The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-02-04
LlTEKAKY GOSSIP

OF "Quo Vadis," but 5000 copies have
ben sold in England In the United
States the sale has been very large,
and 1T has been put as high as $50, 900.
The best review of it we have seen is
by Professor H. T. Peck, of Columbia
University, New York city, and one of
the editors Of The New York Book
man." His capital article appears in
The Literary Review, issued every Sat-
urday, by The New York Times. There
are seven other novels of Sicnkiewicz
that have been translated by Mr.. Jere-
miah Curtin. The critics praise most
highly the excellence of his transla-
sidered by many critics to be Of high
grade, particularly a trilogy beginning
with Fire and Sword" 1t is not
certain, we infer, that the one just
not really it's superior.
Up north they are now making out
lists of best books for village libraries.
Some of them are amusingly absurd.
The effort to make Walt Whitman
a great and most original poet pro-
ceedeth. We have in vain tried to
work UP a decided admiration for
Waits very peculiar productions. We
would not say now in the face OF the
praise of Tennysou and Emerson,
among poets, and of Gosse, Howe n
many others among critics that Whit
man was not a poet, and his produc-
tions, eccentric and incoherent writ
ing, without the diction or form
OF poetry, was not poetry, as 9th
ers have said as much. Through
the years we have seen now and then
an excoriating discussion of Leaves of
Grass" There is a paper upon him in
the January number OF The New York
"Bookman' by Mr. N. A. DeWolf
Howe. He says:
"Whitman's very themes, regarded
in the light in which he saw them, for
babe a cordial welcome. The main
objects of his enthusiasm have been
O6IlH6u ny SyIIlUI1uS dS &1lIHC1 ia, Scfl,
Sex, the People, To treat these
themes in a series of 's1ack-twisted'
dithyramfbic chants, apparently flying
in the face of all poetic TRADITION, and
written with a ~frankness and egOtiSm
and lack of humor which, after forty
years of Whitman in the air. are still
deteSted by many. was inevitably to
court the opposition OF persons of
taste The critics representing these
persons fell upon h book with a saw
age fury. The WRITER of it was "a
beast he should be kicked from all
decent society To one London journal
he appeared as "a wild Topper Of tine
Vest another, commenting upon a
later edition, declared: Of all writer's
we have persued, Walt Whitman is the
most silly, the most b~Tasphemous, and
the most disgusting The bbttereSt
concentrations of the book were due
to it's many offences against the pro-
prieties.'"
Lord Houghton. an English poet,
praised it as "a most notable and true
book but said he would not call it
poetry" He thought very highly of it
and said There are things in it that
read like the old Greek plays" Carlyle
praised it for wit and WISDOM" say
ing that it was "the most extraordinary
in those particulars, that America has
yet contributed" He said nothing, we
! believe, Of its poetry" The great
Scotsman, like Lord Houghton, avoid
ed the poetry"
Waiter Savage Landor wrote almost
| inccmparably well in prose. His
| Imaginary Conversations are upper
| latively fine and classical and a pro-
| duction of genius. The style is clear,
virile, animated and often Of. noble
| eloquence. He wrote some genuine
verse, but wifi be apt to survive in his
great prose compositions. He was a
born critic with remarkable insight. 1t
is a loss to any one to overlook Landor.
We are grateful to see London Lit
terature'' rebuking the l~atter-day neg
lect and undertaking OF Lord Nacau-
lay. If there is any man living today
who writes as entertainfngly. as splen-
didly, as aucidly. and as eloQuently a
this noble author, critic. poet, essayfst
historian and orator, we would ike n
form his literary acquaintance. lit