CURRENT LITE RAT URE.
SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN'S LIFE.
In Sir Arthur Sullivan: Lifp-Story, Letters, and Reminiscences (James Bowden, 6s.), Mr. Arthur Lawrence has compiled an elaborate interview-biography of the popular composer. That there should be no genuine criticism in a work of this kind is, of course, inevitable; it is, however, leas, easy to excuse the frequent inaccuracies with which the text is disfigured. Thus we find "Niel for "Neale," p. 20; " Greig " for " Grieg," p. 25; "Dannreuter " [sic]. p. 26; " Lizst " [sic], four times on pp. 32-33; Gervandhaus [sic], p. 37. While Mr. Lawrence's competence to undertake the editorship of such a book is constantly in question, there is no gainsaying that a great deal of his raw material is excel- lent. Sir Arthur Sullivan's reminiscences of Dickens and Tenn,yson are very interesting. Students of the Napoleonic legend will find a curious account of the relations which prevailed between the com- poser's grandfather—a soldier who had served in the Peninsula— and the exiled Emperor at Longwood ; and there are plenty of good stories and anecdotes of celebrities of all sorts. When Sir Arthur presented II. F. Chorley, who was as thin as a lath, to the portly Rossini, the latter replied with a courtly bow, " Je vois, avec plaisir, qua monsieur n'a pas de ventre," on which Chorley was (not unnaturally) completely taken aback. The parallel anecdotes of Lord Beaconsfield and Mr. Gladstone are most characteristic, and the many friends of Sir George Grove— now, alas ! in shattered health—will welcome and endorse the words on p. 68:—" What shall I say of Grove ? It would be painting the lily to describe his goodness and charm, so I refrain." The volume is completed by a so-called " critique " by Mr. B. W. Findon which would be more accurately described as an undiluted eulogy. Thus, speaking of The Golden Legend, he writes :—" Nothing in English modern art surpasses it ; nothing equals it ; nothing even approaches it in beauty of design, conciseness, symmetry, execution, and achievement. It stands unique among compositions of its class." It is sufficiently obvious that Sir Arthur Sullivan could have written a most entertaining volume of reminiscences off his own bat. The quality of the entertainment is sadly impaired by its passage through the hands of the panegyrist and interviewer.
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