The Portland daily press., 1876-02-26
Literary Notes.

"OliYer Twist" is to be translated into Por-
tuguese and published in serial at Lisbon.
G. w. Carleton & Co., of New York will pub
hsh IN few days the first monthly number OF
new perioii cal entitled Record of the Year
peing sort OF reference scrap-hook or record
OF nearly every important event during the
month worth preserving, together with care
ful selection of the choicest current miscellany,
all properly indexed. The first number will
contain fine steel portrait of the late million
naire, William B. Astor. 1t will be edited by
Frank Moore, the protector of the Rebellion
Record
The Athen@um, in speaking of Daniel Der
onda, takes occasion to protest against the
method of its publication 'by parts, which was
only tantalizing as applied to 'Middlemarch.'
but is thoroughly unsatisfactory as applied TO
Daniel Deronda, and in this case we cannot
but feel that George Eliots fame will suffer-"
The same paper states that the description of
Gwendolen Harleth corresponds to a young
English lady we'll known among the players at
Homburg, which place, rather than Baden, is
described, although the latter name is incident
ally given. s
The Atlantic for April will contain one of the
most important Of Mr.. Adams's railroad pa
pers; the conclusion of the striking story, A
Carnival of Rome; an admirable paper on the
Early American Novelists, by Mr.. Lathrop;
final article on Drainage, by Colonel Waring;
study of the old battlefield of Lutzen, by j. X,
Hosmer; an Essay on Rural Architecture, by
Wilson Flagg; timely sketch of the Egyptian
Khediye and his Court, by Charles Hale; Old
Woman's Gossip; Private Theatricals; and po-
ems by Bayard Taylor, Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps, William Hewitt, Edgar Fawcett, and
G. P. Lathrop.
Mr. Gladstone Is not engaged, as has been
stated, upon a theological work. He is de-
voting his leisure to the preparation OF a work
which he proposes to call Thesaarus Homer
ikos, which will aim at setting forth in form
convenient for reference the vast stores of fact
| or what the Germans call the realism Of the
| poems.
Mr.. J. A. Symonds has finished new series
of Studies of Greek Poets, which will proba-
bly, appear in April, forming a companion vol
ume of equal size with his earlier series. The
| book will contain studies of Homeric charac-
ters, of Eschylus and Sophocles, of the Frag-
ments of the Tragic and Comic Dramatists, of
st. Nicholas for March contains some new
features which will attract those who are in
terestel in literature for children. The series
Talks with Girls by leading American authsrs
| Ito be followed by Talks with Boys) is begun
with paper by Louisa Alcott (copy righted)
ell titled Helping Along. The Windsor Castle
series, by Mrs. Oliphant, starts with Edward
Ill, and promises to take the children down
through the whole realm of English history,
| ending with Victoria. There is a new depart
ment, The Little Housekeeper's Page, by Mar
ion Harland, and Young Contributors De-
partmeut has just been introduced. On page
| BAL of the March number is an interesting &C
| count of how more than 1000 answers were re.
ceved to the biographical prize puzzle, The
Race of the Pilots, sent in from all parts of
United States and Canada, and also from Eng
land and Scotland, for st. Nicholas has its
readers there as well as here.
| Another contribution to the voluminous lit
| erature which centres round The Man in the
Iron Mask has appeared at Griefswald. 1t is
from the pen Of August Riese and is based on
Jung's work published in Paris In 1873, and
entitled La VsritS sur le Masque de Fer
The story of Browning's poem-The Inn
Album-was truth in London society thirty
| years ago, and made much excitement. The
Nation says of Mr.. Browning's style of ex-
| preston: "The idea, with Mr.. Browning, al
ways tumbles cut into the world In some gro-
tesque, hnd-foremost manner; it is like an un-
ruly horse backing out of his stall, and stamp
/ ing and piunging as he comes His thought
knows no simple stage-at the very moment of
its birth it is terribly complicated affair.""
A number of valuable manuscripts have re-
| Gently been added to the British Museum col
lection-a series of Coptic liturgies, fubrics.
dictionaries and grammars; Hebrew sermons Of
| the fifteenth century; Persian historical, biog-
| raphical, ethical and religious works, most
important janis Lives of Shdte Saints (Naha-
fat alUns); Turkish poem; an Ethiopic YER
sion of the Psalms; and a new work on
Buddha's giving up of the world from monk
| Of Ceylon. England will soon sarpass Ger
| many in the abundance of its Oriental literary
| treasures. t e,l
Col. Higginson has been reading Agnes
| Macdoners essay on ''the American
heroine" and thinks it pity the critic
had not studied Holmes, Henry James,
| Jr., Howells, and, "among women writers,
not merely Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. Whitney
and Miss Alcott, but the far profounder
creations of SAKE Holm, especially Draxy
Miller" Mrs. Stowe "cannot even approach
the confines of what is called society In our
large cities without making her heroines vapid
or vulgar. Her foot must be on her native
heath, and her heroines must be country girls,
or they are nothing" Further on, Higginson
says that no American novelist has yet "done
justice to type of American girlhood which
Hawthorne alone among our few masters, has
attempted-in Hilda-to touch. Hilda seems
of course, unreal to Agnes Macdonell; say
"of course merely because have noticed that
the attempt to portray this pure strong
| American type of girlhood seems always un-
real to English critics, whether done we'll or
| ILL., Trying it myself, in humble way, in
a certain story, foAnd, to my amazement,
that the traits which were drawn with modest
fidelity from half dozen sitters, and which
awakened no especial surprise from American
critics, were decidedly dismissed by all who
criticised the little tale in England, with the
positive assertion that no young women at all
resembling Hope Maxwell was to be found
in the world.''