The Warwickshire Herald. — 1894-09-27 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

LITERARY JOTTINGS.  Mr. John Heywood has in the press a Christina@ book for boys, entitled "The School Adventures of Sherlock," by Oliver McEwan. "An Unfinished Martyrdom; and other Stories," by A. St. John Adcock, will form the new volume of Mr. J. W. Arrowsmith's shilling series, which is to be published early neat month.  The fourth and cheap edition of Mr. Joseph Hatton's novel, "Under the Great Seal," was much oversubscribed before publication, and a fifth large edition will be ready immediately. --  Mr. George Du Maurier's new story, "Trilby," which has been running through the pages of Harper's Magazine, has just bemi published in three volumes by Messrs. Osgood, Mcllvaine and Co. In the "Life of John MacGregor (Rob Roy)," to be published by Messrs. Hodder Brothers in a few days, there will be found many curious and interesting incidents and adventures in the life of the well-known canoeist. Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. have just issued a volume of poems by a new writer—a Mr. Alexander Lind—entitled "A Dream of the Sea, and Other Poems." The book, which is appropriately bound in a delicate sea-green cloth, contains, in addition to the original woik, some translations of Russian and German poems, including Dersjavin's "Ode to God."  Mr. E. F. Benson, the author of "Dodo," contributes to the October number of the New Reetea an article on "Hospitality in our Country Houses." The number will also contain the second and coneluding portion of Madame Sarah Grand's fantasia, "The Undefinable," and a double article on "The Prospects of the Forthcoming Book Season," bellesletters being treated by Mr. George Saintsbury and fiction by Mr. Arthur Waugh.  "In Shadow of Shame" is the title of the new serial story which Mr. Fitzgerald Molloy is writing for Cassell's Saturday Journal. A series of papers by Mr. Max Pemberton on "Celebrities of the Day," dealing with the turning points in their careers, is also announced to appear in the same journal. Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Alma Tadema, Mr. Walter Haunt, Mr. Henry Irving, and Mr. A. W. Finer° are the subjects of the first article.  Mr T. Fisher Unwin will shortly publish "The English Abroad: Sketches by an Australian Cousin." The author, Miss Susan Gavan Duffy, is the eldest daughter of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, K.C.M.G., who, it is understood, will write an introduction to the volume. Miss Duffy is well known as an occasional contributor to various Irish and other magazines, to which some of the pieces to be included in her forthcoming work have been contributed.  Mr. W. E. Henley has undertaken for Messrs. Methuen the editorship of a series of "English Classics" at a popular price. Several volumes have already been allotted to special editors: "The Pilgrim's Progress" to Mr. R. L. Stevenson; "Tristram Shandy" to Mr. C. Whibley ; and "The Adventures of Hajji Baba" to Mr. E. G. Browne. Some other volumes in this edition will be Gibbon's "Autobiography," "Joseph Andrews," Congreve's and Sheridan's "Plays," and Shakspere's and Burrui's "Poems."  Last Christmas Mr. Henry W. Cave published through Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. the first of a series entitled "Picturesque Cbylon," dealing with Colombo and the Kelani Valley. A second volume will appear next month devoted to Kandy and Peradeniya, and will contain 33 full-page plates, interspersed with an account of Kandy under native kings, and a running text of comment and description referring to the plates. The work is ended to give a realistic conception of the ricb luxuriance and romantic beauty of the island. Mausus Jokai, the veteran Hungarian, whose literary jubilee was celebrated at the beginning of the year, is, says the Literary World, lying in a serious condition, the result of an attempt to commit suicide during a fit of melancholia. Overwork is supposed to be the reason, and the ceaseless production of works historical, dramatic, and poetic, to say nothing of a list of over 100 substantial books of fiction, which has earned him the title of the "Hungarian Scott," may well have taxed even an intellect of Jokai's capacity and strength. Miss Constance Garnett's translation of Ivan Gontcharoff's celebrated Russian novel, "A Common Story," is issued thie week in Mr. William Heinemann's "International Library" series. Mr. Edmund Gosse, the editor of the series, supplies a preface in which he defines Gontcharoff's place in Russian literature, and gives a few biographical details concerning his life, which was eventful as a student, as a traveller, and an author. "A Common Story," his first great effort, was published in 1847, so that it has been close on 50 years finding its way into the hands of English readers._