LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1800, 12 July 1913, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Concerning "Michael Fairless." Many thousands of people lmvo read that exquisite littlo book, "Tho Roadmender," who do not know anything about tho author, and yet havo greatly desired to learn what manner of man, or woman, was responsible for that delicate and lovely piece of prose. To-day lies beforo me a littlo volume, "Michael Fairless, Life and Writings" (Duckworth and/ Co.; per Whitoombo and Tombs), which supplies not only -tho personal information so many have desired, but a well-written essay on tho. special characteristics and qualities of tho author's work. Mrs. A. M. Haggard, Michael Fairless's eldest sister, first chronicles tho simple happenings of her sister's life. Margaret Fairless Barber (Michael Fair-, less) was born- in Yorkshire in 1800. She was tho youngest daughter of a lawyer whose private tastes were antiquarian mid literary, who was an excellent Latin scholar, and who possessed a largo li-. brary. Her mother was a highly-educated ivoman, with a cultivated tasto in literature. As a child, Margaret, or Marj'orie, as she was called in the family circle, early developed quite remarkable powers of expression. She was a great reader, and keenly interested in national history, but her education outside the instruction blio got from her parents was confined to a few months' residence in a school at Torquay, and a still shorter period spent in another school nour London. Spinal weakness was disclosed when she was about fifteen, but for a time!her health improved, and she began training at a small children's hospital near London for the vocation of a sick nurse. Later on, she worked ns a nurso in the slum district of the East End of London, which Mr. Arthur Morrison mnde famous in his story "A Child of the Jago," and after her mother's death, in IS9I, lived partly in England and partly in- Germany, finally settling down with a family interested in philanthropic work and, dropping her own name, took that of her new friends. For a time sho interested herself in modelling work, but as her health grew worse, sho began to write, with what beautiful result all know who have read "The Hoadmendor," "The Grey Brethren," and "Brother Hilarius." She died, after terrible sufferings, on August 24, 1901, being then in her thirty-third year. In the second part of the volume Mrs. Elinor Dowson gives a descriptive and critical account of Michael Fairless's writings, and of the special conditions ajjd circumstances under wliih tho three boolts were produced. Thirty-six editions "of "The Koadmender" had been published .up to tho end of last year. "Everybody," says Mrs. Dowson, "buys it; nobody throws it away. There is a hard-headed ' prince of commerce, I am told—there may be many another, for all I know—who keeps a pilo of thoso little green volumes of mingled poetry and religion, that he may give one to any friend who has unaccountably passed it by." Two portraits of "Michael Fairless" are given in tho book, one drawn from a photograph, another from life. Tho English price of the little volume, which all who know and appreciate tho cliajrm of "Michael Fairless's" writings will desiro to possess, is 2s. 6d. net. Bulwer Lytton's Novels, Two 'the ./'.Oxford University' Press (London; Humphrey Milford) havo reached me. One is Bulwer Lytton's fine historical novel, "The Last of-.the Barons," which has been added to that excellent scries, "Tho Oxford Editions of Standard Authors." The other, an addition to tho equally admirable series, "The World's Classics," is a new edition of Bla'ckiiiore's masterpiece, the evor-delishtful "Lorna Doone." In "Liber's young' days, Lytton's novels enjoyed a great popularity. Nowadays it is fashionable to bclittlo them as being stilted and artificial. The truth is that Lytton at his worst is very bad, but some of his work, approaches a high degree of excellence. -He had a vivid imagination, wonderful industry, . and at his best, .when he ■: deserted his too frequently turgid stylo of expression, he is by no. means, even nowadays, a negligible writer. I can read "Tho Caxtons, "My Novel," and "What Will Ho Do With It?" with much greater pleasure to-day than I read them at fifteen or sixteen years of age-; and I remember a fourth story, of a more sensational character, "Night and Morning," which would compare very well with the work of more than one fashionable novelist of the new century. Of his historical novels, "The Last of the Barons" is far and away the* best. There is here less of the palpably forced brilliancy that one finds in so many of Lytton's novels. Lytton himself has told how carefully he got up this period, and the story was its author's favourite work in this particular genre. To-day, in its new .dressr—fine large type, on stout opaque paper, and in a cloth binding of laudablo strength and commendable simplicity—the story should make strong