LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2647, 18 December 1915, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

I have to thank Messrs. Gordon and; Gotch for an advancfe copy of Dr. Mar-- , tin's book, "A Surgeon in Khaki."- A t review will. appear next Saturday. Lovers of Irish poetry, and some very ' hue poetry has been produced by Irish , writers, both before and since the rise " of, the Yeats-Synge school, should spend I three shillings on ''The Book of Irish t 1 oetry" edition, with an. introduction . by -Alfred Perceval Graves, which forms one of the volumes of Fishier Unwin's, new series, "Every Irishman's Library. ' I wish Mr. Unwin, would give us'a cheap edition of 'Clarence■ Mangan's poems. ; By the way, this new series includes, I notico, a volume of selections from the: Prose andi Poetry of Thomas Davis, a fervid patriot,who in one .of "'.his : poems anticipates the "Hymn.of Hate;" One verse reads: ' . • We hate the Saxon and the .Dane We kate the Normen men . We cursed their greed for , blood and gain." ' We curse them now again'.' Other time?, other sentiments. Today Irish poets are 'chanting' the welldeserved, praises of their; gallant countrymen, who are; fighting side by side' with the. once-hated ."Saxons" against the common foe, the unspeakable Hun. One wonders, after ' reading Mr. Locke's neV story; ■ "Jaffery," whether the amiable: and delightfully Hilary Ereeth is not something like the novelist. himself.' Some of Mr. Locke's many •. • friends, so I read, think that r they can detect a resemblance/ but .if he were asked he would probably, shake his head and say lie did riot know, or that the point had not occurred to him. So authoritative an organ on tfyis-matter.as,the "Bodleian," which issues from *Mr. John Lane's publishing house; thinks that Hilary is" "a. whimsical, half-satirical, bit of self-portraiture'on the'part of the author of 'Jaffery.';" Well, if that! bo so, it merely adds to the interest of an entirely charming story. ' ' ■ , Belgian literature—and no country in Europe has, for its.! size, so rich arid original as the little-State , which now .'patiently 'awaits'its revenge • upon the ruthless Hun —is the subject of a volume entitled "Contemporary ( Belgian Literature," by Mr. Jetliro , Bithell, just published by Fisher Unwin. Mr. Bithell compiled those two excellent little collections, "Contenipor- , t ary French Verse," and "Contempor- .) ary Belgium Verse," which were, issued :i a .couple of 'years:; dr. so'.ago" ''irii'tlie ~ Bandy. '' little _ "Canterbury / Poets." | French poetry is: always difficult of , sue- :'| cssfttf -translation into English verse, 'j Out Mr. Bithell's versions of Verhaeren ] and other' Belgian poets . are astonish- •, ingly_ true to the spirit of the original. ] English readers, however, must always ] remember that the, keynote of Belgian j fiction and potry is ofton naturalistic { and "realistdc'. 5 to an extent which even '( Zola might have :envied. The novels c of Georges Eekhoud, Camille Lemon- t nier, and much of Verhaeren's : poetry \ are certainly not suitable' ", "jour' les • € jeunos personnel." ,' ' 1 ' . i

' A detailed I of the Phoenix Park conspiracy, - and '■ the steps by which,the ringleaders were ' brought .'to justice, is contained in the "Recollections''of an Irish K.C.," which ! Judgo John Adyce Curran has just' writ-. iten. ■ There are also chapters relating 1 to the] author's experience in the work 1 of .stamping out agrarian crime, and j sketches of leaders of the Irish bar. There is shortly to be,published the , story of an involuntary eye-witness of , the Battle of the Marne, told by Miss , Mildred Aldrich,; in a volume entitled ; "A Hilltop on the_ Marne." Miss Aidrich,. little suspecting the coming of the great war, leased and settled in an old house on the crest of a hill in the Marne Valley, some'3o .miles ' from Paris, in June 1914, and refused to ' budjge' when advised to return to the capital on the outbreak of hostilities two .months later. .In due course her hilltop became'the. centre of the. great turning movement. The final British artillery stand was made on the hill just behind her house, and the advance "of the" Uhlan* outpost-s'of the German ' 'army" was definitely turned back at her gates. - . Heinemanns are publishing an English edition ,of a new history of France, which has-been-planned in six volumes under the editorship of M. Funck-Bren-tano. Each volume will deal with a separate epoch,' M.- Louis , Battifol's ■ "The Century of the Renaissance'/being the first of tho series to . appear. Yet another, history of France, this "time of British authorship, is by Mothuen's in'three volumes, to'be published this month. The author is Mr. J. Bi. Moreton Macdonald, whose work covers the history of France from the earliest times to 1871. i Apropos to French history, I see that Stanley Paul and' Co. have just published two more volumes of tho translation of Saint Simon's famous "Memoires,"for which the late Mr. Francis Arkwright',' formerly a member, of the New: Zealand Legislative Council, and' once a' well known resident of the Rangitikei, was , responsible. ' The ivork, which will be completed' in' six volumes, four of which have now appeared, is far and a:way the best English translation of Saint, Simon's -work which has yet appeared. The fidelity of Mr. Arkwright'a translation and its graceful literary'style have been- warmly commended by English critics. "Joffre Chaps," by Pierre Mille, who has been styled the "French Kipling," is the title of an cighteenpenny book of sketches of military: fife, published by Mr. John Lane. My readers should not neglect TM. Mille's previous books, "Under the Tricolour" and "BarnaVaux," which describe the adventures, experiences, and amusing escapades of a 'Gallic Mulvaney. Barnavaux is .a character who will live. '* - Those of my readers who have boen interested in tho clever trilogy by Mr. E. Temple Thurston, in which tho life of a young, artist, Dick Furlong, is < traced from. boyhood upwards, may bo glad to know that tho three novols, entitled respectively "The Antagonists," i "Richard Furlong," and "The Achievement," are uoW being issued complete in one volume by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. (Prico 65.) ; , Mr. Thurston's new story, "Tho i Passionate Crime," just out in a cbl- i onial edition, is described as a "tale of ] faerios." A review will appear in these 1 columns very shortly. ' i Musical peoplo may be interested to | learn that a "Life of Samuel Coler- . idge Taylor." the brilliantly gifted- j composer- and conductor, has been writ- , ten by Mr. \V. C. Berwick Sayers, and t is published by Ca'ssells, at 7s. 6d. J (English price). j .Who was the author of the phrase: ' "Good Americans when tliey die go to f Paris" P Mr. Thomas Apploton, a bro- 1 ther-in-law of Longfellow. There was a "single-speech Hamilton,"' and wo may also now speak of a. "single-phraso Appleton." These points are brought s out in the collcction of Darwin letters I which Mr. John Murray has recently i published, and which, is a book to read.,, j