Excursions in Victorian Bibliography
Part II. pp. (iv.) [enclosing inset title-page printed in red and
green] + 280 + (4). Advertisements and reviews of Part I. and of _The Children of the New Forest_ paged 1-4 occupy pp. (281) to (284).
Each volume contains four line engravings printed separately. Grey-green cloth, blocked in gold. Uniform with _The Children of the New Forest_.
NOTES—(i) Part I. was published in December, 1848, and Part II. in February, 1849.
(ii) The second edition of Part II. differs from the first in that there are preliminary pages (viii), of which p. (v) bears a note by the author's son referring to Captain Marryat's death. Frontispiece and title-page are, as previously, inset on different paper, and the latter printed in red and green.
(iii) Of Part II. only two chapters were written by Marryat.
1849
VALERIE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. By CAPTAIN MARRYAT, R.N. Author of _Peter Simple_, _Frank Mildmay_ etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1849. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 312. Publisher's advertisements, 2 pp., printed on text paper bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 287 + (1). Advertisement of _Frank Mildmay_ occupies p. (288).
Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. Also grey-green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in June, 1849. The story—to the end of Vol. II., chap. iii.—appeared serially in the “New Monthly Magazine” during 1846 and 1847. Owing to illness, Marryat was unable to complete the book, which was finished by another hand.
II.—A BOOK ATTRIBUTED TO MARRYAT, ONE EDITED BY HIM AND OTHERS POSSIBLY WRITTEN WITH HIS HELP
1836
THE FLORAL TELEGRAPH: A New Mode of Communication by floral signals. With Plates. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. MDCCCXXXVI. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. xv + (i) + 307 + (11). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (309) to (318)—others face title-page. The book contains six hand-coloured plates, printed separately. Olive-green cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in December, 1836. It was reissued, probably in 1850, with a cancel title-page reading: “The Floral Telegraph or Affection's Signals” by the late Captain Marryatt [_sic_] R.N., author of _Peter Simple_ etc. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. The pagination reads: xv + (i) + 324. Pp. xv + (i) + 189 + (1) are identical in the two editions, which are probably to this point composed of the same sheets. The second half of the book has, however, been reset, altered, and extended. The illustrations are the same as in the earlier edition, but they are much more coarsely reproduced and mechanically coloured. Olive-green cloth, similar to the first edition, but differently blocked in gold. Yellow end-papers.
(ii) It is a moot point whether or not Marryat was the author of this rather foolish little book. That he had, however, definite connection with it is suggested by the fact that on its first publication the “Metropolitan Magazine,” at that time closely identified with Marryat, devoted to it a three-quarter-page highly laudatory review, of which, after praising the introduction, the writer said: “Though no name is found on the title-page, it is evident that the work is from a practised and popular writer.” Further, if Marryat were not the author, it is difficult to understand the publishers' motive in reissuing it immediately after his death with his name on the title-page. If he deserves responsibility for the book, the manœuvre is comprehensible enough, especially on the part of a firm with whom he had severed relations in 1837, and thus deprived them of the profitable exploitation of his established reputation.
1836
RATTLIN THE REEFER. Edited by the author of _Peter Simple_. “All hands reef top-sails—Away, Aloft!” London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Successor to Henry Colburn. 1836. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. xii + (ii) + 301 + (3). Note by Marryat stating his connection with the work occupies p. (iv). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (303) (304).
Vol. II. pp. viii + 300. No half-title to this volume.
Vol. III. pp. viii + 344. No half-title to this volume.
Each volume contains three full-page etched illustrations by A. Hervieu, of which one is a frontispiece and the other two in the course of the text. A list of illustrations for the three volumes occupies p. (xiii) of Vol. I. The illustrations are dated 1836. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book, which was written by Edward Howard (see p. 100), was published on July 23, 1836. A second edition appeared on August 5 of the same year. A dramatic version by J. T. Haines (who also dramatized _Jacob Faithful_) was issued in February, 1893, as No. 2008 in French's Acting Editions of British Plays.
Two-thirds of the story appeared serially in the “Metropolitan Magazine” under the title, _The Life of a Sub-Editor_. Reviewing the book in its three-volume form, Marryat himself explained fully how and to what extent it had been transformed from a record of autobiographical fact to a frank experiment in fiction.
_NOTE_
The six items that follow are, like _Rattlin the Reefer_, the work of Lieut. the Hon. Edward Granville George Howard, who worked as sub-editor to Marryat on the “Metropolitan Magazine.” At one time the actual authorship of Howard's books was ascribed to Marryat himself. This is now proved to be a mistake. Indeed, apart from the note of recommendation to _Rattlin the Reefer_ and Marryat's review of that book in his magazine, there is no printed evidence that he had any share whatever in the composition of any one of them. On the other hand, he and Howard were very intimate; the stories of the latter are clearly influenced by the work of his chief; and Marryat collectors have been in the habit of regarding Howard's books as desirable adjuncts to a Marryat collection. For which reasons, and because it is no less probable than improbable that Marryat, in conversation if not by actual pencraft, helped to give his sub-editor's books their final shape, I have thought well to include them in this bibliography.
1837
THE OLD COMMODORE. By the author of _Rattlin the Reefer_. “Nestroque!” London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1837. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅝).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 306.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 304.
Vol. III. pp. iv + 307 + (1).
Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published on September 16, 1837.
(ii) The above reckoning was made from a rebound copy from which clearly flyleaves were missing.
1838
OUTWARD BOUND: OR A MERCHANT'S ADVENTURES. By the author of _Rattlin the Reefer_, _The Old Commodore_ etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1838. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 299 + (1). No half-title.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 308 + (2). Half-title to this volume. Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (309) (310).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 326. Half-title to this volume.
Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in March, 1838. The story appeared in part as a serial in the “Metropolitan Magazine” under the title _Ardent Troughton_.
1839
MEMOIRS OF ADMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH, K.C.B. ETC. By the author of _Rattlin the Reefer_ etc. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1839. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 9).
Vol. I pp. vii + (i) + 400.
Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 411 + (5). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (413) to (416). No half-titles.
Steel-engraved portrait frontispiece to each volume, printed separately. Pale blue ribbed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
1840
JACK ASHORE. By the Author of _Rattlin the Reefer_, _Outward Bound_ etc. etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1840. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. xvi + 310.
Vol. II. pp. viii + 300.
Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 323 + (1).
Steel-engraved portrait frontispiece to Vol. I. printed separately. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
1842
SIR HENRY MORGAN: THE BUCCANEER. By the author of _Rattlin the Reefer_, _Outward Bound_, _Jack Ashore_ etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1842. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 295 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. vi + 307 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 315 + (1).
There is a portrait frontispiece to Vol. I., lithographed and printed separately. Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.
1859
TALES FROM BENTLEY. Vol. I. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1 vol. Pott 8vo (4 × 6¼). Pp. (iv) + 96. Buff paper wrappers printed in black. Also in boards. _The Marine Coast_, a story by the author of _Rattlin the Reefer_, occupies pp. 55 to 88.
NOTE—This first series of _Tales from Bentley_ was published in September, 1859.
_A NOTE ON MARRYAT AS ARTIST_
It is well known that Captain Marryat was a painter as well as a writer. Collectors of his written work will perhaps also be interested to know of a published book containing in reproduction some of his drawings. In 1825 or 1826 there appeared the following work:
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BURMESE WAR. Both Series. With twenty-four plates after drawings by Captain Marryat, Thornton and Moore displaying the Operations of the British Forces. London: Published by Thomas Clay. (N.D.) The volume measures 20½ × 13¼, is bound in thick grey paper wrappers lettered in black as above, and contains five engravings of pictures painted by Stothard and D. Cox after drawings by Captain Marryat. The name Kingsbury and Co., 6 Leadenhall Street, appears at the foot of the engravings as their publisher, together with the date 1825.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI 1804-1881
BENJAMIN DISRAELI
It is easier to blame historians and political critics of the life and statesmanship of Disraeli for neglecting his novels, than it is oneself to judge these novels as literature, apart from the huge mass of incident, ambition, and achievement that went to make up the character of their extraordinary author. To attempt in a few pages an estimate of Disraeli as a man of letters were manifestly absurd, seeing that he was rarely that and nothing else. It were doubly absurd, even if possible, to treat in summary of the interactions of his political and literary genius when one of the finest biographies of modern times (and that in six volumes) has already covered every inch of the ground. The only purpose, therefore, which these unauthoritative notes may serve is that of indicating in a few words the development of Disraeli as a novelist and the respective content of his principal books.
Although his novels fall into distinct and different groups, they are all primarily satirical in character. From the moment of the anonymous but sensational appearance of _Vivian Grey_ to that of the publication of _Endymion_ which bore on each of its three volumes the name of the most distinguished statesman of the world, Disraeli held up alike to the follies and the ideals of his age the mirror of a keen and ruthless mind.
But if he gazed on his contemporaries more often from the angle of satire than from any other, he enclosed in their various frames the period portraits that are his books. As a very young man—unknown, ambitious, at once receptive and intensely sensitive—he used as material for fiction not only the incidents of his own life, but, even more, the thoughts and aspirations that filled his teeming brain. _Vivian Grey_ (1826-7), _Contarini Fleming_ (1833), and _Alroy_ (1833) are mainly interesting as autobiography, and to the use of personal experience as material for novel-writing he returned in extreme old age when, looking back from the splendid eminence of his power, he described in the pages of _Endymion_ the long road that he had travelled from obscurity to fame.
