New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-03-18
LITERARY TOPICS.


TFRoa THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.
LONDON, Feb. 22.-The March numbers of the
leading monthes offer unusually strong tables of
contents Mr.. Tennyson leads off in The Nineteenth
Century with "Sr Richard Granville; Ballad of
the Fleet" title which leaves it open to conjecture
whether the fleet in question be the victorious fleet
In which Grenville made the voyage to America
and back, capturing sundry Spanish ships by the
way or, more probably, the fleet of five ships with
which, off the Azores he attacked fiftythree Span
ish ships with 10 600 men on board, and suffered
defeat more glorious than most victories, end
ing in his death. In the same magazine, the
Rev. R. W. Dale will give his Impressions
of America DR.. Tyndall has Last Word
on Spontaneous Generations the Rev. j. u.
Rogers has something to say of Mr.. W. ForstersDe
fence of the Church lat Bradford, lately. suppose
and that most industrious of contributors to period
cal literature. the Right Hon. W. f. Gladstone.
NJ p mot unknown in othcr walks of life will point
ont the Paths of Honor and of Shame. In The Fort
nqhfy Mr.. Matthew Arnold's recent Friday evening
lecture before the Royal Institution on Equality
will be published in complete form Mr.. Goodwin
Smith writes on Wings and Liberals; Mr.. Herbert
Spencer again on Ceremonial Government, and Mr.
George Saintsbury may be trusted to give us deli
cate and subtle criticism of a Frenchman whom
most Englishmen find ii rather harder to compre-
bend than Frenchmen in general-Iheophile Gau-
tier. The Contemporary promises ia be combative
Professor Green (the editor of Hume, presumablyJ
discusses Mr. Herbert Spencer; Professor Friedrich
dissects Cardinal Manning's "True Story of the
Vatican Council" and Mr.. f. A. Freeman will offer
some observations on Mr. Froude's Life and Times OF
Thomas Beckett. The papers on Contemporary Life
and Thought, on Literature and on sundry DINER
matters are continued. But the editor of this maya
zine is clearly giving his public (of 1000 to 3'ooo
readcrs too much for their money. Nothing IN tho
magazine is better done than some of these SEMI
editorial reviews and essays, hut they are printed
in unreadable type. Macmillan has the field to
itself oddly enough. in paper on the late King
of ItaIv, 1t has another not less timely article
the War Campaign and the War Correspondent
by Major w. i. Butler and =, third on a subject
always interesting TO the American student, Lord
Shelburne BIackuood also has gone across the
Atlantic for a subject-The North American
Fisheries and the Halifax Commission. The Corn
Ill., of which Mr.. Leslie Stephen is still the editor,
has two attractive ttles-Litcrary Condolences,
and on the Decay of Fine Manners with the usual
padding of serial stories.
4 glimpse at the state of British taste in current
literature, not of the periodical kind, nav be had
from Mudics announcement that he has in circnla-
ton $500 copies of Mr.. Theodore Martins Life of
the Prince Consort" VOL H.. 900 of Mrs. Bras
tain Burnabys 4" Ride on Horseback through Asia
Minor" The latter is the book which the Duke of
ARGYLL in the House of Lords the other day tersely
and truly described as stuff" 1t appears on the
other hand that Schliemann's "Mycene" is unpro-
durable at that vast Notwithstanding bazaar
Still another edition Of Thackeray is announced
an edition dc lure this one, but in the most asonish
ing form. 1t will appear in TWENTY-FIVE large imperial
octave volumcs-a nice handy book for after-dinner
reading at an angle of foTtyfve degrees in an easy
chair Thackeray is classic. no dOubt-fhC classic
among Nineteenth Century nOvelists-but novel is
novel after all, and meant to be read in comfort
not solemnly entOmbed as n show book behind
glass doors On the lower shelf which must be
the fate of such part of this edition as does
not rnoulder in Messrs. Smith a. Elders ware
house. / yield to nobody in my admira-
ton of 1hackoray, but / cannot think this
the night way to do him honor. The edition will be
"limited" TO 900 copies ] can't guess where the
900 purchasers are to come from, unless II be Man
chester, which likes book in proportion to It's
bgness and dearness. The price of this is 20 shll-
lings a Volume, say $110 per copy. for which mod
crate sum you get the whole of the original illus
trations, printed from worn-out plates, on India
paper with new illustrations by eminent artists,
names not given.
Messrs. Pierce and Whoeler's Dickens Dictionary,
noveist's son. but in a curiously expurgatcd state
Young Mr.. Dickens has thought lit, for a variety
Of reasons to suppress the extracts from published
criticisms and the identlfcatiOns, real or imagn
srvr of the characters in the novels with their
originals in actual life which are given in the Amer
lean edition. 1t does not appear that ho has done
this with tie consent Of the authors of the book
nor indeed that they have hadanything to to the
English reprint their work whether they profit
by If pccuniarly or not As dictionary of reference
it would he far more useful if the whole contents
had been thrown into single alphabetical arrange
ment. don't see what is gained by separate list
for each novel. But for the index the book would
be almost valueless, and even with the index two
references are necessary to arrive at single name,
unless you happen to recolect the particular novel in
which the particular name occurs And if you do
il would be almost as easy to go to the novel.
A First Folio Shakespeare was sold by auction,
this week, at SOthcbys and fetched f4sO. 1t was
announced with the usual flourish Of trumpets as
the very rare first edition. whereas the first edition
is not very rare, though good and perfect copies of
it are This copy is far from perfect 1t has the
title verses and preliminary leaves inlaid. IL
has, according to the catalogue description three or
fonr leaves "slightly" mended. According to the
description of a more impartial authority 1t
has good many more than three or
four leaves mcnded, and they more than
Slightly" mended. 1t is not sound
COPY Some of the leaves are so rotten that it has
been found necessary to paste them all over with
thin sheet of sem-transparent paper. And there
are doubts / am told. respecting the eenuineness of
some leaves Ii IN any case, made-up copy, ana
in such condition that collector need not be very
fastidious in order to pronounce 1t undesirable.
The remarkable thing about it is its SIZE If it be
true as the auctOneers allege. that il measures 1880
by Sig inches and is lie of an inch taller than
the Daniel copv " very large COPY with