This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ...in amazement and dismay. "Never mind," he said; "they must be plagiarized." I see by the not very markedly successful series of religious pastels which Oscar has inserted into the middle of the last Nineteenth Century that he has been turning his mind to the use of old faiths and creeds as valuable motifs in art. In ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ...in amazement and dismay. "Never mind," he said; "they must be plagiarized." I see by the not very markedly successful series of religious pastels which Oscar has inserted into the middle of the last Nineteenth Century that he has been turning his mind to the use of old faiths and creeds as valuable motifs in art. In this he is only following the French, who as much as four years ago were illustrating the life of Christ by wonderful ombres chinoises in the midst of the saletis of the Chat Noir, but it would seem from a conversation I had lately with that fantastic genius that he retains at least a humorous belief in the immortality of the soul. We were talking about the French edition of " Salome," and how much better it was in that musical, suggestive tongue than in its translated English. "Any transformation of English to French," he said, "is like turning silver into gold." "But how difficult it is!" he exclaimed. "I tried once to translate the Tentations of Flaubert; it took me three days to do the first two lines. At that rate it will take me about four hundred years to finish it. Therefore," he continued, "I have decided that it shall be the first thing I do in the next world." If Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins had published his " Change of Air " before the " Prisoner of Zenda" it would never have been heard of, and no one could complain about it; but coming as the successor of one of the best books of the year, it is sadly disappointing and strangely trivial. It is a very amateurish story, not a bit romantic in the sense that" Zenda" is, and containing hardly a suggestion of the real capabilities of the author. The dramatic interest is slight and is...
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