For the literature-loving public, our cup runneth over.
First, a long-lost novel by Harper Lee, a sequel (or
prequel) to To Kill a Mockingbird:
Then, a previously unpublished fragment -- no more than a
fragment, but how fine! -- of Mr Charles Dickens
(Though scholars have raised questions concerning these, we
believe them both to be genuine.)
And now, a new story from Ms Beatrix Potter, queen-mistress of bunny-love!
Unfortunately, not with her own inimitable artwork, but that
of a journeyman; as, this:
This rediscovery of a beloved English children’s-tale, is
the best news since a couple of years ago, when the Incunabula Department of
the World of Dr Justice (headquarters:
Geneva) managed to unearth
this previously unpublished gem, featuring the world’s greatest linguist ever,
Doctor John Dolittle:
Sir:
ReplyDeleteThe world of letters is in your debt, for your rescuing from obscurity such precious fragments as the “Lost Sonnet of Saint Augustine”, the “Lost Fragment of Omar Khayyam”, and the remarkable “Adventure of the Botanical Monograph” of Mr Sherlock Holmes, among others.
Yet I fear that you have been taken in by a hoax this time. This so-called “Kitty-in-Boots” (an obvious pastiche of the classic “Puss-in-Boots”; Ms Potter would never have stooped to such a thing) appears to be in no wise genuine, but merely a pseudo-literary vehicle for the scribblings of an obscure illustrator, one Blake Quentin or whatever his name is. If Mr Quentin (oder wie er Potzteufel auch heisst) wishes to publish a volume of his wretched sketches, by all means let him do so; but let him not skulk beneath the borrowed pennon of the immortal Beatrix Potter.
More in sorrow than in anger,
Professor Dr Akakia, Berlin.