Arizona republican., 1898-04-21
LITERARY NOTES.

MT. H. B. Hamblen, who has not al lowed his literary work to interfere with his engineers duties, is about to publish a successor to his book "On Many Seas" This new volume, "The General Managers Story" is soon to be issued by Macmillan. It deals with railroad life, which the author knows as well as he does the life of the : ocean. Some of it's chapters have al l ready appeared in McClure's Maga- i zine.
 Ernest Renan's work, "The Apos- tles," as translated and edited by the | late Dr. Allen, is coming from the press of Roberts Brothers. The trans lator accomplished his task in his 18th year. i Rupert of Hentzau," Anthony Hopes new novel, will not appear in book form until July or August
 Here is an interesting item which
 has drifted hither from Chicago: | That the Mississippi valley is destined to become within a comparatively short space of time the greatest book
 buying region of the United States is ! demonstrated by reports from pub
 fishers. The increase of sales. as
 compared with the past, is relatively
 greater than either in the extreme
 east or extreme vest
 Quo Vadis' has been one of the
 most profitable books of the season. , It is reported that even the translator,
 MT. Curtin, has received S25,000 as his
 share of the money derived from the
 sale of copies.
 So characteristic of the Ibsen craze is MT. ZangwilI's recent letter in cele-
 hr-o% that it is worth while to quote it here: Far be it from me to sully an oc-
 casion like this with criticism It is the moment to say grace for what we
 have received. Ibsen has been enc of the great intellectual forces of my time-a very recent time. During the
 last ten yaerS I have often disagreed
 with myself about his philosophy, and 1, his art, and his somewhat ungenial criticism of life but never have I ceased to regard him as other than a
 master builder. In Peer Gynt and
 Brand in his poetic dramas, and in
 his social dramas he speaks with the
 accent of the gods. As dramatic
 craftsman he has made an advance
 even upon Greek drama Nothing ever wrought me so tonic a glow as
 did An Enemy of the People, a sort
 of anticipation of Zola, by the way. His influence in England has been enormous, though the Ph;1istines have l not finished sneering. The Athenian f Voter got tired of Aristides because he f was always called the Just If I have 7 not grown tired of Ibsen, it is because [ he is always called 'the immoral and X the absurd When the searchingness l of his psychology could no longer be denied, it was waved aside as Norwe- t gian psychology-a preteXt more spec a ious in the sunny south than in our kindred attitudes. As if all the great s world artists did not universalize the > particular. In fine, if the function of s writers is to stimulate thought, to e kindle emotion, and to inspire action,
 then must Henrik Ibsen be ever count ed among the highest. May these poor words of gratitude reach the great Q lonely soul"
 d MT. Jerome K. Jerome allows a lit Q tie common sense to temper his enthu- Q siasm. He does not think that lbsen $ will ever become popular in the sense e that Shakespeare is popular.
 y ''He has not the truer artists ear : that catches above the wailing Of the d world it's many songs Of joy. In his n passion for analysing the root he ig-
 nores the blossom. Only Tn one play y The Pretenders,' so it seems to me n does he climb high enough to view life : as a whole. In common with many
 other reformers. whom hate of cant has
 driven fanatical. Ibsen falls into the
 error of assuming that beauty is ot
 necessity a cloak, hiding the truth r whereas, in the hands of stronger
 thinkers, it serves rather as a graceful
 garment. enhancing her charms. i- An extraordinary performance in the e direction of self advertisement is at. it tributed to Miss Marie Corelli. It i: d said that she offered to erect a monu-
 ment to one Norman, an old parish y sexton reputed to be the original o4 )f Reuben Dale character in one o1 IS her novels; but she made the condi Il tion that the monument should beal 3, not the seXton's real name, but tht l. name Reuben Dale," to be followed "a by a note explaining that the sait IT Reuben was character in a famous ,e novel by the gifted Marie Corelli. | Il is reported further that the parisf st clergyman, being wise in his genera IT tiOn, wrote to the great and gifted ont m that space in his churcnyard was no y, available for free advertising.
 n M. Zola's misunderstanding with tht n. French army does not appear to have IS interfered with the sale of his new n book. It has been very large 1T m France as in foreign countries. % The illustriOus edition of BalZac'.