LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 252, 18 July 1919, Page 15

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

The Late Dean Beeching. The cablegram man, u-ho gives vs stjch' lengthy afid detailed descriptions. of prize rights, evidently considers that the death, of a man more or lcsa eminent in literature is not worth the recording. s From "The Periodical," the excellent x monthly-published", by tho Oxford Press,' I learn of the death if -.the Deuu of Norwich, the Very Itev. Henry Charles Beeching, at the comparatively early ego of SD. Beeching was an expert in Miltoniana, editing several editions of Milton's works for tho Oxford Press., He also wrote much on Shakespeare,' but the books I shall always remember.-' him by [neither of which, curiously enough, is mentioned in the "Periodical" obituary, notice) aro "Pages Prom a Private Diary" and "Provincial Letters." Tho first-named . hns lung been a. favourite "dimrinir book" of mine. Written in diary form, it i:> a gossipy record of life in a quiet English village, with many slyly humorous touches on contemporary literaturb, art, education, and social customs. It originally appeared in the pages of tho "Comhill Magazine." "The Provincial Letters" is scarcely so notablo a production, being composed, ■. in the main, of sketches of various English .cathedral and famous provincial centres, but it is well worth reading. William De Morgan's Novels, . s | Mrs. William De Morgan was able, ! before «lier death, to complcto N both the novels which her late husband had left j unfinished. One of them, "The Old Mad- 1 house," lacked only a chapter; the other, j "Tho Old .Man's i r outh and Iho Young i Jlan's Old Age," lacked a more con- ! sidorable portion, but notes for both.of them were, so the publisher tells us, ample. "Tho Old Madhouse" .is to be published immediately; the other story >s to bo hold over until uext.year. Pei\ sonully, I found Jtr. De Morgan's later ctorios just 'i - trifle dull, but !'Josoph Vance," ,"Alice-r'or-Short," and "Soniohow Good" a.l well deserve to live, as does tho best work of .Dickens and Thackeray. ' Why these, novels of De Morgan's should, in their colonial editions, have been published . in such a hideous binding, I could - never understand. Wi«e booklovers, who can afford

it, will have, these books rebound. They are well worth it. The Kaiser on Britain's Little Wars. | There.are some good things in Colonel Repington's book of reminiscences, "Vestigia," recently published by ■ Constables.* It was Repiugton, it appears, who wrote to the "Times" revealing the fact that the Kaiser had attempted to influence British naval policy, by a letter, to Lord Tweedmouth, then First Lord of the Admiralty, a disclosure which, by the way, brought about Tweedmouth's retirement. The letter is quoted in Colonel Reping. ton's book, as also • are' somo personal letters which ths Kaiser wrote at a much.earlier date to the author's uncle, Sir Edward Sullivan. 1 .As showing the intimate interest the Chief Assassin (of IHH-1918) was taking, even as far back as' 1898. in Britain's foreign affairs, I may quote, the, following extract from .one of his letters to Sir. Edward Sullivan:'— ' The .political outlook is on' the whole not bad; only your "Brummagem Joo" seems to take, up little wars by the dozen, .and I venturo to think that Britannia, has quite enough on her hands with the utterly useless Alridi War, which has not the effect, anticipated, and a new expedition' to the Sudan, where she may suddenly meat, beside the Mahdi,' Monelik of Abyssinia "connaissance" and. France lor ought I know. Perhaps' that your Press then suddenly will find out that after all the German Emperor is. worth while thinking of? Quien sabe? "This Tagore Tosh," ■ At the risk of being'considered fi.ea.dly "uncultured" person, I must, confess that I have never been able .to enthuse oyer the writings of. the Indian alleged genius Sir Ix'abindranath Tagore, ;nd I.have a 'shrewd suspicion that many people who gush about, this ''mystical" literature don'i read itj oij if they do, don't understand what it is' all'about. .1 am delighted to notice that at least one American critic frankly, avows himself a Philistine, so far as'regards "this Tagore Tosh." Of the latest volume ■ of• verse, "Lover's. Gift 1 and Grossing,'.' he,says:— . "The love.it sings. or. rather breathes is rioither. healthily sensuous nor healthily spiritual: It might .'.have satisfied:' John Donne, who wanted 'to talk with some old lover's ghost, ' who r died' before the god of love was born.' .The. rhymeluss and metroless but not rhythriiless lines have the leusth. the. sleiiderness. the hollow--ness, and the dusky varnish of reeds, and, like reeds, their property is to' whispor. There are orcttincsses which a world'overstocked with prettinesa need not bestir •itself to welcome, and' florid and, garish thing* as offensive-as a women's gaudy cloak in a'chambcr lighted only, by a shaft of' moonshine." In Praise of France. ' ■ Since George, Meredith's, splendid tribute to France nothing finer, haa surely heon penned in testimony to the indomitable spirit of France,than some lince .which appear in a. new volume of ver*o bv an English writer, ■ John Presland: |'a country that can think, and, thinking, ■ ' aotsi' ■.••.■•■'■■' A country that can - act, and, actine, i ■■ . dreams; That neither bears the tyranny of facts, .Nor of'-iU own dear hope's, nor of what , ■ seems, :.■.■.••■■■ But still, clear-visioned, treats with things 'that:are; ' . ■ Ye'tr-see'r,- prophet, priest of life-to-be--litsapa to the visionary days afar. •'. ■'And all the'splondourelio will'never mo. Helen's 'Babiet. , •■'/' -I wonder how many-readers' of- the present generation know a book which, in, Liber's youth, was,regarded as a sure .and certain:.guide to family • mirth .and mei'riment'as'it'was read aloud on"a' long winter's, evening.'■ This -U'■.; "Helen's. Babies,'.' wherein arssut forth the email worrics-and woes- whwh come to n! young bachelor who temporarily ■ takes charge of a couple,of delightfullv-mjs-chievoris young ' imps: 'In "Helen's Babies." of w;hich, so L notice, an siiiireiy risw hnd: reviisd ' edition has just beon t>ublishod, it the genesis of dpzoru of hitcrdav stories dealing with juvonilo misciuef.'

