SIR HALL CAINE'S GREAT WORK ALMOST READY.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 664, 17 October 1933, Page 2

SIR HALL CAINE'S GREAT WORK ALMOST READY.

FORTY YEARS' TASK. The News-Chronicle says that the I task of editing the "Life of Christ," j written iby the late Sir Hall Caine, has at last been completed, and that the work is being prepared for early publication. It is estimated that the manuscript contained more than 3,000,00 words — as. much matter as 00 modern j novels. The author's sons, Mr. Ralph i Hall Gaine, M.P., and Sif Derwent Hall Caine, placed ,it in the h'ands of an expert, who has succeeded in reducing it to 600,000 words, without damage to its character or compreh'ensiveness. Sir D.erwent Hall Caine told the News-Chronicle that the work will not ' be a mere .abridgment of the original manuscript on which his father worked for more than 30 years. Sir Hall Caine,- h'e added, rewrote parts of the hook as many as 20 times. "On the subject of the Life of ~ Christ he had read a great number of hooks and writings. He had. portions ' of foreiign hooks and writing specially translated into English. The expert who has prepared the MS. estimates that my father must have read part or the whole of at least 1000 dif- ' ferent books, pamphlets, writings, and articles in preparing this work. "It is not. simply the Bible paraphrased. Parts of it will probably 'cause a sensation by its outspoken- ' ness."