_Vivian Grey_ appeared in five volumes, with an interval of a year between the issue of the first two and that of the last three. But for the brilliant publicity given to it by Colburn, the book would have attracted little or no attention. It is a showy, careless pastiche of the society of the day, a gallery of isolated portraits rather than a single composition, attractive to the fashionable public of the time for its thinly veiled presentment of well-known men and women. The reader is further unpleasantly aware that the author's interest in his book did not extend much beyond the first of the five volumes. Young men find it easier to start a book than to finish one, and Disraeli was clearly no exception to the rule.
_Contarini Fleming_ and _Alroy_, written after an extended tour in the East, show, at its most luxuriant and ornate, the author's talent for heady, rhetorical prose. Like most of his race, Disraeli was more susceptible to magnificence and to decoration than to severe simplicity, and throughout his books was prone to an excessive use of epithet and metaphor. If these two early books show his love of ornament more shamelessly than those written at a maturer age, they can claim nevertheless to have received more careful and conscientious working, so that their embellishments, if too lavish, are at least scrupulously fashioned.
Between the publication of the last three volumes of _Vivian Grey_ and that of the story of _Contarini Fleming_ Disraeli published two works of fiction which, although in the matter of primary characteristic isolated from the rest of his work and from each other, contain elements that constantly reappear in the books of his later life.
_The Voyage of Captain Popanilla_ (1828) is a satire on English political and social institutions cast in the form of an inverted _Gulliver's Travels_ or _Erewhon_. Instead of an Englishman reaching an imaginary and fantastic land, where he finds conditions that correspond partly to the prejudices, partly to the ideals, of the author, the hero of Disraeli's satire is a being from a mythical world, who comes over the sea to an island that is, in all but name, England as Disraeli saw it. As an example of pertinacious and aggressive parody _The Voyage of Captain Popanilla_ is witty and readable enough, but it fatigues, as do all pastiches of the kind, by its somewhat literal pursuit of contemporary activity. Disraeli should have limited his prospect of satire, for the individual beauties of any view are appreciated in proportion to the smallness of their number. _Popanilla_ is overcrowded, and the reader's mind tires with the effort to solve the riddle that is contained in nearly every paragraph.
_The Young Duke_ (1831) was written to make money. One may go farther and confess that the author, seeking frankly to profit by the contemporary popularity of the novel of fashionable life, wrote a tale of society into which he crammed all that he knew of character and incident likely to appeal to the mood of the moment. With such antecedents it is surprising that _The Young Duke_ is not a worse book than it is. Inevitably it reads artificially, and the young writer had not the skill entirely to conceal the wilfulness with which the work was put together. On the other hand, the heroine deserves the attention of Disraeli students, for she is the direct forerunner of Sybil, and that part of _The Young Duke_ which depends on her personality is not without a touch of the four great political novels upon which Disraeli's fame as a writer must rest.
It was four years after the publication of _Alroy_ that Disraeli next appeared as a novelist. He then published, within six months of one another, two stories that stand markedly apart from the rest of his work, in that they are wholly without political significance. Even amid the extravagance of _Contarini Fleming_ and _The Young Duke_ occur passages that depend for their significance on political movements or political thought of the time. _Vivian Grey_, being a _roman à clef_ of high society, and _Popanilla_ being a direct satire of institutions, are naturally full of what was, even in those days, the author's ruling interest. But _Henrietta Temple_ (1837) and _Venetia_ (1837) are romances pure and simple. They may be said also to have no autobiographical significance, save in so far as the first part of the earlier book was written under the stimulus of a real love affair. It must be admitted that _Henrietta Temple_, once it gets beyond the boundary of Disraeli's own passionate experience, is a tame and careless book. The interval that passed between the writing of the earlier and that of the later portion seems to have extinguished his enthusiasm for the work. Colburn was clamouring for a novel, and Disraeli, as always hard pressed for money, raked out his incomplete manuscript, furbished it up, finished it off, and delivered it to the publisher. _Venetia_ has not this fault of interrupted fashioning. It is, however, in one reader's opinion at any rate, a very tedious affair—rhetorical, unreal, and sluggish in movement; but this view is contrary to that held by many, who consider that the book's portraiture gives it value as commentary on the life of Byron and other famous people.
There follows, this time after an interval of seven years, the first of the four famous political novels that, whether or no they can be said to have introduced a new genre into English fiction, are undoubtedly the finest achievements of Disraeli's literary career. _Coningsby_ (1844), _Sybil_ (1845), and _Tancred_ (1847) are too well known to need description here. Because, however, their interdependence as parts of a general scheme in the mind of the author tends to become obscured by consideration of their respective quality, note may be taken of the fact that _Coningsby_ is a novel of political views, _Sybil_ one of social conditions and classes among the people, and _Tancred_ one of religion as an influence in national life. Of the characters in _Coningsby_ many reappear in _Tancred_, while Tadpole and Taper, whose names have become part of English political slang, pull their wires and cadge their jobs as assiduously in _Sybil_ as in the story that preceded it. It would be interesting to work out a comparison between Disraeli and Trollope as political novelists. Probably one would come to the decision that those of Disraeli are the better political novels and those of Trollope the better novels of politics. In other words, Disraeli is the cleverer publicist, but Trollope the finer artist. _Coningsby_ and its fellows depend very much on contemporary fact and personality for their full understanding and significance. Surely it is not hyperæsthetic to demand that literature be its own interpreter? In so far as a work of art requires outside knowledge for its proper appreciation, to that extent it falls short from what in art is highest and most perfect.
The appearance of _Lothair_ in 1870 caused something of a scandal in serious political circles. The Briton is accustomed to take his statesmen seriously, but his novelists with frivolity and in the leisure hour. Wherefore he regarded it as unseemly that the name of an ex-Prime Minister and of a man whose political career was by no means run should figure on the title-pages of a three-volume novel. Curiosity conquered disapproval and, as on an hundred other occasions, a book condemned for its very existence was purchased and read in tens of thousands. _Lothair_ is the work of a man who knew everybody and almost everything. The personal satire, the constructive and destructive fervour of _Coningsby_, _Sybil_, and _Tancred_ have given place to a greater gravity and restraint, to an ironic vision more general and less individual. Taking as his subject the power of the Catholic Church, the rival power of revolutionary free thought and the indeterminate central position of the Church of England, Disraeli built up his fourth and most extensive picture of the England of his time. If we miss the idealist conviction that gives to some of the passages in _Tancred_ the force of a splendid sermon, we gain a certainty and a dignity of thought which were inevitably lacking in the books of the earlier period. We also continue to enjoy the epigram, the vivid minor portraiture, the lightning grasp of fact and of every implication of fact, that give to the political novels of Disraeli their unique flavour and importance.
_BIOGRAPHY_
THE LIFE OF BENJAMIN DISRAELI, EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. By WILLIAM FLAVELLE MONYPENNY and GEORGE EARLE BUCKLE. 6 vols. London: John Murray. 1912-1920.
I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPES FICTION, POETRY, ESSAYS, LETTERS, ETC.
1825
AN ENQUIRY INTO THE PLANS, PROGRESS AND POLICY OF AMERICAN MINING COMPANIES. London: John Murray. MDCCCXXV. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¼ × 8½). Pp. 135 + (1) of which p. (6) is paged vi. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—These observations were made from a third enlarged edition published in the first year of issue, and it is likely that the first edition, although similar in format, etc., contains fewer pages.
1825
LAWYERS AND LEGISLATORS: Or NOTES ON THE AMERICAN MINING COMPANIES. (Quotation from Hooker.) London: John Murray. MDCCCXXV. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¼ × 8½). Pp. (viii) + 99 + (1). No half-title. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
1825
THE PRESENT STATE OF MEXICO: As detailed in a Report presented to the General Congress by the Secretary of State for the Home Department and Foreign Affairs at the Opening of the Session in 1825. With Notes and a Memoir of Don Lucas Alaman. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. MDCCCXXV. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¼ × 8½). Pp. 130. Advertisement of Disraeli's two earlier pamphlets occupies verso of half-title, facing title-page. Pp. (6) to 55 are occupied by a Memoir of Don Lucas Alaman, written by Disraeli. Alaman's report begins on p. 57. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
1826/7
VIVIAN GREY. “Why then the world's mine oyster which I with sword will open.” London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. 1826 (Vols. I. and II.), 1827 (Vols. III. IV. and V.). 5 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅝).
Vol. I. pp. (vi) + 266 + (2).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 236 + (4). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (237) to (240).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 333 + (3). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (335) and (336).
Vol. IV. pp. (iv) + 362.
Vol. V. pp. (iv) + 324.
Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—Vols. I. and II. of this story were published on April 22, 1826; Vols. III. IV. and V. on February 23, 1827.
1828
THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN POPANILLA. By the author of _Vivian Grey_. “Travellers ne'er did lie though fools at home condemned 'em.” London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. 1828. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾). Pp. viii + 243 + (1). Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on June 3, 1828.
