The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-02-18

uon- he n Hardy rank first. Hardy
II nasty but full OF vigor and originate
ty. Meredith 8 style Is a puzzle often,
but his best books In ability are
strangely unc mmo and viriIe.
Tom Dixoni novel will be issued on
the 22nd by hi publishers. 1t promises
to create a sensation in the north. II
is a story Of the white mans burden an
this blessed southland.
A history Of Russia from Peter the
Great to Alexander III Is o to appear.
1t is by w. R. Morrill,. 1t treats of the
social and literary side of Russian life.
A Yankee woman went to Tennessee,
and visited that gifted writer Of some
truly admirable novels. Miss Murfree.
She afterwards wrote in disparagement
and ridicule OF this pure, true. gifted
southern novelist-about the best we
have-and a granddaughter Of North
Carolina. We are glad that N. Y. writer.
Frances Fisher Byers. overhauls this
ill-mannered %scribbler. signing herself
very ~puroperly a Little New England
Woman" and exposes h-r i.l-natLre and
envy and want of dellcacy. The writer
who criticises the offender and assail-
ant says in the New York Saturday
Review:
"She ridicules Miss Murfree's extrava-
CANT dress, while bemoaning the lack
of coffee and sugar in their cupboard,
exaggerating their inconsistent style of
living and attempting to make the
much-beloved authoress appear lud'-
crOus before that portion of the public
which ever seeks to pry into the pri-
vate affairs of w~ell-known persons,
through just such mediums as this un-
worthy daughter of New England. Not
a word of the gentleness and love with
in the little home, the wonderful noun
tain scenery. or the peculiar charm of
their isolated life. 1t is we'll that Lit
tie New England Woman wells her
identity"
So far as we have read Of south
ern novels from Simms to those Of ten
or more years ago. Miss Murfree has
written at least three that to US out
ranks the others. We recall that some
eight years ago, perhaps it waa one of
the leading men of letters of all New
England wrote that he regarded "In
the Clouds as one of the few best nov
els Of the preceding decade.
! - >.
A cultured nan of letters living at
Clearwater. Fla. is reported by a cor
respondent of the New York Saturday
Review as reading the old great nov
els. He found him reading Guy Man
nering." We quote from what is said
as it is interesting and not without
wisdom:
He confessed he could not tell how
many times he had previously read this
novel. / picked up next two novels he
had read before he had turned to this
re-re-perusal of Guy Mannering.' One
was George Gissing's The Neither
World Another was Moore's 'Esthe'
Waters Why said 1. these are not
new novels. Oh he replied. my new
novels are over there in that pile oh.
yes said he. this is my second pecusal
Of 10Th these. You know there is some
thing in these two novels. They make
me think. Those new novels over there
1 have turned the leaves of. I can H.
ways tell by reading half a page Here
he took up the first or uppermost Of
the pile of new novels. 1t was The
Crisis Now this he said, I felt no
desire to read. 1 am not a born
idiot, and don't read things merely be-
cause they are new. I a read other
novels by the same author. They were
to me ~pretentious and utterly superb
cial.'"