LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 209, 29 May 1920, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

The latest-number to hand of that excellent publication, "The Bound Table," contains a number of articles of exceptional interest to all students of various international problems. Detailednotice • next week;.. .; " - Can any reader of this column asaist a correspondent (J.S.H.) in/ ascertaining where tho following:'lines occur?:— ' How went tho day for 1 Enelwndrwell or I. died! before X knew. . But well or ill, I died for England, : too.

"The Kescue,". Conrad's' :t©"W- novel, supplies of wkoh ought to 1» out . here In a month or so/iia described ag "tha story of a disinterested Tlio scene is laid in the Eastern Archipelago, the background, it may be remembered, of Conrad's _ first story, "Almaver's .Folly;" imd of his "Outcast, oflh'e Islands," and in muoh later i*je, that story,.

R-f" OT . , "liber" quoted Uazlitt s \saying, When a new book. comes out read an old one.V I am. again •rctwndod'ofthisadvico when I seo ,in .9 0 ' cmn n" an announcement by -Hodder- and Stoughto'n of a. collected of the novels of Mr. Archibald Marshall, which are to be re.-! -.published at-- half-a-crown each (about' <<t >i -»''7 ?r ®) ; At this' modes.t; ■;price' •liiber . feels greatly, tempted to renew ,*is .acquaintance with 'such excellent' stones as 'The Honour, of the Clinions, : "The. House-of. Mfirrilees," "Exton Manor" (the best of all), and "Petor Brnney,' Undergraduate.]' Marshall has been- called'a- latter-day Anthony .Trollope, but his stories liayo hone—or few— jjJ. 'which too often; interrupted-_the flow of Trollopc's narrative; He writes,'as a rule, of English: county-society and ita ways. His stories are; it . is, true, generally about i quite; ordinary people, and the style may be' a trifle over-leisurely. for renders who •prefer: avnbvel to be of 'the "rattle"' and rush" kind.-;; But thfty . are '.essentially -wholesome,-'pleasant; stories, written, ingood English,'aw] 1 for one (an answer for their being delightfully'.readable'.- .My country ...readers' ,in search of good whole-', sonic ;English Motion .at ' a reasonable ■price,; might,"do ■ worse than' oidr.r a set of Archibald MarsMlV novels.

That tnrribly patlsetic story,; "The, Chink and tho-Child," which was one 1 of a serios df yarns of London Chinatown and its. horrors • which ' jappsijrsd" in. Tiiiomiw 1 Burke's, 'book,;; "Liniehouse .Nights," :Ims .been -filmed binder the title '"Broken Blossoms.',' The kinema.version Of, Mr. Burke's powerful. and poignant study of East,'; End • brutality is : having, I see, a big run 'at the London Allmmhra. once .the, homo of: ;■ comic : .;opnra ("Liber" ca'n remember \ seeing: : "The; iPrincess of. •. Trebizonde" tlie<re), and, later on, lone of the most popular of London muaic halls. ■ .Ffc'r a pood description, of - the .old-tinjo Albambra and -its famous - pallets,- consul}; pomnton' Mac-; ■kenzie's 'fine* story,; "Carnival.'.' Now, apparently, it has gone tHe.'wajCof .'so-, many. London theatres fand has succumbed to the kinemh. invasion. ■ ■ ; The . April;, ."Bookman" , (TTodder' and : Stoughton); is.in' special spring. number, and contains a:long sfrics of'slidrt reviews, of. and informative notes on the principal new books of the spring, publishing. season. . ; -The Herbert Spencer -Centenary is celebrated by two excellent articles 'on the famous philosopher' and sociologist,... by. Professor ; J..Arthur Thomson and, James Cfliphant.j: Katherine; Tyntin ; -writes, an appreciation of - the 'fine services-,'to English literature' of the late A.- H. -jnllen, and Dr.. Jamed . Mof- . fatt has ail excellent article on' General Booth's biography and, the .work of the Salvation : Army., - The . illustration's aro even !more, than usually numerous and .interesting.': "■'■•'■■ '• i':v"' f Miss Ellen Thorne.yc'roft Fowler, who for some-.jtime; seamed to have'/.relinquished novel-writing, has a ; new.-story coming out --with Constables, bearing - the curious ;title'"Beauty'and Bands;— - ; The ; same'.publishers' Announce . a rieiy.'jstory hv: the popular; American/novelist, ' -Miss •Mary .Johnston'. It is a. story of modern social life'.in. the Sou'ther'n s ,States.. It > .is a'far: crv back' to the days when '-Miss Johnston' made her first success with that 'fine, 1 story; /'The Old Dominion," ■ bnt she' still writes as well as ever. '.