1831
THE YOUNG DUKE: “A moral Tale, though gay.” By the author of _Vivian Grey_. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1831. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (7⅞ × 4¾).
Vol. I. pp. iv + 300. No half-title.
Vol. II. pp. (vi) + 269 + (3). Text ends p. 269; note occupies p. (271).
Vol. III. pp. (vi) + 265 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (267) (268).
Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—The only copy of this book I have been able to consult in its original state contained at the end of Vol. I. a publishers' catalogue, 8 pp., dated April, 1832. Clearly it did not belong to the first issue, but what date should be found on a catalogue of the earliest issue, where in the three volumes such a catalogue should appear, or whether there should be a catalogue at all, I do not know.
1832
ENGLAND AND FRANCE: Or A CURE FOR THE MINISTERIAL GALLOMANIA. (Quotation from speech by Duke of Wellington.) London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1832. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. viii + (xii) + 268. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in April, 1832.
(ii) The above observations were made from a rebound cut copy, and details of measurement are therefore conjectural.
1832
CONTARINI FLEMING: A Psychological Autobiography. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. MDCCCXXXII. 4 vols. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 288.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 247 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 194 + (2). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (195) (196).
Vol. IV. pp. (iv) + 230 + (2).
Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in May, 1832.
(ii) The sheets of the Murray edition were issued in 1834 by Edward Moxon, Dover Street, over the name: “D'Israeli The Younger, author of _Vivian Grey_, _Alroy_ and _Ixion in Heaven_,” with a new preliminary signature (8 pp.) to Vol. I. containing a preface in explanation of the author's action in putting his name to the book. Consequently from the purist point of view the Moxon edition of 1834 should be collected as containing fresh matter. It was bound in pale maroon cloth, with paper label. Yellow end-papers.
1833
THE WONDROUS TALE OF ALROY: THE RISE OF ISKANDER. By the author of _Vivian Grey_, _Contarini Fleming_ etc. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. 1833. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. xxv + (iii) + 303 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 305 + (3). Publishers' advertisements, dated February, 1833, occupy pp. (307) and (308).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 324 + (4). Advertisements of works by the same author occupy pp. (325) and (326).
Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on March 5, 1833.
1833
WHAT IS HE? By the author of _Vivian Grey_. (Extract from a Letter.) London: James Ridgway, Piccadilly and E. Lloyd, Harley Street, MDCCCXXXIII. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5⅜ × 8½). Pp. 16. Half-title serves as wrapper and bears the words “Price Sixpence.” P. 16 serves as back wrapper. Advertisements occupy p. (2).
NOTE—The above notation was made from a copy of the “New Edition, Revised” of the pamphlet. Since, however, this first appeared in the same year and over the same imprint, I have ventured to assume comparative uniformity of size and appearance.
1834
THE REVOLUTIONARY EPICK: THE WORK OF DISRAELI THE YOUNGER. Author of _The Psychological Romance_. London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street, MDCCCXXXIV. [The title-page to Vol. II. reads in addition: “Books II. and III. containing The Plea of Lyridon, the Genius of Feudalism; and the First Part of the Conquest of Italy.”] 2 vols. Large Post 4to (8¼ × 10½).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 89 + (3).
Vol. II. pp. xi + (i) + (91) to 206.
Advertisement of _Contarini Fleming_ (differently worded in each case) faces title in both volumes. Paper boards. Paper label on sides. White end-papers.
NOTE—Only fifty copies of this edition were printed. See preface to the second and revised edition published in 1864, details of which are given below.
1834
THE CRISIS EXAMINED. By DISRAELI THE YOUNGER. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. 1834. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8½). Pp. (iv) + 31 + (1).
NOTES—(i) This pamphlet was issued in December, 1834.
(ii) The above observations were made from a rebound copy, wherefore the style of binding is an assumption, and I suspect that two or more flyleaves—maybe printed with advertisements—should be added to the reckoning here set down.
1835
VINDICATION OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION IN A LETTER TO A NOBLE AND LEARNED LORD. By DISRAELI THE YOUNGER. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. 1835. 1 vol. Tall Demy 8vo (5½ × 9). Pp. ix + (i) + 210 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (211) and (212). A four-page leaflet of publishers' advertisements should be found inserted between the front end-papers, and an erratum slip at p. (v). Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in January, 1835.
1836
THE LETTERS OF RUNNYMEDE. “Neither for shame nor fear this mask he wore That, like a vizor in the battle-field But shrouds a manly and a daring brow.” London: John Macrone, St. James's Square. MDCCCXXXVI. 1 vol. Slim Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 8¼). Pp. (xxiv) [paged as ii + (v) + vi-xx + (ii)] + 234 + (6). Publishers' advertisements, 2 pp., dated August 1, 1836, occupy pp. i and ii. The half-title is inset on different paper between p. ii. and title-page. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers. Also in dark blue embossed cloth, gilt, yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in July or August, 1836.
1837
HENRIETTA TEMPLE: A Love Story. By the author of _Vivian Grey_. “Quoth Sancho, Read it out by all means; for I mightily delight in hearing of love stories.” London: Henry Colburn, 13 Great Marlborough Street, MDCCCXXXVII. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅝).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 299 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 309 + (3). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (311) and (312).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 331 + (1).
Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—Although dated 1837, this book was actually published in December, 1836.
1837
VENETIA. By the author of _Vivian Grey_ and _Henrietta Temple_. “Is thy face like thy mother's my fair child?” “The child of love, though born in bitterness and nurtured in convulsion.” London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13 Great Marlborough Street. MDCCCXXXVII. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅝).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 346.
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 377 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 324. Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (i) and (ii).
No half-titles. Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in May, 1837.
1839
THE TRAGEDY OF COUNT ALARCOS. By the author of _Vivian Grey_. London: Henry Colburn, Great Marlborough Street. 1839. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8½). Pp. vi + (ii) + 108. Errata slip facing p. 1. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in May, 1839.
1844
CONINGSBY: Or THE NEW GENERATION. By B. DISRAELI ESQ., M.P., author of _Contarini Fleming_. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1844. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. iv + 319 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 314.
Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 354. Advertisements occupy pp. (351) to (354).
No half-titles. Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in May, 1844.
1845
SYBIL: Or, THE TWO NATIONS. By B. DISRAELI, M.P., author of _Coningsby_. (Quotation from Latimer.) London: Henry Colburn. Publisher. Great Marlborough Street. 1845. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. p. viii + 315 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 324.
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 326 + (2). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (327) and (328).
Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in May, 1845.
1847
TANCRED: Or THE NEW CRUSADE. By B. DISRAELI, M.P., author of _Coningsby_, _Sybil_ etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street, 1847. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅞).
Vol. I. pp. (ii) + 338.
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 340.
Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 298 + (12). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (299) to (310).
No half-titles. Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in March, 1847.
1852
LORD GEORGE BENTINCK: A Political Biography. By B. DISRAELI, Member of Parliament for the County of Buckingham. “He left us the legacy of heroes; the memory of his great name and the inspiration of his great example.” London: Colburn and Co., Publishers, Great Marlborough Street. 1852. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¾ × 8¾). Pp. viii + 588. Publishers' catalogue, 8 pp., and measuring 5 × 8, bound in after p. 588. This catalogue is followed by a further single sheet (2 pp.) advertisement, measuring 5 × 8½. Dark olive-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—Although dated 1852, this book was actually published in December, 1851.
1853
*IXION IN HEAVEN. THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN POPANILLA. THE TRAGEDY OF COUNT ALARCOS. By BENJAMIN DISRAELI. London: David Bryce, 48 Paternoster Row. 1853. 1 vol. Cloth.
This little book—a volume in a cheap reissue of the novels and romances of Disraeli—is the first _book_ edition of _Ixion in Heaven_ and _The Infernal Marriage_, which first appeared in the “New Monthly” in 1829 and 1830, and had not been reprinted in the interval.
1864
THE REVOLUTIONARY EPICK. By the Right Honorable BENJAMIN DISRAELI. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green. 1864. 1 vol. Small Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7⅛). Pp. (xiv) [paged as (ii) + x + (ii)] + 176 + (2). Preface (in dedication), dated Easter, 1864, occupies pp. (vii) and (viii). Preface reprinted from the original edition occupies pp. (ix) to (xii). Brown cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—The text of this edition differs extensively both in wording and length from that of 1834. In his preface the author states that the work was completed in 1837, but, through press of political duties, he made no arrangement for its issue before the present date. He also avers that only fifty copies of the edition of 1834 were printed.
1870
LOTHAIR. By the Right Honorable B. DISRAELI. (Quotation from Terentius.) London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1870. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 328. Publishers' advertisements, 32 pp., dated January, 1870, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 321 + (3).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 333 + (7). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (337) to (340).
Green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in May, 1870.
1880
ENDYMION. By the author of _Lothair_. “Quicquid agunt Homines.” London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1880. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅝).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 331 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 337 + (3).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 346 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (347) and (348).
Scarlet cloth lettered in silver. Grey and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—There are two styles of blocking for the binding of this book; that most worked and bearing publishers' imprint at foot of spine is the earlier.