Stray Leaves. ■'-,-. ' Apparently, judging by revietfs of George-Bernard ShaVs "Peace Cbnference Hints," G.B.S. has been wrongly assumed'to.be a'pacifist. Even the "Daily Mail" has.a good word to 6ay for the book, the English of which, by the way, is.compared by one enthusiastic admirer In "that of- "Gulliver's iTravels,' or' Bunyan," being "as rare-and dynamio and as straight as' a ray of light," etc., etc. After' this- ~P really think I must spend oiehteenoence on- G;B:S.'s-latest effusion, l.am glad, at least, to. know that-he seems to havo abandoned his old trick of the "eternal sneer';" ' The 'Talbot Press, Dublin, of whioh Fi,sher Unwin is the London publisher,announces a new and uniform edition of the stories of Standish O'Grady, with an introduction by "JB". (Mr.. G. E.. W.' Russell), the famous Irish poet, artist, and social economist. , •More ■ posthumous work of Mark Twain's! Under the title "What Is Man? And Other Essays," ,-Chatto and Windus announce' a" collection of stray articles and essays' by the' great American humourist, hitherto unpublished in book form. One of the essays is entitled "Ig Shakespeare' Dead?" The late Mr. Clemens was,, I may -add, an ardent Baconian. In the long dialogue which gives its title to the book the author expounds his •' uncompromisingly scientifio doctrine of man's relations to his forbears and to his environment. In other and lighter contributions he is once again the familiar humourist. fMacmjlians : announce- a new and vniform edition of Mr. Hugh Walpole's novels,.to begin this.month with "The Wooden Horse" and "Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill." The edition is to be completed at 'the rate of two volumes- a Month, the next four in the series being The' Prelude .to' Adventure," "FortiI tude,". "Maradick ,at' Forty," and "The Duchess of Wrexo." It may not;' ; be generally known that' the novelist is a. Now Zealandor by birth.' "He was born at Auckland in 1884, his father, now HBishop of Edinburgh, Toeing" ihcunibont of St. Mary's - Pro-Cathedral, Auokland, and Warden of St. .John's College. His first novel, "The Wooden HoraeJ' in which there are-several'; references to New Zealand, was published in 1909. In a volume of economic studies on somo South Indian villages written by native students .of -.the University. of Madras—the book is about to be'publiehed—there is a good deal of.'intcr.ost incidentally., The Oddars.'for instance, are described as aTelugu-speaking.casto 'of navvies and earth-workers who have.relatively good physique, eat' meat, are very fond of toddy, andAallow polygamy and free divorce. Women;are only wstricted from . changing husbands after having had'eighteen,- but, such is tlio handicap, of sex, this, .limit does},nqt ap-. ply to men. . , ... Lord Ernest- Hamilton has written an important' historical,study, "Elizabethan Ulster," in which' extensive use lias been made of State papers "and'other conteiudocuments. The author claims that he has allowed ' the makers of Elizabethan Ulster and other-actors in the .drauia to speak, as far as-possible for themeelve*. It will bo ink-resting' to compare the'bock with the works of Froudo and other historians who have dealt- with the same period and subject. Hodder and Stcughtoh ..-, promise , the early publication of "Sapper's" .first novel, ontitled "Mufti;" "Sapper" is Major Cyril M'Nciie, Herbert .Trench, tile English poet, has followed the lead given by . Thomas Hardy in' his famous ■ drama,. "The Dynasts," and has written a Napoleonic play iii four acts, and, eight Hi-eile?. The action of the play, which is simply entitled "Napoleon," takes' placo ih the' neighbourhood of Dover and in Boulogne, the chief incident'being founded on the story (i|liite mythical li.v the 'v'ay)/of Bonapai'te's secret' excursion across , the Channel, in.- order .to rcoonnoito in the county of Kent. -." i

