BOOKS AND BOOK-MEN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 48, 26 November 1892, Page 1166

BOOKS AND BOOK-MEN.

THE Old Mortality spirit has been quickened to active life of recent years, rescuing from the oblivion of neglect places and memorials of names great in our island stoiy. Yesterday it may have been the birthplace of a Raleigh ; to-day it is the tomb of a poet, who, more than any other, was • the forerunner of the illustrious writers who afterwards broke with pseudo classical traditions, and brought men back to the perennial sources of truly poetical impulse.’ Thomson, the poet of ‘ The Seasons,’ has no memorial, other than His works, worthy of his genius. His place of burial is obscure and neglected, and Richmond, where most of bis best work was done, and where he lies, has been content to leave it so. A tablet in the parish church, and an inscription on a dilapidated board in the plantation

of Pembroke Lodge, are the only things to remind visitors to Richmond that once an eminent poet lived there. The Richmond branch of the Selborne Society have happily decided to remove the reproach in the erection of a suitable monument to the gifted author, who died in 1748 at his cottage in Kewfoot lane. Scotch by birth and training, it was to England he gave the first fruits of his genius. He had the usual fate of bud ■ ding genius—non-recognition for a time—but his fame was not doomed to be merely posthumous, as he died in the full recognition of the value of his work, not only by his public, but by his compeers, the great Dr. Johnson among the number. In descriptive scenery and pathetic expression few poets will be found to excel Thomson. VICTORIEN Sardou is one of the many litterateurs who, by the sheer force of talent, pluck and perseverance, won fame aud fortune battling against overwhelming odds. Throughout his salad days Sardou vegetated in a garret. Now he is the proud possessor of a pretty villa in the woodlands of Marly, near Paris, and is, perhaps, next to Dumas and Zola, the wealthiest of living French writeis. In his country home at Marly he devotes his time up to 3 p.m. collect-

ing materials for a future drama, or writing it out when the materials have been gathered together. His literary work is done in a study on the ground floor, the glass doors of which look out on a dainty park decked with marble statues and several sparkling fountains. Sardou’s evenings are devoted to his family and friends, in whose society he is never dull or commonplace. His conversational powers are of such a first-rate order that Dumas—himself no mean

judge—professed to find as many pearls in Sardou’s easy chat as he did in his writings.

At 28 years of age be had written a comedy entitled • La Taverne des Etudients,’ and submitted it to various theatre-directors, nearly all of whom bowed the youth politely but firmly from their presences. When he brought his package of manuscript to the janitor of the Odeon that individual pointed to a pile of * copy,’ consisting of 200 pieces, awaiting examination in a corner of the office, and said - * You’ll have to wait a year for the director’s decision on your “copy.”’ Sardou, nothing daunted, placed his manuscript on the top of the pile, with the result that it was the first read and was in a few weeks afterward accepted.

*La Patrie ’ took the Parisian public by storm. Translated into other tongues it gave Sardou an international reputation. His * Uncle Sam,’ although it exaggerated somewhat'American peculiarly-national characteristics, was also a great success, while * Odetta ’ and * Divorcons ’ are as charming bits of comedy as were ever penned.