II.—BOOKS PARTIALLY WRITTEN OR EDITED BY BENJAMIN DISRAELI
1825
THE LIFE OF PAUL JONES. From original documents in the possession of John Henry Sherburne Esq., Register of the Navy of the United States. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. MDCCCXXV. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. xii + 320. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.
NOTES—(i) With reference to this book Monypenny says: “The exact relationship of the English book to the American original is not clear; but the former seems also to have been written by an American, and the original MS., which has been preserved, shows that Disraeli's share in it was limited to the introduction here and there of a word or phrase where the excision of a passage rendered such amendment necessary.” In addition to the corrections thus described Disraeli contributed an anonymous preface to the book.
(ii) It is interesting to record here that in 1844 Captain Marryat was asked to write a life of Paul Jones. He was interested in the project, but it never materialized.
1826
THE STAR CHAMBER. A Weekly Magazine published by William Marsh, 145 Oxford Street. 9/8 numbers Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾) were published: No. 1, April 19, pp. 1 to 20; Nos. 2 and 3 (double number), April 26, pp. 21 to 58; No. 4, May 3, pp. 59 to 74; No. 5, May 10, pp. 75 to 90; No. 6, May 17, pp. 91 to 110; No. 7, May 24, pp. 111 to 126; No. 8, May 31, pp. 127 to 142; No. 9, June 7, pp. 143 to 154.
After the completion of the 9/8 numbers, a four-page sheet of preliminary matter was issued, of which p. (i) reads:
THE STAR CHAMBER. Vol. I. Part 1. April 19 to June 7, 1826. (Quotation from Cavendish, “Wolsey.”) London: William Marsh, 145 Oxford Street. Pp. (iii) and (iv) are occupied by contents list.
NOTES—(i) At one time the responsibility for the whole contents as well as for the editorship of the “Star Chamber” was fathered upon Disraeli. Monypenny, however, combats this theory. He says: “The 'Star Chamber' was founded by a certain Peter Hall, a friend of Meredith's at Brasenose, who, through Meredith, had become acquainted with Disraeli. Disraeli contributed some fables with a political application under the title of _The Modern Aesop_, and perhaps other matter. But in later life he expressly denied ('The Times,' November 3, 1871; the 'Leisure Hour,' November 4, 1871) having been editor, if indeed there ever was an editor.” This represents, of course, the most recent and authoritative opinion on the matter; but it is interesting, on p. 150 of the catalogue of the Hope collection of newspapers, etc., in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (1865), to find reasons given for the suppression by Disraeli of all copies of the “Star Chamber” upon which he could lay his hands. The Peter Hall referred to above was the Reverend Peter Hall, B.A., editor of “The Crypt.”
(ii) It is because the “Star Chamber” has come to be looked upon as a Disraeli item that I have included it here, despite the fact that in so doing I exceed the limit of these bibliographies, which take no account of magazine contributions of the authors concerned.
1849-1859
THE WORKS OF ISAAC DISRAELI. Edited with Introductions by BENJAMIN DISRAELI.
Disraeli started work on a new edition of his father's books in 1847, but the actual publication was, for various reasons, spread over a period of ten years. The following are the dates and details in outline of the first issues of the various titles:
1849. CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE. London: Edward Moxon. 3 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾). Dark green cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers. Vol. I. contains “A View of the Life and Writings” of Isaac Disraeli written by his son and extending to over thirty pages.
1851. COMMENTARIES ON THE LIFE AND REIGN OF CHARLES THE FIRST, KING OF ENGLAND. London: Henry Colburn. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾). Dark green cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers. Vol. I. contains a brief preface by Benjamin Disraeli.
1859. THE LITERARY CHARACTER Or THE HISTORY OF MEN OF GENIUS; and LITERARY MISCELLANIES and AN ENQUIRY INTO THE CHARACTER OF JAMES THE FIRST. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo.
1859. THE CALAMITIES AND QUARRELS OF AUTHORS. 1 Vol. Cr. 8vo.
1859. AMENITIES OF LITERATURE. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo.
These last three items were all published in London by Routledge, Warnes and Routledge, and bound in dark green cloth, with yellow end-papers. They contain no prefaces by Benjamin Disraeli, who contented himself with care for the text of his father's work.
_NOTE_
To a collected edition of his novels issued in 1870 Disraeli wrote an important preface, characterising the work of his youth from the viewpoint of a man in his sixties and indicating the considerable revisions carried out in nearly all the books.
No attempt has been made to include in the foregoing bibliography the reports of and selections from the speeches of Disraeli, which—not surprisingly—were issued in large numbers during his later life. Also are omitted two volumes of his early letters, published after his death.
WILKIE COLLINS 1824-1889
WILKIE COLLINS
Few novelists have enjoyed greater glory than did Wilkie Collins at the height of his fame; to few did loss of popularity in later years come more bitterly. For fame at one time undeniably was his. Not only had he a large and enthusiastic public; not only were his works translated into half a dozen languages within a month of their original publication; not only was he pestered by the editors of two hemispheres for stories and serials; but also he figured prominently in the professional literary life of the time, was the intimate friend of Dickens, and a member of the innermost ring of artistic and intellectual society. Probably to his intimacy with the chief literary personalities of his time is due the considerable survival of his reputation. Despite the fact that during the last period of his life he suffered severe eclipse, and although, beyond _The Moonstone_ and _The Woman in White_, none of his books are regularly read to-day, he is a name more familiar to the world than Trollope, a name more notably literary than Marryat. In the sixties, no less than in the nineteen-twenties, to belong to the writing set was two-thirds of reputation. There is no log-rolling so expert, no admiration so mutual as that existing among members of the various groups that practise the arts. Whence it has come about that the name of Wilkie Collins—who as an artist may not be mentioned in the same chapter as Trollope or Marryat, or even Mrs. Gaskell—is a household word, while those of his greater fellows sound strangely, as the notes of some old-fashioned melody.
I do not seek to imply that Collins' survival is in no way due to the quality of his work. He won the admiration of his own age and may claim that of posterity as a superb teller of stories and, in his latter days, as a pathetic and courageous figure. But apart from his dexterity in the contriving of plot, apart from a great (if intermittent) talent for the portrayal of abnormal character, he is inferior as a painter of life to many writers of his time whose very existence is nowadays forgotten.
And yet he would, perhaps, himself be content to have it so. That it was the novelist's primary duty to tell a story was his own creed, and faithfully he abode by it. He does not reveal to us human nature as does Trollope; nor, like Disraeli, pique our interest with satiric brilliance on topics of follies of the day; he has none of Marryat's gay familiarity with the winds that blow and the sun that shines on the crossroads of life's pilgrimage; he has no fund of rough but genial humanity like Reade; he is not tender like Mrs. Gaskell, nor mystic visionary like Herman Melville; even Whyte Melville, with his stilted rhetoric and clumsy naïveté, has at times an attractive freshness that Collins lacks. But if we rid our minds of all thought of him as seeking to throw on the dark places of existence the light of interpretation, looking to him rather for entertainment and for excitement, for deft mystery and for extraordinary coincidence, he will not disappoint us.
Of his novels the largest category, and that including all the books (save perhaps two) that bear re-reading nowadays, is that of the dramatic and mystery stories.
The first to appear was _After Dark_, published in 1856. To the modern reader, the unmistakable first appearance of the real Collins in these excellent tales comes with a pleasurable shock after the mild bohemianism of the preceding novel, _Hide and Seek_. _After Dark_ consists of six narratives of varying length and subject, ingeniously woven together into the pattern of a single story. At their best they are as good as anything the author ever wrote; even at their worst they are free from the perfunctory carelessness that mars so much of his later work.
_The Dead Secret_ (1857) and _The Queen of Hearts_ (1859) show the novelist carrying farther his talent for dramatic construction and his experiments in technique. Both books contain descriptive passages of sombre power.
There follow successively the four best books of Collins' career. _The Woman in White_ (1860), _No Name_ (1862), _Armadale_ (1866), and _The Moonstone_ (1868) are story-telling as fine as the nineteenth century can show. But they make evident that, even at his zenith, Collins was no reader of other men's hearts. He could fashion ingenious puppets to his will, entangling them in the meshes of his intricate and faultlessly constructed plots; but neither Count Fosco nor Captain Wragge, neither Miss Gwilt nor Sergeant Cuff, remains with the reader as a new friend or as a new enemy. Each is remembered, rather, as a striking and skilfully designed marionette, jerking through a Collins drama at the bidding of a delicate mechanism of strings.
After _The Moonstone_ the decadence began, and, to a point, accountably enough. In the first place, the author threw himself into the production of propaganda fiction, with results (as may be seen) praiseworthy but a little ridiculous. Secondly, he paid the usual price of success and began to over-write. Whereas between 1850 and 1868 he published eleven novels and books of tales, between 1870 and his death in 1889 he published eighteen, in addition to a mass of short stories for magazines, plays, and other incidental work. Thirdly—although not until late in the seventies—his health began to fail. With reasons as good as these for a falling off in Collins' work, it were ungracious to inquire whether, had he eschewed reform, controlled his pen, and retained his strength and eyesight, his fiction would have advanced from strength to strength. Perhaps; perhaps not. Let us return from hypothetical dilemma to melancholy fact. After _The Moonstone_ the decadence unmistakably began.
