LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 281, 23 August 1919, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Companionable Characters in Fiction,

Mr. James 'Miilno, of "Tho Book Monthly," recently put a somewhat fantastic, question to a. number of. well-kuoun writers, whose answers furnished the astute "copy" hunter with material tor an unusually iiite«uting article. '1 ho tiuestiou was, "Which characters in h.ciion would, vou most like to meet in (leah, were tltis possible?" Mr. 11. V. Lucas naiiies I'ai.-iialV, who, by the way, is al.so favoured by llugh AValpole, W. h. Courtney, and W. J. Ixicke, and would ailso like to meet Mr. M.ieawber and Mr. Toots, "ehielly to shako his hand," lie says of the latter. Mr. "Tay Pay" O'Connor votes for FieldAmelia ami (leorge Eliot's Maggie Tnlliver. Is there no Hibernian maid in "Tay Pay's" mind? Mr. Arnold Bennett's selection does not appeal to "Liber" ve.r.v much, for t.lie author of "Clayiianger" (and "The I'reily Lady 1 tells us he "would not .mind seoin? Aiyosha in "The Brothers ICnramazov (that brilliant but woefully pessimistic novel of Dostoievsky's) and Conrad s Lord Jim. Personally, I should choose more cheerful company, say one or two of Mr. W. W. Jacobs's wharfside philosophers, Daudefs Tartarin, that genial Bohemian Fred Baylian ("F.8., sir, is manly ) in Thackeray's "PciHlennis," to sny noiJiin? of Mrs. Gamp and Rnin Wei lor and Mr. Wommick (with his passion for "portable property") in "Gre;ii Expeclations," and a whole host: of other Dickensian characters. But to return to Mr. Milne's list. I 'find Mr. De Vere Stacpoole (of "Blue Lagoon" fame) voting for A.raniis in t;Uc "Three Musketeers' (personally, I would vote for Porthos!), the Wliito Queen (Lewis Carrol's), Bompard in Daudet's "Tartarin," the Marquis de Lanteuao (in Victor Hugo's "Ninetythree"), and Mr. Micawber. That fine literary critic, Mr. W. L. Courtney, tells us ho would like to meet Esmond and to "ask him how he came to marry a woman old enough to be his mother. (Is it, I mav here ask, too great a flight of fancy to imagine Esmond replying, "Sir, you should meet Lady Cnstlewood.") Stephen M'Kenna, who gave us class of company, book-lovers whose "Midas and Son" is being so widely read, wants to meet, that legendary dame, "Mrs. 'Arris," and "have, ft few mom'ents' confidential conversation with her about the personal qualities rf her friend, Sirs. Gamp. Also, lie would fnin "summon ono more of the .mighty shades" in the person of Betsy Prig. Mr. W. J. Locke wants to meet Mr. Pickwick and FalstafV and Hon Quixote, to "enjoy a passage-at-arms with Beatrice, niece of one Leonato," and "to dron in for tea with dear Miss Matty of 'Cranford.'" Harold Begbie's list, is a strange mixture, for it includes. .Anatole France's dear old 'bibliophile, S.vlvestre Bonnard, .lane Eyre, and Becky Sharp! John Inglesant and Mr. Peggotty, Balzac's curio hunter, Cousin Pons, «nd Tolstoi's Anna ICarenina. "Of course,' adds Mr. Begbie, "IheTo must be hundreds more." I will not (|uote further from Sir. Milne's interesting symposium, which he entitles "Our Fr;encls in Books," but it suggests a very pleasant way of passing a long winter's evening, if uiily you could get together the right class of company, book lovers whose tastes are fairly catholic—and whose memories of what they havo read and liked do not fail tlicm.

Is Mark Twain Still Read? Mr. Albert Bigelow Pains,' who was Marl: Twain's private secretary, and who acts as iiis literary executor, recently got up and protested against the insinuation that latter-day America had "gone sour" on Mark Twain, refused to sec where his humoi,'' came in, and, worse slili, refrained from buying his books. Mr. Peine simpiv points out that "in tho year' 1918 —ihe last for which tho royalty statement has breii made up—the aggregate sale of -Mark Twain's hooks in the United Slates ;ilone was SSS.fKi? volumes, and there was no one of his-' books which did not t.eli more than 20,000 copies." As a matli.r of fact, the royally paid to his eslale last year wns. says Mr. Paine, actually largor than Mark himself ever received in ony ono year. Personally, "Liber" would ;>« soon bo without, a copy of "Huckleberry l'iun," '"!'i:e rnnoi"*nts at Home," "Lil'o on the Mississippi," and—in n

{ Ut.iilv .iift'ort-ni; !!r:iri'--".lo!i'< nf .Arc" as —well, never mind what well established I favourite in literature. 1 do wish, j however, ' lin( Clint to and Windns, who I publish the HnftlHi editions of Murk ! Twain, would produce a decently-printed new edition of some of the best of Mr. (.'imui'ii-i's i-n'.l.s. They keep 011 printing from tilio old worn-out sterens ot thirty years ago, and u<in<; "illustrations" (save the mark!) which are but ghastly caricature; of the originals, and goodness only knows they were had enough. I wont to buy a "Tom Sawyer" .ho other day for u birthday gift. The

