LITERARY NOTES. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Paris, August l5.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2070, 13 October 1885, Page 2

LITERARY NOTES. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Paris, August 15.

Critics continue to lx> divided as to tho place Alexandra Dumar-, p-ie, should occupy in history. The novelist, despite all his faults, iiMiinins «-till very popular. Now Dumas wrote b idly, in tin sense that ho displayed neithei o ue nor lespect for a phrase <>r a woic' ; whethei in pio-ic 01 veisc, he was contented with thi first e\ piession thiit ctuno to his pen — <u to th it of his numeroiiH collaboi atoms. Dumas umfc badly, because he thought Ividlv ; his style is neither correct nor true, and his peisonages and their ideas aie outside of nature and ie.ility. He was ignoiant of the inttinsic value of wouls, and of the h.inr.ony of phiases. In his the.itiic.il pieces, lie never forgets the key to Mice ss — action, and was prolific in ie-.onrees and situition 1 - Scnbo is accused of being too art.itiui.il. Dumas shocks by the falseness and impiobabihty of his means. In his romances Dumas ha* established his success by farming the sentiment— -o human and 10 widespread — to know what passes behind tho scenes. And to these recitals, when gilt by imagination, a, larger ineasuie of coinplai sanco is accorded. It has been observed that there is in every individual a " Jea ines " or a concierge, more or less dormant, but ever curious oji the subject of gossip, and ploa«ed when satisfied. But there is nothing intellectual or hteiary in all that. DunittH himself could not state how many romances he wr<»te. They are all implob able adventures, framed in a reality of his tory ; endleas dialogues, wheie vll the eh iracters speak tlie language of Dumas and full of good humour, dash and chance. But as for reflections, never nxpect niicli of a serious nature. Iv the " Mysteries of Paris," and the " Windurmg Jew," a few of Sue's creations live, and have become almost proveibs. But in the case of Duiuik, not a single character is popular, and with respect to the male personages, only d'Artagnan survives among tho millions of puppets, of which his imagination lias been ■ccoucln'e. And why? Because d'Artagnan is Dumas himself, and fitly figures life <*j/e, on his statue in Pau«, in a swaggering, lounge attitude, on tho pedestal, while Dumas on the summit, sits in an othce chair. Dum is has put the history of France mechanically 111 feuilletons, and only tho vita brevis pievented hnr. fioin doing the same with universal histoiy. His secret consisted in drowning reality 111 .1 flood of romantic inventions; often ridiculous, but alwiys id* ntical. Perhaps th.tt Ixi has so tapped the source may explain why few follow his wake. Dumas had another ntnng to hi* bow to secure publicity, that of ably advertising himself. Then the natuie of liin talent was in sj mpathic afhnity with the popular imagination. Hh Impressions de Voyage and his Memoires attest this. He persuaded his readeis, after convincing himself, that ha lived in tho samo atmosphere as his heroes and heroinei, like d Artaicnon in ft word ; he has been everywhere, and seen everything. In adventures, no (Gascon has bin-passed Dumas, and ho has described all with so much tact th it it is impossible to separate tho faction from the fact. Ho lived not for art, or for literature, but for pleasure and the joy to live. It is thus that his own life is hi* best— as it will piove to be ; his most dm able woik and his own adv entures the most curious of his 1 (nuances. Dumas is an illustration that the popularity </f a writei does not necessarily depend upon, or is at all bound up with any aisthetical \ aluu or literary excellence. His charactci, however, was sympathetic; ho was a right good fellow, and while remain ing the friend of the human r.ice, demonstrated how closely that philanthropy is synonymous with self-interest. Of the two volumes per month, that it was asserted Dumas wrote, tho reader will never hnd theiein a single conception of life; but, 111 nearly all, weie that readoi only a child, will over be found amusement. But if you attempt to reflect on what v»u have lead, you will diicovei Dum is tlie most tnesome writei in tho woild. What boy ciiinot eompichend his "Tlueo Musketeers."'; wh.it cook cannot level 111 his "Monte (Jhiiito?" And tlie popularity iif Dum is will continue gfie.cn and fresh till he be superseded by a Dumas moro amusing still. M. Paquier's contribution- to the Central Asian question are thoughtful. He would like to sea either England 01 Russia— tho latter has hit preference — m tho posse-won of Herat, a city w hicli lias an " eye t > sco, and an aim tostiike," following tho piovoib. It is not simply the key to India, but to the whole of Central Asia. The veritable open sesame of India is Quettah, 111 the valleys of the Pishin and Ham 11 Hei.it ought to bo a city a* old as C.ibul, which has theieput.itionof having been founded by Gain when Hying from Mesopotamia after he slew Abel. In the twelfth century Heiat had no less than 12,000 -hops, iHKX) baths, and 3">o collego-i. Its climate, so sane ; its neighboui hood so attractive, and its pleasures were so hem.itiiig as to make it be " the most beautiful city in the world," — according to tho Oriental proverb. It was also the gieat market of Asia. The legion round Herat is a L mil of (toshen. Two harvests aie reaped annually; forty different raneties of gram aie sown ; there are cotton, tobacco, flints and mulberries laised in immense quantities. There aie seventeen kinds of grapes cultivated, di s into the anti alcoholic precepts of tho Koian. The neighbourhood is rich in iron, copper, silver, and precious atones. The leither prepared at Heiat ha-, no rival, and the native boot and shoem ikers cannot execute all orders addiossc'd to them by foieigneis. The women of Herat aie veiy beiutiful, which is duo, it is s.ud, to their dunking the limpid w iters of the valley— a true fountain of jnuvence. Hence the aphoiisin, " Khoras-an is tho shell of the world, and Herat is its pearl.' When (riodekotf armed in Herat he found manual labom did not count for anything, a icinailc which generally applies to the X ist, but the division of woik was well understood, pushed u\eu to the. extreme. Ho was conducted to a sumptuous apartment, when hft'jt 11 servants were told off to attend him. One domestic washed hi* hands, anothei swept tin room, others lit the 1 mips, prepared the tea, bUcked tho boots, Jiu 1 . .\I. L'aqmer, although a KusMm in sympAtln, as of I. it", a Kienchin.in nitiirilli, &c, views tlie lailway to <£uettih as ot tlie highest sti it igetic impoictnce, protecting us it doe> the appro iches from the Indus by the Pishin viilloy and (/and. ihai, and tlii) extension of the railvv iy Hj'stem conne' tmg with Heiat, one of tue finest itigious 111 the world would be opened up. He exclude* t> believe tint thti "pearl" will fall to English piotection, anil i" to the proht of Kiuopoan commerce and civilization. Will she havo the pluck to lako the tide at the Hood ' Fiance endows .a nchool at Athens as she does .it Home, to which she sends the best pii/.e pupils of her Lyceum to hnish their artistic or literary studies. That at Athens has paid at least, as it gave the world "(lieue contemoorainc," the inastui woik of a oneo student, J Almond About, Ho impressed on tho imagination that (iiecce, Miice it was snatched from Turkey, as biand from tho burning, had becomu simply the heudquai tors of bandits to take tlie money or tho life of thoso tiavellers who repaired to that classic, land, impelled by their classical leminisceiiceH. Tho 111010 roads were opened up, About hinted, the gieator the facilities afforded to tho bandits to operate. M. Bikelos has published. " Do Nicopolis a Olyinpie," * collection of letter* wntton on (Jieoce of today. It is the anivvci, by facts, to Vbout'a imaginings, II« states all is changed ; the voyager m tray oiling tin ough the kingdom of (iieece, has no want now of an escoit; bugandshavo disappeared ; the country is» as safe as tho Boulevards of Paris. Soon the nation will be invaded by Cookc\.cuiMnimt% iml the hotels garrisoned by English speaking waiters. (Jreecois even adopting English fashions of diess ; more impoiUnt the Athenians, have relinquished their daydream of possessing Constantinople ; tho modem seven sages of (iiceco no longer cherish the cluma^ra of another ({reek einpne with By/.antnun for capital. That said, the author demand* from Europe, all the aid science, commerce, and good sense cm accoifl, ho as to unable her to tako hor modest rank among the nations, not of the East but of tho West. M. Pt-ne-Siefeit lecommends that the best uso Franco can make of her few small possessions in Hindustan, is to convert them into centreH for ethnographic, linguistic, aichcfologic, and aitistic studion. Knglaud, by virtue of treaties, would not tolerato Franco in untuning an armed force or a creating naval rendezvous in her vast Peninsula. Then as foi converting any of tho tiny establishments into coaling depots, it would bo better to depend upon the mines of Tonkin, which by tho way yield no .stoam coal. He addi, that the success of England in her Indian possessions, the vastest colony the world has ever seen, is a subject of astonishment for tho historian, tho philosopher and the statesman and serves ns an example for Franco to go and do likewise But whero ? In tho novoU of I?nlza.c »nd his disciple