When next he came before the public with a novel of plot, and left for a moment the righting of public wrongs, his offering was mechanical enough. _The Two Destinies_ (1876) is built on a series of coincidences so incredible, that even Collins' candid claim to search the very border-line of impossibility for material of which to make a story cannot reconcile us to their unlikelihood.
_The Haunted Hotel_ (1879), _Jezebel's Daughter_ (1880), and _I Say No_ (1884) mark a slight improvement, and can be read with pleasure for the unfailing ingenuity of their design. _The Evil Genius_ (1886) is in the nature of a bad relapse, from which the dramatic tales never wholly recover, although, of the three remaining, _Little Novels_ (1887) and _The Legacy of Cain_ (1889) are not without flashes of the old skill and invention. _Blind Love_, finished by Sir Walter Besant and published posthumously, may perhaps claim immunity from criticism.
As a novelist of indignation Collins is pathetic rather than blameworthy. He had the usual fanaticisms of the invalid intellectual—hatred of athleticism, of sport, of legal injustice, of religious intrigue, of social insincerity; and his propaganda novels give expression to his passionate dislikes with a petulant but rather impressive sincerity. Fortunately for the modern reader of books which by their very nature are now out of date, Collins did not fail, even in his tilting at windmills, to regulate his movements with practised skill. Wherefore all but one of the propaganda novels have well-contrived plots and continuity of interest, which those will enjoy who can disentangle the fictional from the instructional in the stories' purpose. These “indignation novels” are six in number:
MAN AND WIFE (1870), THE NEW MAGDALEN (1873), THE LAW AND THE LADY (1875), THE FALLEN LEAVES (1879), THE BLACK ROBE (1871), and HEART AND SCIENCE (1883).
That in other books are present elements of reforming zeal I am aware—for example, the abuse of private asylums figures in _The Woman in White_ and, as mentioned below, there is a propaganda aspect to _Basil_; but the six above named have their origin wholly in the author's loathing of some injustice or some social evil.
_Man and Wife_ illustrates the cruel working of the marriage laws of the United Kingdom and, incidentally, voices the author's conviction that athleticism was at the time rapidly brutalizing the youth of England. _The Law and the Lady_ ventilates another grievance against legal injustice in matters sexual. _The New Magdalen_ and _The Fallen Leaves_ are protests against the outlawry of the prostitute and of the girl who gives herself, unhallowed by the religious rite, to love. It is strange that, of two books on the same subject, one (_The New Magdalen_) should be the best novel of its class and not far below the highest level ever attained by the author, while the other (_The Fallen Leaves_) should hold the last place among everything that Collins wrote. _The New Magdalen_ is a moving and dignified treatment of a very difficult theme; _The Fallen Leaves_, from its aggressive preface to its sugary, unreal end, is tragic proof that high motive and technical efficiency may yet come together and produce only imbecile hysteria.
_The Black Robe_ is anti-Jesuit; _Heart and Science_ anti-vivisection. Both are readable, and the latter something more. It may be noted that Collins himself called _Heart and Science_ his best novel since _Man and Wife_. Probably opinion to-day would set it above that humourless and over-appendixed story, but it must rank below _The New Magdalen_ and, possibly, also below _The Haunted Hotel_.
The novels that remain may hardly be classified. _Antonina_, the story of Ancient Rome, with which in 1850, and following a fashion of the day, he began his novelist's career, is essentially a first book—painstaking, over-elaborate, and dull.
It was succeeded by _Mr. Wray's Cash Box_ (1852), a brief and sentimental tale, mainly interesting for the evidence it provides of Dickens's influence over the young Collins at the very beginning of their long friendship. Those who enjoy hearty Christmas jollity, lovable if ludicrous old age, uncouth fidelity, incompetent villainy, and sweet simple maidenhood will find _Mr. Wray's Cash Box_ pleasant enough.
_Basil_ (1852) and _Hide and Seek_ (1854) are novels of contemporary life, a little sombre, emotionally a little exaggerated. There is a hint of crusading fervour in _Basil_ (against drunken nurses and hospital routine), but the motif is not strong enough to class the book as a propaganda novel. The young author (as many both before and since have done) found stimulus for these books in the pathetic figure of the debauched girl; but she receives at his hands treatment little different from that usually given her by serious neophytes, eager to paint her tragic isolation for the improvement of the novel-reading public.
There is in _Hide and Seek_ an element of interest apart from that of the story itself. Much of the action takes place in a painter's studio, and Collins has full scope for showing his fondness for art, an enthusiasm suitable enough in the son and biographer of a distinguished painter, but somewhat uncommon among novelists of his age. Throughout his work he makes play with knowledge of contemporary painting, displaying decided and on the whole admirable taste, often well in advance of his time.
_Poor Miss Finch_ (1872) is more a story of contemporary social life than either a novel of mystery or one of propaganda. It may therefore appear here as pendant to the two early books just described. The central figure is a blind girl. In _Hide and Seek_ the author took credit to himself for introducing a deaf mute, but as the affliction plays no part in the story one must refrain from joining in the applause. The blindness of Miss Finch, on the other hand, is the pivot of her tale, and a very elaborate, improbable, and overcrowded tale it is. The fact is regrettable. Neatly contrived, related in a series of narratives from different sources and from different points of view, based largely on the antagonism of two brothers, and pervaded by the wise spirit of an elderly governess-companion, this novel is so nearly an epitome of the methods and tricks of Wilkie Collins, that one could wish it more thoroughly a success.
And here, save for scattered volumes of short stories and one or two brief and unimportant novels, ends the tale of Collins's books. He is a writer for tired minds, capable—thanks to his perfect control of the mechanism of incident—of holding the interest without calling on the emotional reserves of his reader. His influence on the novel of sensation has been enormous. It is the least of his due that a generation brought up on the mystery stories of his disciples should find time to turn over the principal works of the master himself.
_BIOGRAPHY_
The only biography of Wilkie Collins which has yet been published is an insignificant German book issued in 1885.
EDITIONES PRINCIPES A.—FICTION, ESSAYS, BIOGRAPHY, ETC., AND ONE BOOK WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION
1848
MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF WILLIAM COLLINS, R.A.: WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE. By his son, W. WILKIE COLLINS. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. MDCCCXLVIII. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅞).
Vol. I. pp. xii + 348. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated April 29, 1848, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. vi + 354.
No half-titles. Brown-purple (or grey-blue) cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers. Vol. I. contains engraved portrait after Linnell and engraved title-page after Collins, immediately preceding printed title. Vol. II. contains engraved title-page after Collins, immediately preceding printed title.
NOTE—This book was published in November, 1848.
1850
ANTONINA: Or THE FALL OF ROME. A Romance of the Fifth Century. By W. WILKIE COLLINS, author of _The Life of William Collins, R.A._ (Quotation from Scuderi.) London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. MDCCCL. 3 vols. Tall Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 8).
Vol. I. pp. xiv + (ii) + 295 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 338 + (2). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (323) and (324).
Vol. III. pp. (viii) + 338 + (2). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (339) and (340).
Cream embossed cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers, printed with publisher's advertisements.
NOTES—(i) This book was published on February 27, 1850.
(ii) Copies in paper boards, half cloth and with paper label, were probably also issued.
1851
RAMBLES BEYOND RAILWAYS: Or NOTES IN CORNWALL TAKEN A-FOOT. By W. WILKIE COLLINS, author of _The Life of William Collins, R.A._, _Antonina_ etc. With Illustrations by Henry C. Brandling. (Quotation from _A Winter's Tale_.) London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1851. 1 vol. Sq. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¼) pp. (viii) + 304. No half-title. Twelve full-page illustrations in tinted lithograph, printed separately. Cream-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers, printed with publisher's advertisements.
NOTES—(i) This book was published on January 30, 1851.
(ii) The second edition (January 9, 1852) contained a frontispiece differently tinted.
1852
MR. WRAY'S CASH BOX: Or THE MASK AND THE MYSTERY: A Christmas Sketch. By W. WILKIE COLLINS, author of _Antonina_ etc. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1852. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. viii + 171 + (5). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (173) to (176). Grey-blue cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers. Etched frontispiece by J. E. Millais, dated 1852, and printed separately.
NOTE—This book was published in January, 1852.
1852
BASIL: A Story of Modern Life. By W. WILKIE COLLINS, author of _Antonina_, _Rambles Beyond Railways_ etc. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1852. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. 300 pp. (6) to (21) are paged in roman numerals. Half-title to this volume.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 303 + (1). No half-title.
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 301 + (1). No half-title.
Paper boards, half cloth, paper label, white end-papers. Also in bright blue embossed cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Brick-red end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on November 16, 1852. An one-volume edition (1862, magenta cloth, blocked in gold and blind) contains a dedicatory letter not elsewhere published.
1854
HIDE AND SEEK. By W. WILKIE COLLINS, author of _Antonina_, _Basil_ etc. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1854. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 297 + (3). Publisher's advertisements, dated June, 1854, occupy pp. (299) and (300).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 322 + (2). Publisher's advertisements, dated June, 1854, occupy pp. (323) and (324).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 332.
Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers. Also in pale maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in blind, pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on June 6, 1854.
1856
AFTER DARK. By WILKIE COLLINS, author of _Basil_, _Hide and Seek_ etc. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. 1856. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 315 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., dated January, 1856, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 322 + (2). Publishers' advertisement occupies p. (323).
Boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers. Also in dark grey-green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind, yellow end-papers.
_Contents_: Vol. I., A Terribly Strange Bed—A Stolen Letter—Sister Rose. Vol. II., The Lady of Glenwith Grange—Gabriel's Marriage—The Yellow Mask.
NOTE—This book was published in February, 1856.
1857
THE DEAD SECRET. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Bradbury and Evans, 11 Bouverie Street. 1857. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 303 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 331 + (1). No half-title.
Grey-purple cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in June, 1857.
(ii) Copies in brown cloth, with yellow end-papers, printed with Chapman and Hall advertisements, are of later issue.
1859
A PLOT IN PRIVATE LIFE AND OTHER TALES. By WILKIE COLLINS, author of _After Dark_, _Hide and Seek_ etc. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz. 1859.
1 vol. (4½ × 6¼). Pp. (viii) + 294 + (2). Paper wrappers of usual Tauchnitz style.
_Contents_: A Plot in Private Life—Mad Monkton—The Black Cottage—The Family Secret—The Biter Bit.
1859
THE QUEEN OF HEARTS. By WILKIE COLLINS, author of _The Dead Secret_, _After Dark_, etc. etc. London: Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, Successors to Henry Colburn, 13 Great Marlborough Street. 1859. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. iii + (i) + 314. Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., undated, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 359 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 307 + (1).
No half-titles. Dark grey-green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in October, 1859.
1860
THE WOMAN IN WHITE. By WILKIE COLLINS. Author of _The Dead Secret_, _After Dark_ etc. etc. London: Sampson Low, Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill. 1860. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 316.
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 360.
Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 368.
No half-titles. Preface to Vol. I., dated August 3, 1860. Violet embossed cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in September, 1860. The first one-volume edition (1861, magenta cloth blocked in gold and blind) contains a special preface.
(ii) I am uncertain whether or not the earliest copies of this novel contained in any one of the three volumes a publishers' catalogue. The first editions I have seen show a 16 pp. catalogue at the end of Vol. III., but dated November, 1860, so that they belong clearly to a subsequent issue. _The Woman in White_ is a case over which the buyer should take great care. A so-called “New Edition” was issued in the year of publication and _with binding identical_ to that of the first edition, for which reason only the right advertisement matter can show that a copy is untampered with. I should welcome information tending to establish whether a catalogue (and if so where and of what date) should properly figure in a “right” copy of the novel.
1862
NO NAME. By WILKIE COLLINS, author of _The Woman in White_, _The Dead Secret_, etc. etc. etc. London: Sampson Low, Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill. 1862. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. ix + (1) + 339 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 363 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 408.
Scarlet embossed cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—Although this book is dated 1862, it was not actually published until January, 1863.
1863
MY MISCELLANIES. By WILKIE COLLINS, author of _The Woman in White_, _No Name_, _The Dead Secret_ etc. etc. etc. London: Sampson Low, Son and Co., Ludgate Hill. 1863. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. vi + (ii) + 291 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., printed on text paper, and dated November, 1863, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 300. Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., printed on text paper and dated November, 1863, bound in at end.
Green embossed cloth, gilt. Green-ochre end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in November, 1863.
(ii) Copies in brown cloth gilt are of later issue.
1866
ARMADALE. By WILKIE COLLINS. With Twenty Illustrations by George H. Thomas. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. 1866. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 304.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 372.
No half-titles. Vol. I. contains nine illustrations, Vol. II. eleven. Red-brown cloth, blocked in gold. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in June, 1866. The story appeared serially in the “Cornhill.”
1868
THE MOONSTONE: A Romance. By WILKIE COLLINS, author of _The Woman in White_, _No Name_, _Armadale_, etc. etc. London: Tinsley Brothers, 18 Catherine Street, Strand. 1868. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 315 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 297 + (1). Publishers' advertisements (2 pp.) inserted before half-title.
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 309 + (1). Publishers' advertisements (2 pp.) inserted before half-title.
Violet cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Cream end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in July, 1868.
1870
MAN AND WIFE: A Novel. By WILKIE COLLINS. (Quotation from Bunyan.) London: F. S. Ellis, 33 King Street, Covent Garden. 1870. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. xiv + 356. Publisher's advertisements, 8 pp., bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. vi + 359 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. vi + 348.
Maroon cloth, gilt. Black end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in June, 1870.
1872
POOR MISS FINCH: A Novel. By WILKIE COLLINS, author of _The Woman in White_, _No Name_, _Man and Wife_, etc. London: Richard Bentley and Son. 1872. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. ix + (iii) + 314 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy p. (315).
Vol. II. pp. iv + 316.
Vol. III. pp. iv + 320.
No half-titles. Purple-brown cloth, blocked in black. Cream end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published on January 26, 1872. The story appeared serially in “Cassell's Magazine.”
(ii) Copies in bright blue embossed cloth, gilt, without imprint on spine, are of a later issue.
1873
THE NEW MAGDALEN: A Novel. By WILKIE COLLINS. “Lead us not into temptation.” London: Richard Bentley and Son. 1873. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. vi + 297 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. iv + 298 + (2). Publishers' advertisement occupies p. (299).
No half-titles. Red-brown cloth, blocked in gold and black. Cream end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on May 17, 1873. The story appeared serially in the “Temple Bar Magazine.”
1873
MISS OR MRS.? And Other Stories in Outline. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Richard Bentley and Son, New Burlington Street, 1873. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅝ × 7⅛). Pp. viii + 325 + (3). Publishers' advertisement occupies p. (327).
No half-title. Brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pale yellow end-papers.
_Contents_: Miss or Mrs.?—Blow up the Brig!—The Fatal Cradle.
NOTE—This book was published on January 17, 1873. The stories first appeared in “The Graphic” and in “All the Year Round.”
1874
THE FROZEN DEEP: And Other Stories. (READINGS AND WRITINGS IN AMERICA.) By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Richard Bentley and Son, New Burlington Street. 1874. 2 vols. Small Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 248.
Vol. II. pp. vi + 282 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (283) and (284).
Blue cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pale yellow end-papers.
_Contents_: Vol. I., The Frozen Deep—The Dream Woman. Vol. II., John Jago's Ghost; or The Dead Alive.
NOTES—(i) This book was published on November 2, 1874. The title story appeared serially in the “Temple Bar Magazine”; the remainder were first published in “Household Words” and in the “Home Journal.”
(ii) Copies in brown cloth, with yellow end-papers, printed with Chapman and Hall advertisements, are of later issue.
1875
THE LAW AND THE LADY: A Novel. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1875. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. vi + (ii) + 246 + (2). Publishers' catalogue, 40 pp., dated December, 1874, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. iv + 269 + (3). Advertisement of author's previous works occupies p. (271).
Vol. III. pp. iv + 341 + (3). Advertisement of author's previous works occupies p. (343).
No half-titles. Dark green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in February, 1875.
1876
THE TWO DESTINIES: A Romance. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1876. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 311 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. iv + 301 + (3). No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated April, 1876, bound in at end.
Bright green cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Cream end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in September, 1876.
(ii) I have seen a copy bound in _brown_ cloth, blocked and lettered identically to those in bright green, and containing a publishers' catalogue dated _September_, 1876. Whether the brown binding is necessarily later than the green, or whether one variety is a trial binding and the other that finally adopted, I do not know.
1878
A SHOCKING STORY. By WILKIE COLLINS. Author of _Man and Wife_, _Woman in White_ etc. New York: A. J. Barnes and Company, 111 and 113 William Street. 1 vol. (4½ × 6½). Pp. (ii) plus 57 + (3). This pamphlet is not wrappered, but pp. (i) and (60) form outside covers. Both are plain without printing of any sort.
NOTES—(i) The date 1878 appears under the note of copyright on verso of title.
(ii) This story was issued in the November number of the “International Review,” an American periodical published by Barnes and Co., who brought out the pamphlet described above. In Great Britain the tale appeared in the “Belgravia Annual” (December, 1878), published by Chatto and Windus, but was not reissued in other than periodical form.
1879
THE HAUNTED HOTEL: A Mystery of Modern Venice, to which is added MY LADY'S MONEY. By WILKIE COLLINS. With six illustrations by Arthur Hopkins. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1879. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¼).
Vol. I. pp. viii + (ii) + 230 + (2). Publishers' catalogue, 40 pp., dated October, 1878, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 259 + (1).
Vol. I. contains five illustrations and Vol. II. one illustration, line engraved and printed separately. Dark brown cloth, gilt, blocked in white. Blue-black end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book, although dated 1879, was actually published in November, 1878.
(ii) _My Lady's Money_ was issued by Tauchnitz in 1879, together with _The Ghost's Touch_, a story I cannot trace to have appeared in book form in Great Britain.