appeal to a younger generation. A book like this, of six hundred and odd pages, and with an admirable portrait of Lytton as a frontispiece, is a veritable marvel of cheapness at eighteenpence. I sincerely hope that "The Caxtons" and tho otheir novels I have mentioned above may bo issued in tho same comely and handy format. "Lorna Doons" in a New Dress. ■If a cheap edition of "The Last of the Barons" deserves a hearty welcome, what shall I say of "Lorna Doone," now added to "The World's Classics" ? Tlio popularity of Blackmore's masterpieco may now bei regarded as permanent. As t]ie Devonshire' man, said, "It's, even better than clotted cream." In all English fiction there is no more charming heroine than sweet Lorna Doone, no more gallant a hero than sturdy Joliu IJidd, no more sinister a villain than Carver Doone. In comedy the story is almost as rich as in the dramatic, and as for its local colour, Thomas Hardy has done no more for Dorset than Blackmorc did for Devon. "Lorna Doouc" is by this timo a classic. It is a long story, 'a true "three-decker," as Kipling would say, and yet who would fain shorten it by one singlo page? Here, in. tho "World's Classics" series, it comes in'the handiest of sizes, "The dear and dumpy, twelves" of Austin Dobson's rhymes; just tho size to hold in the hand. Again, tho print, though hero necessarily a trifle small, is admirably sharp and clear— : 'tis your dull, "muddy," not always t'ho smallest type, which first tires the. eyes—and again the binding is quietly pleasing. At fiftcenpenco in cloth, or two sliilliiig.-f (New Zealand prices) in Sultan red leather, this new edition i 3 a delightful possession. Happy are thoso who aro only beginning to collect good books nowadays. At what comparatively small ransom can they procure the masterpieces of literftturo!. There. havo been dozens of editions of "Lorna Doone," but none, at "the price, more eminently satisfactory 'than this. Stray Leaves. A new. book of verso by Alfred Noyes lias just been published by Blackwood's. This is "Tales of tho. Mermaid Tavern." The poems, which aro strikingly rich In vividly pioturesquo descriptions of Elizabethan life and manners, and written in stirring, virile language, havo been appearing,from timo to time'in the columns of dear old "Maga," still, in Liber's opinion, far and away the best of tho English monthlies. If only it cost the popular shilling, instead of the conservativo and, for most of us, prohibitive halfcrown. Next week I hop..- to give a review of Maurice Hewlett's much-discussed new book, "The Lure of Prosperine." One would have imagined that what with Lord Bosebcry's and Dr. Holland Roso's books on the elder Pitt, there was no noed for a new biography of Lord Chatham, but Longmans, I sec, announce an entirely now "Life of tho Great Hlalosan entirely now life of th<> great states--1 man- V-' s'li. Basil Williums«

Constable-and Go., a firm to which readers of really good literature aro already so much indebted, are commencing a new series, "Thresholds of Science, translations of text books which have already achieved a popular success in France. Amongst tho authors to bo represented aro such men as Brucker, Darzens, Felix Carre, and Camilla Flammar\ion. \'* * » Thoso who have read and enjoyed Arthur Schnilzler's amusing play, "Anatol," in its English translation, should note the appearanco of a new volume, "The Green Cockatoo and Other l'lays," from tho pen of the Viennese author. Maurice E. Kencaly, son of the late Dr. Kenerily, of Tichborne case fame or notoriety, has published a now book, "The Tichborne Tragedy," in which, so I s:e, 110 stoutly maintains the identity of the Claimant with the missing Sir Itoger. • » • Personally I do not care very much for latter-day German fiction, which is either very grimy or choked with Teutonic sentiment. English reviews, however, speak well of a translation, "The Son of His. Mother," of a novel, "Eirier Mutter Sohn," by Clnr.i Viebig, which has had a big vogue in Germany. »' t> » Industrious Dr. Fitchett, the historian and editor of "Life," has a. new book, "The New World of tho South," out with Smith, Elders. It contains an historic xl survey of Australia, with chapters on the native races, etc. A second volume, to he published later on, will bo entitled "Picturesque Pages in Australian History." In this the author will tell the story of Australia in the making. * # * A complete edition (poems two volumes, prose one volume) of tne works of the late Francis Thompson, author of that remarkable poem, "The Hound of Heaven," has just been published. I hope some day to give a short study in this page of Thompson's strange career and brilliant literary work. * » * Several translations of Strindberg's plays have been put on the market recently, but the best edition is that published by Duckworths, the translations by Edwin Borkman, it is said, reproducing the spirit of the original. Two of the plays have been published (price, Gs. each). . 1