Zola, althoHßh they bo teriihly "tuffy," they are laid down on so methodic linos and unfolded with such clennie^, th.it the leader is nc\er fatigued. The contrary it just the caw with the roinnnifr sciwtinnal runel, "La Guerre et la I\ux 'bv Tolstoi— a Rushian. H.ilt of the first volume is a labyrinth, tho whole three arc h tay on your montil powers. Yet, such is tho nttraction of the united incident*, tint you cannot throw tho work aside. The nuthnr ctuninc.^ you of his xincnty ; you read .ihout twenty papes <io-,criptne of a poison nj:c, which "i-> i>udd"iily dropped for an- I other. Howler, you leineniber the portrait, you undcistind the ownern oenti incuts ; >oii in.ilic <vi .icqtiaint nice. A few of tho central chu.icteiH ire nioro profoundly l) tinted, for the others to re\ol\e round. And all are i-vitic, new. Since lJil/,\c, one ha-. ne\er roen so many distinctly marked and oii^m.il visage-. Who or Mhat are they ' You frel they .iro readonly you ha\one\p» encoii'itered tlioui. They are all type- <>f Italian society, ■uistociatio and rlem iciahc, I:lo. nif,' in different orbits. Out of .ill these, tho hero •md heroine are developed, 01 con\er>:e. Tho dnnua, h Ku^-ian Mieiety 111 Tcacii ; later W.ir, in the re l-tin^ N*i|)ol"on\in\a sion. The bcene ia laid at Mi>-ci»v, in the Rnstow family, with the clnrminpr Xatacha, the mo*t hc.mtiful v»n;r girl romance ever pointed. Pieue is the hero, who will bo requited with hur hadly tm-d love. Hut the true hero is Koutnuwiff. Thcinxasion of Russia by Nap- ilcon, w. in ne\er bettur dramiitised ; ne\er was the tenible retreat more xivuJly portrayed The. doith of the little 1\ ti.i, tho brother of Natneha, will stn >ou to tenr>, as do Mad.une de Scirgue'b lettern on the death of Turenne. And so will tho old Knutouirioff, the hero of heroes, who holdn that "it was God ch.iHed the French, and sent in their wake the Russian nrmy-io God's will and work must bo done."