1879
A ROGUE'S LIFE: FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS MARRIAGE. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Richard Bentley and Son, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen. 1879. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 6⅞). Pp. iv + 188. No half-title. Red cloth gilt, blocked in black. Black end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on April 7, 1879. It is the first edition in book form of a tale issued periodically in the early fifties in “Household Words.” The text was slightly revised by the author before publication.
1879
THE FALLEN LEAVES. By WILKIE COLLINS. First Series. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1879. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 275 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 269 + (3). Publishers' advertisements, 40 pp., dated May, 1879, bound in at end.
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 295 + (1).
Olive-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Black and grey-blue decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in July, 1879.
1880
JEZEBEL'S DAUGHTER. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1880. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 282 + (2). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated February, 1880, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 281 + (3).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 296.
Pale buff cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Dark green and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in March, 1880.
1880
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE COPYRIGHT QUESTION ADDRESSED TO AN AMERICAN FRIEND. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Trübner and Co., Ludgate Hill. 1880. 1 vol. Cr. 4to (6¾ × 9¼). Pp. 12 + (4). This pamphlet is not wrappered, pp. (1) and (16) forming outside covers. P. (1) is lettered as above, and serves both as front wrapper and title-page.
1881
THE BLACK ROBE. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1881. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. vi + 320.
Vol. II. pp. vi + 296.
Vol. III. pp. vi + 266 + (6). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (267) to (272). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated March, 1881, bound in at end.
Black cloth, gilt, blocked in white. Blue and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in April, 1881.
1883
HEART AND SCIENCE: A Story of the Present Time. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1883. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¼).
Vol. I. pp. xvi + 294 + (2).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 293 + (3).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 302 + (2). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated March, 1883, bound in at end.
Grey-blue cloth, gilt, blocked in chocolate. Pale green and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in April, 1883.
1884
I SAY NO. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1884. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¼).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 295 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated March, 1884, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 296.
Vol. III. pp. (viii) + 324.
Slate-blue cloth, gilt, blocked in magenta. Pale green and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in October, 1884.
1886
THE EVIL GENIUS: A Domestic Story. By WILKIE COLLINS. London. Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1886. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¼).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 284.
Vol. II. pp. vi + 304.
Vol. III. pp. vi + 265 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated May, 1886, bound in at end.
Dark grey-green cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Grey and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in September, 1886.
1886
THE GUILTY RIVER. By WILKIE COLLINS, author of _The Woman in White_, _Armadale_, _The Evil Genius_ etc. Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual, 1886. Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith, 11 Quay Street. London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 4 Stationers' Hall Court. Price 1s. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4½ × 6½). Pp. (viii) + 188 + (12). No half-title. Advertisements occupy pp. (i) to (vi), p. (vii) is title-page, p. (viii) is occupied by advertisements, as also pp. (189) to (200). Buff paper wrappers, printed in dark blue, black and yellow. Advertisements occupy back outside wrapper and spine, which is not printed with title of story.
NOTE—The wording given above is that of wrapper, not of title-page, because there exist several varieties of the book (all of later date), which can most easily be identified by the discrepancies between their wrappers and that of the first issue.
1887
LITTLE NOVELS. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1887. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅛).
Vol. I. pp. (vi) + 319 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (vi) + 331 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (viii) + 303 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated April, 1887, bound in at end.
Bright blue cloth, gilt, blocked in red. Grey and white decorated end-papers.
_Contents_: Vol. I., Mrs. Zant and the Ghost—Miss Morris and the Stranger—Mr. Cosway and the Landlady—Mr. Medhurst and the Princess—Mr. Lismore and the Widow.
Vol. II., Miss Jeromette and the Clergyman—Miss Minor and the Groom—Mr. Lepel and the Housekeeper—Mr. Captain and the Nymph—Mr. Marmaduke and the Minister.
Vol. III., Mr. Percy and the Prophet—Miss Bertha and the Yankee—Miss Dulane and My Lord—Mr. Policeman and the Cook.
NOTE—This book was published in May, 1887.
1889
THE LEGACY OF CAIN. By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1889. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 289 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. vi + 263 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. vi + 281 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated October, 1888, bound in at end.
Blue cloth, gilt, blocked in red and black. Pale grey and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—Although dated 1889, this book was actually published in November, 1888.
1890
BLIND LOVE. By WILKIE COLLINS. With a Preface by Walter Besant, and Illustrations by A. Forestier. London: Chatto and Windus. Piccadilly. 1890. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅛).
Vol. I. pp. x + (ii) + 302 + (2).
Vol. II. pp. vi + (ii) + 303 + (i). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated October, 1889, bound in at end.
Vol. III. pp. vi + (ii) + 316.
Blue cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pale grey and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in January, 1890.
1890
THE LAZY TOUR OF TWO IDLE APPRENTICES. NO THOROUGHFARE. THE PERILS OF CERTAIN ENGLISH PRISONERS. By CHARLES DICKENS and WILKIE COLLINS. With Illustrations. London: Chapman and Hall, Limited. 1890. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (5¼ × 7⅞). Pp. vi + (ii) + 327 + (1). Dark green cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Black end-papers. Eight full-page illustrations in line, printed separately.
NOTE—Of the stories here published in book form for the first time _No Thoroughfare_ first appeared as the Extra Christmas Number to “All the Year Round” for 1867 (1 vol. 6⅝ × 9¾, pp. 48, bright blue paper wrappers, printed in black) and _The Perils of Certain English Prisoners_ as the “Christmas Story for 1857” in “Household Words” (1 vol., 5⅝ × 8⅞, pp. 36, buff paper wrappers printed in violet, red and green).
B.—PLAYS, WRITTEN ALONE AND IN COLLABORATION
1861
A MESSAGE FROM THE SEA: A Drama in Three Acts. By CHARLES DICKENS and WILKIE COLLINS. London: Published by G. Halsworth, at the office of “All the Year Round,” Wellington Street, Strand. 1861. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7¼). Pp. 68. Buff paper wrappers, printed in black.
NOTE—The story upon which this play is based appeared as the Extra Christmas Number to “All the Year Round” for 1860 (1 vol., 6½ × 9¾, pp. 48, bright blue paper wrappers, printed in black).
1863
NO NAME: A Drama in Five Acts. Founded on, and adapted from, the story so entitled. By WILKIE COLLINS Esq. London: Published by G. Halsworth, at the office of “All the Year Round.” 1863. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7¼). 60 pp. Pink paper wrappers, printed in black.
NOTE—This play was also issued in De Witt's Acting Series (No. 104), published by Robert M. de Witt, New York, in pale yellow wrappers printed in black. The pamphlet is undated.
1866
ARMADALE: A Drama in Three Acts. (Altered from the novel of _Armadale_ for performance on the stage.) By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Published for the author by Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. 1866. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo. Pp. 76. Pink paper wrappers, printed in black.
1866
THE FROZEN DEEP: A Drama in Three Acts. By WILKIE COLLINS. (Not published.) 1866. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4 × 6½). Pp. 46 + (2). Buff paper wrappers, printed in black.
1867
NO THOROUGHFARE: A Drama in Five Acts. (Altered from the Christmas story, for performance on the stage.) By CHARLES DICKENS and WILKIE COLLINS. London: Published at the Office of “All the Year Round,” 26 Wellington Street. 1867. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¼). Pp. 89 + (1). Buff paper wrappers, printed in black.
NOTES—(i) Another issue was made of this play under the same date and with identical format and title-page, except for the addition, beneath the imprint, of the words: Entered at Stationers' Hall. This issue consists, however, only of pp. 78 + (2), and the text of the play is different from Act IV., Scene III., to the end.
(ii) The story upon which this play is based appeared as the Extra Christmas Number to “All the Year Round” for 1867 (see above, _The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices_, 1890, note).
(iii) Collectors will be interested to note, as an item in Collinsiana, an American dramatic version of _No Thoroughfare_ which appeared as No. 348 in French's Library of Standard Drama. This version is entitled:
IDENTITY OR NO THOROUGHFARE by Louis Lequel. Dramatized from the Christmas Story of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. New York: Samuel French, Publisher, 122 Nassau Street.
1 vol. (4½ × 7½). Pp. 44. Yellow paper wrappers, printed in black.
The booklet is undated, save for the statement that the play was entered in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York in 1867. The wrapper bears French's London as well as his New York imprint.
1869
BLACK AND WHITE: A Love Story in Three Acts. By WILKIE COLLINS and CHARLES FLETCHER. London: Printed by C. Whiting, Beaufort House, Strand. 1869. 1 vol. Slim Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7½). Pp. 56. White paper wrappers, the first page of which serves as title and is printed as above.
1870
NO NAME: A Drama in Four Acts. (Altered from the novel for performance on the stage.) By WILKIE COLLINS. London: Published by the author, 90 Gloucester Place, Portman Square. 1870. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7¼). Pp. 160, of which pp. (1) to (4) are unnumbered. The rest of the book, being printed on one side of the paper only, is paged (5) to 82. Buff paper wrappers, printed in black.
NOTE—This is a different text from that published in 1863.
1871
THE WOMAN IN WHITE: A Drama in Prologue and Four Acts. (Altered from the novel for performance on the stage.) By WILKIE COLLINS. London. Published by the author, 90 Gloucester Place, Portman Square. 1871. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7¼). Pp. (172), of which pp. (1) to (4) are unnumbered. The rest of the book, being printed on one side of the paper only, is paged (5) to 88. Buff paper wrappers, printed in black, uniform with _No Name_.