I have been somewhat amused by an announcement, in a well-known English publisher's list of forthcoming books, of an entirely new work on the "land question." in which,, so the publisher ingenuously states, "all the problems connected with tho subject are explained." All the problems connected with the land question! A whole library of books would not suffice, I am afraid, for such 1 a purpose. The title of Harold Begbie's new story, advertised by the. publisher as "a great, new novel," is "Mr. Sterling Sticks It Out." Shades of "Mr. Britling" and that gentleman's "seeing it through"! It looks very -much as if Mr. Begbie were trading on the popularity of the Wells book. E. W. Hornung, the ex-Australian, who invented that ingenious and amusing .character, the gentleman cricketer'burglar, ''Raffles," did good service during tho war with the Y.M.C.A. Ho has written an account of his experiences, "Notes of'a Cnmp Follower on fho Western Front." Mr. Hornung, it may not be generally known, is a brother-in-law of Mr. Eudyard Kipling. Arnold Bennett's new play, "Judith, founded on the story of Judith and Holofernes. achieved a success d'estime, and not much else, when produced recently] in London. A. feature of the production | was some wonderful.scenery designed by | Mr. C. Ricketts, formerly well known as a designer of artistic founts of type. Ho collaborated,, it may be remembered, with Mr. Hakon in the Vale Press publications, and was one of the founders, of that 6hort-liyed but .beautifully produced periodical "The Dial," sets of'which now bring almost their weight in gold. SOME RECENT FICTION "A Naval Adventuress." The spy story shows no sign of .decreasing in popularity, that is,,if the continual .outpouring, of this -particular class of fiction is justified by public favour, and it-is .safe to .assume that tho supply is the result of demand, Mr. Paul Trent is a skilled compounder of sensational, fiction, and in one or two of his earlier novels exhibited a marked capacity, for. the invention of strongly dramatic- situations and for powerful characterisation. In'-his latest story, "A. Naval Adventuress!' (Ward,- Lock and Co.l', Mr.- Trent scarcely maintains the high standard of - such ; stories as "The Foundling"-and . "Stephen Vale, but it, is a.readablo enough yam in its way.. The heroine is .a young, lhdy; ofWest Country- origin, -who.joins the British'.secret. service,, and is instrumental in exposing a widespread. German plot for conveying ■ important intelligence to the: Hun submarino commanders. She is in love' with and is loved by a young naval officer, also temporarily etriployed In seoret service work. The young lovers go'.through,some very sensational adventures in the Course : of their work, but - are successful in .thwarting the .evil plans of a-pair of German spies, one of whom, who .poses as an American, has a fine residence on tho coast of Cornwall, whence he supplies petrol to the German submarines; the.other, a young lady of mixed German and British extraction,' Who lives with ,the' heroine in the capacity of a'companion, and who is the ma.lo German's accomplice. The story contains some highly, • dramatic incidents, and makes ■ good , reading for a few spare hours. But Mr. Trent is too good a writer to waste his ingenuity on tho concoction of spy storios. He should leave,this,sort of fiction to Mr. WiUiam Lo Queux.