 within ten years. He sends them out in companies of fifty families, each provided with a rabbi and a doctor, and he expects thorn to sottle in villages giving a special tract for each company.

The highest amount paid in salaries and fees to the Attorney-General for England in any. year since 1880 waa .£20,285 in 1893 94, the lowest having been £9179 in 1889 90. The Solicitor-General received 411,056 in 1888-89, whioh was the largest sum paid since 1880, but received only ,37168 in 1891-92.

W. Strancmb akd Co are now offering exceptional value in hl»»kafc« -utd flannels.

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