LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1878, 11 October 1913, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Villon in English. De Vero Stacpoole, some of whose novels, notably "The Blue Lagoon, havo been so enjoyable, has made an entirely new translation of tho poems of Francois Villon, tho sixteenth century Bohemian French poet, conoerning whom Robert Louis Stevenson wrote so entertainingly in his essay (in ''Familiar Studies of Men and Books") entitled "Francois Villon, Poet, Student, Housebreakor." Hitherto, tho only good English translation, of Villon has been that by John Payne, whose translation cf "The Arabian Nights" was almost as literal, and certainly much more graceful, than that of Sir Richard Burton. I hardly think Mr. Stacpoolo's version will include that, wonderful picturt) of mediaeval French rascality, the notorious "Ballade do la Gross© Margot." If so, I am afraid his book will be severely "banned by the.libraries," as a now all-too-famiiiar phraso puts it. English versions of . one or two of Villon's ballades and rondcaux may be found in W. E. Henley's "Collected Verses." The Pessimism of Russian Novelists. Since Maurice Baring so eloquently eulogised Dostoevsky,; the author of "Crime and Punishment " has become much better known in England, and the recent publication of Constance Garnett's translation of "Tho Idiot" has been responsible' for the appearance of quite a number of articles, the writers of which havo assumed that the average Russian, especially pessimistic person, ant, is a morbidly pessimistic person. To this theory, a Russian lady, Lydia Bariatinsky takes severe exception. Writing to the "Times" (Literary Supplement, August 14) she says, inter alia: "English readers aro never told that great genius as Dostoevsky was, tho people in his world are as unlike normal Russians as they aro unliko-normal Westerners. In literature wo know Dostoevsky, with his merciless vivisection of the soul, as tho "cruel genius," because ho made his characters long for suffering. This , is the exact contrary of the typical modern Russian soul, which craves for enjoyment. Every foreigner' visiting Russia is struck by the jovial ( social atmosphere of our pleasure-loving people, who like fun above everything, and havo an overwhelming sen so of humour akin to your own, as is_ testified by tho popularity in Russia of Dickens's and Jerome K. Jerome. . . . Imagine your own feelings on hearing the author of "Tho City of Dreadful Night" held up as typical of English thought, and you will understand ours when this great, but sick, genius is taken as a representative of the Russian spirit. . . . The writer of this letter may be quite right, but assuredly most Russian fiction that has been translated into English, the fiction of Turgeniev, Gogol, Tolstoi, Tchekoff, Dostoevsky, and Gorky, is very largely tinged by a dismal pessimism, Reccnt Dlckensiana. In tho July "Fortnightly" there is a capital article on "Tho Boys of Dickens." My own favourite, after, of course, dear little Davy is that cheeky little wrctcn. that completely human boy, as Mark Twain would havo called him, "Trabb's boy," m "Great Expectations." Another Dickens article to be noted is that on "The Medicine of Dickons," by Squire Spriggo, in tho August " Cornhill." ' Referring to the much discussed death, by spontaneous combustion, of tho drunken old waste-paper dealer,_ Krook, in "Bleak House," Dr. Spriggo remarks: "It does not seem to mo that Dickens's uso of spontaneous combustion was other than perfectly fair in fiction. Tho story did not depend on Krooks dying in this way; it is not suggested that it was a usual form of death, and 110 one considers that a novelist ought to bo a pathologist. When, howover, the book was published, Dickens took tho field in defence of his medical learning, resenting seme criticism by George Henry Lewes, himself, by the way, no pathologist, and an inaccurate if learned man. Ho demolished Lewes, but convinced no one, and the verdict of medicine to-day i» that

there i 9 no such thing as spontaneous combustion. But the occurrence was', in. my opinion, a legitimate episode in a novel, and Marryatt used it with some effect'in. " Jacob Faithful": his beat novel in soma respects. The public could not bo seriously misled eave such an unreasonable portion of them as should essay to quote Dickens aa an ultimate pathological authority ; vrhile the warning against drink and dirt conveyed by Krook's dreadful end has a salutary object." Stray Leaves. A Masterton reader writes: —Dear "Liber".—An appreciative reader of your weekly column would be very much obliged if you will tell her whether the pooni "Not to be Won That Way" was written by Adelaide Proctor. If not, by whom was it written? [I cannot trace the quotation in question. Can anyone oblige?] • » • A review of Hall Caine's latest novel, "The Woman Thou Gavest Me" is held over until nest week. Many students of history, whose purses are not over well garnished, will be glad to hear that Longmans are bringing out a popular and much cheaper edition of Lecky's great work, "The History of England in the Eighteenth Century."

Froude's "History of England," complete in ten volumes, is now availably in Dent's admirable "Everyman's Library," which also includes sets > of Grote's Greece (12 vol.), Gibbon's Rome (6 vols.), and Macaulay's England (6 vols.). For a very moderate outlay the lover of history can nowadays get together quite a respectable collection of historical works of really high value.

Mr. A. E. W. Mason's new story, to be published about Christmas time, is entitled "The Witness for the Defence." It is said to exhibit the author of "The Four Feathers" at his very best.

Walter Savage Landor's "Across Unknown South America" is expected to bo one of the outstanding works of travel of the autumn publishing season. '?his unknown South America includes all the unexplored parts of Brazil to the south-west of Rio de Janeiro.

I am not greatly interested in the detailed news of the various Nonconformist, or, Free Churches, as they aro now called, which constitutes tho chief feature of "The British Weekly," but for some years I have read with unfailing interest and pleasure the purely literary articles of "Claudius Clear" and "The Man of Kent," under which two noms-de-plume Sir William Robertson Nicol writes so agreeably, and gives information on literary matters which can be found in no other journal. A selection from the "Claudius Clear" articles is to be published I notice, by Hoddor and Stougnton this autumn under the title "A Bookman's Letters."

Two other forthcoming Hodder and Stoughtou books, which promise well are Clement K. Shorter's "George Borrow and His Circle," and Arnold Bennett's "Paris Nights,',' a volume of personal impressions. Mr. Bennett lived for some time at Fontainebloau, and knows his Paris as well as he knows the "Five Towns" ho has made so famous by "The Card," "Clayhanger," and "Hilda Lessways."

Frank Reynolds, the clever Dickens illustrator, has made a series of new drawings for an editiCm-de-luxo of "The Old Curiosity Shop," which wiTl be published this Christmas by Hodders.

Mrs. Humphrey Ward's new story, "The Coryston Family," _ which has been running as a serial in "Harper's Magazine," is to be published in volume form this month by Smith Elders. Mrs. Ward has now_a French audience of her own, for a French translation of her latest story has been running as a sorial in the "Revue des Deux Mondes."

Recent English papers record the death, in August last, at Lausanne, of Mile. Favre, a popular French author, widely known for her sympathetic criticism of English life. Mile. Favro's nom-de-plume was "Pierre Coulevain." Her best-known books are "Sur La Brancho" and "L'lle Inconnue," English translations of which have had a large sale, not only in England, hut in the United States.

According to "The Athenaeum" (August 80), H. G. Wells's new novel, "The Passionate Friends," about which there has beon some pother in the Old Country, recounts the lore affairs of one Stephen Stratton, and is supposed to be written by him as a warning to his son. '