LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 38, 8 November 1919, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

To Correspondents,

A correspondent, writing from Kimbolton, I gently upbraids me lor attributing to Mr. Compion MacKcnzio soino of Mr. Hugh Walpolo's stories. As a matter of fact, tho error was duo to the careless numbering of two slips of manuscript and' not to any confusion of authors and titles on liy part. I have on frequent occasions written :ibout Mr. Walpolo's fine work as a novelist, and made, special mention of the novels which in the recent paragraph were accredited to tho author of "Carnival and "Sinister Street." Another correspondent wants to know if the Arabic Biographical Dictionary, so amusingly referred to in "A Boswell of Bagdad."' by Mr. E. V. Lucas, is procurable and at what price. It was published by the Oriental Translations Society of London and Paris in tour big volumes. It is, I believe, out of print. A copy was offered recently by Quantcu at eight guineas.

Stray Leaves. It is now quite a long time since Mr. Jerome K. Jerome, whoso first book, "Three Men in a Boat," still- sells well, fo tho booksellers tell mo. g»ve us a full-longth novel. Hutchinsons now announce a novel by Mr. Jerome, entitled "All Roads Lend to CalvaTy.' By the way, thoso of my readers who may not have read Jerome's long story, laul reiver" published now some years ago, might do worso than look it up. It has "distinctly Dickensy flavour, and is far better worth rending than n™ many latter-day novels which havo attained a cortain popularity. j„, a „h,_ Yet another volume-tho eleventhhas been added to Mrs Garnott's series of translations of Dostoevsky« tow Russian stories. "An Honest Ibicfand Other Stories" is the title. Another, volume of Tchekoy's short stones, to the excellence of which "Liber , las frequently testified, has also been lsoued. Tor many yeaV I have made a point of rending Mr/Edmund Gome's hterory oWw-"Crltical KitkatV' "Gossip in a Library," "Seventeenth Century Studied and "Portraits and Sketch*," «e some titles T now recall-and linvo always found them both usefully inform* So to a student of literature, nn« very agreeable reading. Mr. Gof .who; recentlr colobrated Ins «* mtae * *»»£ day is still aotive in literary pursuits. A new book of essays, T™ 0 ,? 1 ™" 101 !" of a Man of Inters," from his pen, is being published this autumn. _ A new long poem, "Tteynnrd the lox, a hunting poem,", by John MoseneM, is to Ire published very shortly by Heinemann. who also announces three specinllv promising new books, one a volume of essays and sketches, "Seven Men, by Max Beerbohm, who writes nss cleverly as he draws; a collection of ten essays on 'The Elizabethan Drama," by Arthur Svmons; and a new long novel; llio Saint's Progress," by John Galsworthy. The first volume of tho British officinl "History of the War," prepared under the direction of the historical se.chon of tho Committee of Imperial Defence, is due very shortly. It will oeal With Hie military operations from August to De-

cember 19M, in tho Western theatre, "Mons to tho Aisno and tho Battle of l'm'te." The editor is the Hon. J. W. Uortcocue. whoso "History of tho British Army" has, by the way, recently been brought up to tho end of the campaign of Waterloo. Many New Zcalandcrs may recall tho fact that Mr. Fortescue spent somo time in this country as privuto" secretary to Sir William JorAnew English publishing firm, Philip Allan and Co.r has commenced business. Its first publication, a novel, "The Barber of Putney," by J.'H. Morton, is, I notice, well reviewed in the "limes Literary Supplement. And when, the T.L.S. says a book is worth reading it generally is. Would that all English reviews were equally dependable. "Cuckoo," in "John O'Londone Weekly " teUs the following amusing story of. Oscar Wilde. A friend remarked to Wildo that ho looked tired, whereupon Oscar explained that ho had 'been working hard all day." '"How much havo you'done?" was the friends inquiry. "Well in tho morning," said Oscar, with perfect gravity, "I put in a comma •Hnd in tho afternoon?" "In tho alter--noon I took it out again.' Thoso New Zealandcrs who hail from tho most northerly of English counties may lie interested to learn that ft now volume of the excellent "Highways and Byways" scries has just appeared under the title "Highways and Byways in Northumbria." Tho author is a Mr. Anderson Graham, and the illustrations are by that cleverest of later-day English black and white artists, Mr. Hugh Thom"rhoso who have enjoyed those extraordinarily ingenious "detective stones by Pierre Souvestro and Marcel Allam, in which the mysterious super-criminal, Fantonias is tho chief figure-always but ever unsuccessfully hunted by the detective, Juvo, and his myrmidons ot the French police, will bo interested to know that tho authors have now taken lantomas to Berlin. The new book (published by Stanley, Paul and Co.) is entitled "The Yellow Document, or totomns in Berlin." Tho same publishing : houeo announces a new long novel, men Other- Eyes," by that clever and popu-1 lnr writer, Norma Lorimer. A forthcoming book of no small interest to music lovers is the Life of Liza Lohmann," by herself, which Mr. feher TJnwin is shortly to publish. Madame Lehmnnn's book will include reminiscences' of Jenny Lvnd, Verdi, Bvahm, Gounod, and a host of other bygone, celebrities in the world of music. Shakespearian studonte, moro particularly thoso of Irish descent or extraction, should bo interested in Sir Dunbar Plunkett Barton's book, "Links Between Ireland and Shakespeare" The author claims that "King.Lear" "lias Celtic blood flowing through its veins, discoursing learnedly upon the resemblance between tho tragedy and the Celtic legend of tho "Children of Kiug Lir.' r Sir Dunbar reminds us of the rich MileUinn allusiveness of "As You Like It, with its references to the Irish rnt and tho howling ; of Irish wolves, and gives some mterest- ! iug information as to tho Irish descent , of Macbeth, his wife, and King Duncan, all of whom were Scottish Gaels of Irish origin, sprung from Ere, a chieftain who : led a colony from Ulster to tho eoiith- ' west of Scotland in the beginning of the, i sixth century. The book, is described by : "Tho Times" as a solid and scholarly . contribution to Shakespearean study.