The San Francisco call., 1897-04-04
HERE AND THERE.


England.
Mrs. James T. Fields will write the biog-
raphy of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
1t is said that Sir Edwin Arnold has con-
trlbuted nearly 10, 900 leading articles to the
London Daily Telegraph.
A remarkable book will be the study of Eng
lish monas;icism in the thirteenth century.
This is the work undertaken by DR.. Gasquet.
Burns poems have been translated into
French, German, Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Bo-
hemian, Danish, Hungarian, Russian and
Swedish.
F. Marion Crawford is to deliver 100 le.,
ture next season throughout the country. his
subject being the development of Italian art
He may also give readings from his own
novels.
Beatrice Harraden has not been benefited in
health by her return to England. She Is now
at Bournemouth, and what energy she pos
sesses she has Put into the revision of the
proof sheets Of her new bSok, "Hilda Straf-
ford"
The fifth edition of Mr.. Justin McCarthy's
"His tory of Our Own Times will shortly ap-
pear. No more honest contemporaneous his
tory of England has been written; yet, strange
to say, the merits of it have never been fully
appreciated.
Robert Barr. formerly of the United States,
has taken very well in England. With the
exception of Bret Harte, and temporarily of
some woman author from this side of the
water, MIR. Barr is perhaps one of the most
popular of American writer's in London.
In n letter to David Christie Murray, Mr. Kip
ling draws strong distinction between long
and short works ofiction. Short stories are all
very we'll, he says, but the novel is the higher
form, and no man under 40 can hope to write
a good one. The Judgment is one with which
many readers win find themselves in instant
agreement.
Andrew Lang is catching it. one might say,
because he found fault with Dickens cricket
If the immortal Pickwick had PLAYED golf
then Mr.. Lang might have laid down the law
When an able man, as is undoubtedly Mr.
Lang, gives opinions on all things from to
Z-ghosts and fly fishing inciuded-he may
get bowled out or run out occasionally.
Constant are the discussions over the pro-
nuncation of the name OF Samuel Pepys In
the Graphic of 1891 these verses are found:
There are people, I'm told-aome say there are
heaps
A nd some so precise aud pedantic their stepls
Who call the delightful cid Fiarist, Pepys:
But these think right, and follow their st cps,
Ever mention the garrulous Gossip as Pepsi
The family name of Lord Chattenham being
Pep-pys and bsyllabic, it is possible that the
true prom notation may be discoverable.
Andrew Lang has been sneering at what he
terms the ''inexpensive pathos of Dickens"
Andrew Lang. living, may sneer; will Andrew
Lang, twenty-seven years dead, be remem-
bered as Charles Dickens is to-day? Will his
writings be half widely read? Will his
name be then known to half as many people
as will still be reading the writings of Charles
Dickens? Andrew Lang will be a myth long
Dickens has ceased TO touch the hearts of the
lovers of English literature
1t can no longer be truthfully said that an
American book stands poor chance for even
just notice or criticism in an English literary
paper. On the contrary-excepting perhaps
the Saturday Review-the tone OF criticism In
comment upon American literature is fair and
discriminating. In the London Atheneum
there is this strongly commendatory notice of
Sarah Orne Jewetts .'The Country of the
Pointed Fits (Houghton, Mifiin & Coz:
"This is a very favorable specimen of q
class of work in which American ladies
excel. 1t is a collection of studies more
or less consecutive, OF life in an out-of-the-
way fishing village-the experience of long
summer holiday. An English reader must fail
to catch the exact flavor of the place described
somewhere on the coast of Maine; but WELL
drawn picture OF human beings is attractive
ir any circumstances, and in Miss Jewett's
pleasant pages one finds bit of life consistent
original and vivid in presentment- Itrequires
some effort TO realize the amount of artistic
skill which goes to the composition of such a
piece of work-one that in its method, though
not in its detail, recalls Mrs. Gaskell. The lit
tie book is marked by good taste throughout; !;
it is al times gently pathetic, at others deli
cately humorous. and it is always free from
exaggeration.