Other novels announced for early, pubdicationl,include' "The. Breathless-'.Alom- •' -'ent; :! '. ; by'Murlel-Hine (author'of."Earth" a.r.d "April Panhasard"), to Iks published -. : by'John''Lane;; and "Good Conduct," by. ; [that, [amusing Irish writer .who U6es. the ' jnom' de : plume[of "George. Birmingham" . via the publisher)..-Mr;, Grant- ■ ,/I{icKai;dsi:;;,Who ,iappily V,co'mlane3'::\t;he . jbles W aiiifiori and.: ptißlisher, ; iiriiioiirices -Si new, sfcbry. from" liis own : pen,' entitled ''Dou'ble Life."-, If it be as (rood as:' Mr. .-.Bichards!s., "Caviare," in . which ,'.'such' a . -vliyely/pictutisi-is given ; :of Monte ;Caflo,. itshould'ite well'worth reading.. ' ' -■■■ Those..tfho fenjoyed "SOlomon'.Eagle's" . .fllr.' .T, .C. i Squire). book of .'-literacy/-'fes'-.sav9,''"Books'.in General,';' reprinted from -i("The-.:New- 'Statesman," should- 'note - the • '■appearance-of ■: a second-; series .of ,these . admirable'articles.; Mr; Squire hits 're-' lin'qijdshed['his connection with ""The Statesman,'.'the "Books.iii General" signed "Affable ; HaWk.'' ktest, nOvel,-'''Uncle Lionel,•'■•lias- iust 'reacHe'd [, the .Wellington, :booksh'ops,';'inust.. f)e a. busy man, for in -'addition, to being,[Professor; of English at thejE'.AllT. College;- CranweU, .'.-he is Examiner ■in 'English =: to ;: the University ,of 'LoiiSfin, .to the- v Civil • Service Commissioners, . and' to the .Scottish Education Board. lie took .av : 'dbUbli>;.Blue at, Oxford, and was-nn :hdnp.uisvnjan ;• in ' mathematica and Eijglish'.; In addition to his,novels,-'he.-ihas 'written-' two!, excellent books', of '.literary r «lticisnii' "Prbni'' Shakespeare - to';,' '0.Henry?.':"and- "Books and Their .Wiiteri" -i./AiiOut I 'four .years ago practically', every English second-hand bookseller i wta \adyertising ,6f: "The Yellow Book." in lS ' the •,low/price of ' two .guineas,:. ;n'nd l '."Liber" well; .-ieniembers: of 'His .readers' .who Ir.iver^inriterested' 1 in" the literary- mov'e-. ' ment of the eighteen-nineties to, buy'- a set. Nowadays,, so'l'notice; seta of "The Yellow Book" arc advertised at from dC4 "to ;£6 lfls.; The first four volumes, containing the'; Aubrey Beardslcy. 'drawings. are .specially, sought after by /art - collectors. Moßt -of .. .the-, articles ■ worth preserving ; have been reprinted, but: a dean -set^of what—in the ■ last century^; was considered such ' a publication, .is-still, a desirable possession/ ' ■

' .'At ; a recent salo of autograph letters, held at Sotheby's, ."a letter' of Byron's; addressed- to the Archbishop of Canterbury and/asking for a.: special ■ license - for tlie.'poetV. marriage! brought, £18.. Amongst, tho. literary."documents - offeredl for : Salo.:were; early drafts, by Tenriysonv^of. his? '"ldylls of the King,"-which realised; .0260.. • .

Recent' Home papers record, the death of' Miss Mathers (Mrs. Henry Reeves), who, in the Victorian 'seventies, made quite, a notable bit with, two very sprightly novels,-"Cherry Ripe" anil "Comih' Thro' the' Rye," Mrs. Grundy of the period; was none too sure as to these stories/being "quite proper," but thero .was really no harm in'them.. Miss Mathers (hei 1 husband, Mr ; . Reeves, was a medical man, and predeceased ■ her by some year;?) was, in her own . way, a rival to Miss. Rhoda Broughton, whose "Cometh Tip like a Flower" and. 'Tied as a Rosa- Was She." fyid a tremendous vogue when ."Liber" .'was a boy. Both , writers had, a gift for clever dialokuo.