Dr. Stratmann, the compiler of the excellent “Dictionary of the Old
English Language,” has died at Cologne at the age of sixty-two.
The engagement is announced of Mr. G. E. Buckle, the editor of the
_Times_, to Miss Alice Payn, the third daughter of the distinguished
novelist and editor of the _Cornhill Magazine_.
There is the unusual number of three vacancies at this moment in the
ranks of the French “Immortals.” Two of the seats, however, are as
good as filled by M. Joseph Bertrand and M. Victor Duruy. For the
third there are several candidates, of whom M. Ludovic Halévy is first
favorite. It was believed that M. Alphonse Daudet was standing, but he
has authorized the _Figaro_ to say that he never has offered himself,
and never will offer himself to the Academy.
A new novel by Georg Ebers, upon which he has been at work for two
years, is to be published at Christmas. The subject is taken from the
last struggles of Paganism against Christendom, and the scene is laid
in Egypt.
The new and enlarged edition (the third) of Hermann Grimm’s “Essays,”
includes articles on Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt, Frederick the Great and
Macaulay, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Henrik Ibsen’s “Vildanden” to which all Scandinavia has been looking
forward for months past, proves on the whole a disappointment to his
admirers. It is a five-act social satire, full of strong scenes and
pregnant sayings, and containing at least two masterly characters; but
there is no shirking the fact that as a drama it is ill-digested and
formless. Nor is the apologue of “The Wild Duck,” from which it takes
its name, by any means so luminous or of such general application as
is commonly the case with this great satirist’s inventions. It will
certainly not add to the fame of the author of “A Doll’s House” and
“Ghosts.” Björnsen, too, in his new novel, “Det Flager,” is not at his
best. It is an earnest and well-meant protest against false delicacy
in education; but unfortunately it proves its author to be distinctly
deficient in true delicacy. The youngest of the three great Norwegian
poets, Alexander Kielland, has not yet issued his promised novel
“Fortuna,” but it is to be hoped that he may redeem the credit of a
season which has as yet proved by no means the _annus mirabilis_ that
was anticipated.