LITERARY AND THEATRICAL. {From Our Special Correspondent.) London, November.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 237, 14 January 1888, Page 3

LITERARY AND THEATRICAL. {From Our Special Correspondent.) London, November.

A Detective Drama. Mb H. A. Jones's new and original drama, "Heart of Hearts," has made a" palpable hib ab bhe lucky little Vaudevill 6 Theatre. It is a detective play of the Boisgobay and Gaborian pattern. " Heart of Hearts? is a valuablo diamond. 0^ course, somebody steals it, and oqually of course suspicion falls upon the heroine. She could clear herself in a moment by sacrificing the real culprit, bub declines to do so. At the proper moment, however, someone doos it for hor, and everything ends sasisfivctorily. This may nob sounS very new and original, nor indeed is it ; but Mr Jones's dialogue and situations arfc admirable. 4< Heart of Hearts" will certainly t»0 played in Australia, before long "Ruddigore" was withdrawn from the Savoy on the sth mst., after a run of only 307 performances, and last Saturday evening the management revived "Pinafore." The house was crammed. Sir Arthur Sullivan conducted, and Messrs Grossmith, ! Rutland, Barrington, and Temple, with Miss Jessie Bond, resumed (after a lapse of nearly ten years) their original characters. The opera went with a delightful swing, and was superbly mounted.

Jenny Lind and Adelina Patti. Despite her pretfcy face, her phenomenal voice, and her surpassing arb, Adelina Patti haa never succeeded in touching the people's heart, like homely Jenny Lind. I doubt, indeed, whether if la diva died tomorrow, in the plenitude qf her powers, thero would be as much real concern expressed as there has been over the great artiste who retirecl into private life inoro than 20 year? ago. Jenny Lind'j extensive charities had, no doubt, a good deal to do with this, but they don't explain everything. At the period of the young Swede's triumphs, the world was rich in great prlma donnas. Yot Jenny Lind outshone them all. The present generation have only to turn to the " Punches " and " Illustrated News " of those years to realise that noBuchy«rore has taken place in our time. All sorts of devices were resorted to to hear her, and people paid fabulous prices merely to sit on tho stairs or stand in the corridors of the opera on " Lind " nights. It was the exquisite sympathy of the plain little woman's voice that thrilled people. Therewereofteatearain it. LikeMissGomez, who recently scored such a success with " Home, Sweet Home," at the Covent Gardenjconceris, she had larmts au voix. Now Patti sings both " Home, Sweet Home " and the " Last Rose of Summer " with angelic tenderness and expression. But one never feels the least moved or carried away by her performance. With the passionate love stronger than death music of the " Traviata "it is different. Patti sings it as Jenny Lind never could have done. Posterity will probably reckon the pair as the tyro greatest vocalists of the century.

Christmas Books. In the hope of emulating Mr Ryder Haggard, several tyell-known authors have this autumn tried, their, hand ab_ books of romantic adventure. The moat notable is Mr James Payn, whose "Prince of the Blood " cannot, however, be pronounced a success. It is tho story of the shipwreck of an East Indiaman early in the present century. The passengers and crew find themselves comfortably cast away upon an ideal island in the tropics. They are visited by a nation of noble savages, who dress all in the purest white, tvnd worship the Goddess of Flowers. The king's son, Prince Tarilam, the author paints aa a particularly good and great man. He falls in love with the fair heroine (whose betrothed was washed overboard shortly before the shipwreck), and after twice saving, her life and performing prodigieß of valour, is loved in return, Eventually the castaways aie rescued, and Prince Tarilam accompanies them to England, where, in due course, the heroine's long-lost betrothed also turns up. Prince Taiilara thereupon unselfishly releases his beloved from her promise, and, with a broken heart, returns to his island home to die. Mr Payn could not tell a story badly, but " A Prince of the Blood " is lamentably inferior to " By Proxy " or " A Grape from a Thorn. " Brighter, fresher, and in every respect more roalistic is "1.D.8; or, The Adventures of Solomon Davis at the Dramond Fields and Elsewhere," by a new and anonymous author. It details the questionable career of a young Jew, who, in company with two gentlemen " sharps," seek the diamond fields of Kimborley and embark on a course of 1.D.8., or " illicit diamond buying." The author evidently knows the ground well, and his descriptions of life at Kimberley, Port Elizabeth, and other South African centros are most interesting. It is not, however, a book to place in boys' lands for many reasons. Henty and Manville Fenn are, of course, well to the front with suitable boys' books. The former's M For the Temple, a Tale of the Siege of Jerusalem M makes me wish I were fifteen again, and no mentally healthy lad can possibly resist Mr Fenn's "Dick of the Fens." . Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual is by Walter Besant, who once again breaks a lance on behalf of "working women," only the women this time are "poor ladies," governesses, typewriters, lady-helps, copyists, etc., etc. Mr Beaant makes the heroine of " Katharine Begina " a poor young governess, whose lover goes to the Soudan as war correspondent and gets killed. She resides, till her resources fail and she loses her situation, at gloomy Governesses' Home, called Harley House, which is described with grim fidelity. Then without a penny the unfortunate girl and another equally unfortunate friend betake themselves to the streets to starve. They spend two bitter nights in the park, the aufteringB of which are carefully detailed. Of courdo help cornea at last, but not till the reader has had his or her feelings properly harried and been roused into a desire to forward the author's philanthropic designs. Mr Besant is very clever in this way. I doubt, however, whether his ideal "Governesses' Home" would vrork quite as smoothly as he seems to expect. Miss Braddon'a " Mistletoe Bough " contains a very poor lot of atones, none of which appear to be by the editor herself.

Magazine Serials for 1388. Mr David Christie Murray will contribute !to "Good Words" for 1888 the long story jhe failed, th tough illness, to complete for this year's volume, and for which " Old Blazer's Hero " was substituted. 'It is balled " The Weaker Vessel," ,and U said, by; , those ' s^h,o ." have , qeoq " it, to lie Stilly Worthy* the . olevist author, " Josephls, CM/ ;**,G9od; Words" "will also i^\ serial of a, more' serious .character entitled' I* Saved as by, Fire," py ,aa > anohymqus yrrfter, and promises interesting papers by Bißhojp pf Rochestei 1 , Ahqre>r Ikngj, Sir Chorlea Warren, 1 and others. The aeM'in /Wrfty/s " M&ft* Mi Is. to >'e by Lucas j^alet. ifhosa Ibtgitty with, on- George M»»viH© Fean'r

' " Mem With a, Shadow," and Julian Hawthorne's " Tragic Mystery," bhelatteralveady published complete in America. , ,Geo. McDonald and B. L. Farjeon will supply the " Sunday Magazine 4 " with fiction next year. The former's story is called " The Elect Lady/ and the latter's "Toilers of Babylon." No announcement has, as yet, boon made with regard to " Cornhill " or "Temple Bar," but I fancy Jas. Payn has a novol inhand for the former, and Mrs Edwardes for the latter.