edition offered me was "just out fronr London," but it wns printed from Hib Kiuno old stereos of thirty yoiirs :i!;o and in places was almost unreadable. When shall we have a new, decently printed edition of Mark Twain at a reiusonablo price? Echo answers "'When"? Dickens and Macready, In his book "The Dickens Circle: A Narrative of the Novelist's Friendships," Mr. J. W. T. Ley, former edit-n' of "The Dickensian," gives some iuioicstinjj particulars of the great friendship between "Boz" and the famoiLS actor, Macready. It was to Macready that Dickons dedicated liis third novel, "Nicholas Nickleby," and lie was very anxions that the £reat actor should appear in a dramatisation of "Oliver Twist." Mr. Ley. ileetiribw Macready "sitting sobbing on a sofa as Dickens read to him lrom the manuscript of 'The Chimes,'" alter a fniinoais dinner party, given by tho faithful John Foster as his house "in Lincoln's Irni Fields. -Macready was equally responsive, Mj'. Ley tells us, to "David Copperliehl." The friendship of the novelist and the actor became closer and closer in Macready's declining years. In one of the stray papers in "Household Words" Kate Macready, the daughter, is mentioned, while Kate Dickens (still living as .Mrs.' C. 11. l'erugini), whose tjrst husband was Charles Alston Collins, brother of Wilkie Collins, the novelist, bears Macready as a middle name. A Prayer and a Prophecy. There is ono American author at least who,-many years ago, foresaw the AngloAmerican entente of to-duy. This is >|r. Winston Churchill, who has given \is that long series of excoUent novels which began with "Kicbard Carvel." In that book thcro appeared the following remarkable passage, a prayer uttered by the narraMr <jf the story: "The war for independence was won. I pray God that time may soften the bitterness it caused and Ileal the breach in that no'ble race whose motto is 'Freedom'; that the Stars and Stripes and the. Union .lack may some day float together to aeansd this world of' tyranny" Eichard Carvel's prayer wns answered in 1918. To-da.y all who love peace, and would fain liavo it permanently preserved, must pray with equal devoutness that (he combined British and American flags will ever remain joint emblems of an international, deeplvs?ntvd refo ntion that never again shall the ivorlil be cursed with that kind of "tyranny" from which Britain and America and their riMies "cleansed" it, as we all sincerely trust, thoroughly and onee and for all, last year. Some More Pepys Gossip. One cannot have too much Pepys, and it is therefore interesting to know thai 1111 important collection of documents, written like tihe famous "Diary," in cypher, luis recently been transcribed by I'rofessor Cailendar, who assisted the late Mr. Henry ti. Wheatley in his famous unexpurgated edition of tho "Diary." Several of the papers relate to the birth of the Old Pretender, whom the Whigs used to declare was not the child of ,'lames It and Alary of Modena at all, but a strange infant carried into the royal bedchamber in a warming-pan! A statement in Pepys's handwriting, apparently made by one Mnrgaret Dawson, who attended Mary of Modena in her illness in IGSB, makes the solemn assertion that "1 did also see tire in the famous warmingpan, so muoh talked on, and I did feel the heat of it." Stray Leaves. Thsre is probably no English publishing house which issues a greater variety of good and notable books than does the firm of Hodder and Stoughlon. Tho enormous expansion of the (inn's business of recent years is, so it is geuoralK understood in the book trade, to have feen duo to the wonderful energy anu flair for'probable successes of Mr. J. 1'!. Hodder Williams, the managing director. Mr. Williams recently received a knighthood. It is interesting to nolo the, fact, that he is a nephew of tho late Sir Ueorge Williams, founder of the Y.M.C.A. There are now three Knights amongst the great ICnglish publishers—Sir Frederick Maemillan, of tho famous house of Maemillan and Co.; Sir Algernon Mothuen, of Messrs. Methuen and Co., and Sir J. E. Hodder Williams.

I urn glad to seo that Mr. .Tames Milne, in his entertaining magazine, "The Book Monthly," advocate? tho republication of Henry Holland's stories. Harlaud wau a. clever American who was the first editor of "The Yellow liuok," for which,

by the"way, he wrote some v'ery'clelightfill short stories, mainly.of life in tho Quarticr Latin. Two of his longer stories, "Tho Cardinal's Snufi'-llqx" and "Grey Itaes" wore very charming. A cheap (if ever wo are to have cheap books again) uniform edition of norland's stories ought to be a good "spoc" for Eomo enterprising publisher.

English reviews warmly praise George Saintebury's latest work, "Tho History of tho IVcncli Novel." It is understood to bo the veteran's last big work in literary criticism. Saintsbury was for somo years tho Grand Old Man. of Literary Criticism at Edinburgh University. The ready if at times rather acidulous wit for which lie was 60 famous at Edinburgh was exemplified, recently when he narrowly escaped with his life from a motor-ca.r accident. 'As ho explained the matter to tho London "Morning Post," the motor caught his lefj'S from under him, and he was carried along, sprawling oil the bonnet and objurgating tho chauffeur. When tho car finally stopped, tho man said very calmly: "Yon ought to thank God, sir," whereupon the Professor replied: "So I do; but I damn you!" ' Amongst more or less popular novels which have recently been adapted to kincma dramatic purposes are "Stella Maris," "Tho Passing of the Third Floor Back," "The Naulahka,"' that remarkable Indian story which Kipling wrote ill collaboration with his brother-in-law, Wool colt Meatier, and such ''ancients" as "Adam Bede" and "Les Miserable?." The title of Hugo's famous story would scarcely, I am .'jfraid, prove very attractive on a kinema poster.