1873
THE DREAM WOMAN: A Mystery in Four Narratives and Two Parts. By WILKIE COLLINS. Altered and enlarged for reading in public from the original story published in the collection called _The Queen of Hearts_. Boston: Privately printed for the author. 1873. 1 vol. Short Med. 4to (9 × 11⅛). Pp. 110, of which pp. (1) to (3) are unnumbered. The rest of the book, being printed on one side of the paper only, is paged 5 to 55. No half-title. Grey paper wrappers; quarter grey-purple cloth. The wrappers are plain, without printing of any sort.
1873
THE NEW MAGDALEN: A Dramatic Story in a Prologue and Three Acts. By WILKIE COLLINS. (Represented for the first time in London at the Olympic Theatre, May 19, 1873.) London: Published by the author, 90 Gloucester Place, Portman Square. 1873. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4⅜ × 7⅛). Pp. 158, of which pp. (1) to (4) are unnumbered. The rest of the book, being printed on one side of the paper only, is paged 5 to 81. Buff paper wrappers, printed in black, uniform with _No Name_.
1875
MISS GWILT: A Drama in Five Acts. (Altered from the novel _Armadale_.) By WILKIE COLLINS, printed for performance at the Theatre only, not published. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¼ × 8½). Pp. 104. Pp. 1 and 104 act as outside wrappers.
1877
THE MOONSTONE: A Dramatic Story in Three Acts. (Altered from the novel for performance on the stage.) By WILKIE COLLINS. (This play is not published. It is privately printed for the convenience of the author.) Charles Dickens and Evans, Crystal Palace Press. 1877. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅛). Pp. 176, of which (1) to (4) are unnumbered. The rest of the book, being printed on one side of the paper only, is paged (5) to 88. Paper wrappers, printed in black.
CHARLES READE 1814-1884
CHARLES READE
If no judgment is here attempted of the work of Charles Reade, it is because he refuses to be “placed,” in the opinion of the present writer. At times he is so fine, so resilient, so impressive; at others, the dullest of pamphleteers, a cramped Meredith in style, a very waxwork among sensationalists. Fortunately certain aspects of his powerful but clumsy mind have of late been admirably presented. The “London Mercury” for June, 1921 (Vol. IV., No. 20), contained an article by E. W. Hornung which all interested would do well to read. In the matter of biography proper students may be referred (but without confidence) to:
CHARLES READE: DRAMATIST, NOVELIST, JOURNALIST. A memoir compiled chiefly from his literary remains by CHARLES L. READE and the Rev. COMPTON READE. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd., 1887.
This pious work is too rhapsodical to possess more than personal interest.
CHARLES READE AS I KNEW HIM. By JOHN COLEMAN. London: Treherne and Co. 1903.
Reference is made below to the useful list of plays which concludes this otherwise rather chaotic book.
I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPES A.—FICTION, ESSAYS, ETC.
1853
PEG WOFFINGTON: A Novel. By CHARLES READE. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1853. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. (iv) + 331 + (1). No half-title. Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers. Also maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book, although dated 1853, was actually published on December 17, 1852. The first edition was of 500 copies.
1853
CHRISTIE JOHNSTONE: A Novel. By CHARLES READE Esq., author of _Peg Woffington_. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1853. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. (iv) + 334 + (2). A note occupies p. (335). Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers. Also in maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on August 25, 1853. The first edition was of 500 copies.
1856
IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND: A Matter of Fact Romance. By CHARLES READE, author of _Christie Johnstone_, _Peg Woffington_ etc. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1856. 3 vols. Slim Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 395 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 349 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 344.
Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers. Also pale maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published on August 1, 1856. The story is based on the play _Gold_ (see below, p. 171).
(ii) Reade replied to certain charges brought against the novel in a pamphlet, but I cannot determine the details of its title and appearance.
1857
THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUN SMOOTH. By CHARLES READE, author of _It Is Never Too Late to Mend_, _Peg Woffington_ and _Christie Johnstone_. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1857. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. (ii) + 269 + (3). No half-title. Blue cloth, blocked in gold. Yellow end-papers. Also in pink picture boards.
NOTE—This book was published on September 28, 1857. The cloth and boards editions were simultaneous.
1857
WHITE LIES: A Story. By CHARLES READE. London: Trübner and Co., 60 Paternoster Row. 1857. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. v + (i) + 300.
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 237 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 231 + (1).
No half-titles. Dark green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in December, 1857. The story, which appeared serially in the “London Journal,” was based on Reade's play _The Double Marriage_, itself an adaptation from the French (see below, p. 174).
1857
*THE BOX TUNNEL. By CHARLES READE. Boston, U.S.A.
NOTE—This short story, published in “Bentley's Miscellany” in November, 1853, was only issued in book form in America.
1858
CREAM. By CHARLES READE, author of _White Lies_ etc. Contains JACK OF ALL TRADES: A Matter of Fact Romance and THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A THIEF. London: Trübner and Co., 60 Paternoster Row. 1858. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅝). Pp. 270. Bright blue embossed cloth, gilt. Red-chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in March, 1858.
1859
LOVE ME LITTLE LOVE ME LONG. By CHARLES READE, author of _It is Never Too Late To Mend_, _White Lies_ etc. London: Trübner and Co., 60 Paternoster Row. 1859. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 390 + (2).
Vol. II. pp. 358 + (2).
Green embossed cloth, gilt. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in April, 1859.
1860
THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. By CHARLES READE. London: Trübner and Co., 60 Paternoster Row. 1860. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5⅝ × 8¾). Pp. (iv) + 379 + (1). Dark purple-brown embossed cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in July, 1860, at the author's own expense. Written in assault of those who had infringed Reade's rights in _Poverty and Pride_ (see below, p. 172), it proved too contentious for publishers' tastes.
1861
THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH: A Tale of the Middle Ages. By CHARLES READE, author of _It Is Never Too Late To Mend_, _Christie Johnstone_, _Peg Woffington_ etc. London: Trübner and Co., 60 Paternoster Row. 1861. 4 vols. Small Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7¼).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 360.
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 384.
Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 328.
Vol. IV. pp. (ii) + 435 + (1).
No half-titles. Grey-green cloth, gilt. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in October, 1861.
1863
HARD CASH: A Matter of Fact Romance. By CHARLES READE. London: Sampson Low, Son and Marston, 14 Ludgate Hill. 1863. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 356.
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 365 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 369 + (5). Publishers' announcements, dated December 10, 1863, occupy pages (371) to (374).
No half-titles. Grey-green cloth, blocked in gold. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on December 15, 1863. The story appeared serially in “All the Year Round,” for which magazine it had been commissioned by Dickens.
1867
GRIFFITH GAUNT: Or JEALOUSY. By CHARLES READE. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1867. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 302.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 318.
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 328. Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., dated October, 1866, bound in at end.
Violet cloth, gilt, blocked in gold and blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—Although dated 1867, this book was actually published in October, 1866. The story appeared serially in the “Argosy.”
1868
FOUL PLAY. By CHARLES READE and DION BOUCICAULT. London: Bradbury Evans and Co., 11 Bouverie Street. 1868. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. (vi) + 277 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 278.
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 261 + (1).
Red cloth, gilt. Cream end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in November or December, 1868. The story ran serially in “Once a Week” from January of the same year. In 1881 F. C. Burnand published a parody of the novel under the title: _Chikkin Hazard: A Novel by Charles Readit and Dion Bounceycore_. This parody appeared in “Our Novel Shilling Series,” published by Bradbury, Agnew and Co., of which the other volumes are pastiches of novels by Ouida, Victor Hugo, Hawley Smart, and Rhoda Broughton.
1870
PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE. By CHARLES READE, author of _It Is Never Too Late to Mend_, _Hard Cash_, _Foul Play_, etc. etc. (Quotation from Horace.) London: Smith Elder and Co., 15 Waterloo Place. 1870. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 317 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 318 + (2).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 332.
Green cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in June, 1870. The story appeared serially in the “Cornhill.”
1871
A TERRIBLE TEMPTATION: A Story of the Day. By CHARLES READE. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1871. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 303 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 310 + (2).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 300.
Purple cloth, gilt, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in August, 1871. The story appeared serially in “Cassell's Magazine.”
1873
A SIMPLETON: A Story of the Day. By CHARLES READE. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1873. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. ix + (i) + 272.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 267 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 305 + (1).
Maroon cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in August, 1873. The story appeared serially in “London Society.”
(ii) Copies in blue cloth, gilt, are of later issue.
1874
A HERO AND A MARTYR: A True and Accurate Account of the Heroic feats and sad Calamity of James Lambert. By CHARLES READE (2 Albert Terrace, Knightsbridge). London: Samuel French, 89 Strand, Publisher. 1874. 1 vol. Royal 8vo (6¼ × 9⅝). Pp. (viii) + 40. Orange or green paper wrappers, printed in black. Publisher's advertisements occupy inside front, and inside and outside back wrappers. Wood-engraved frontispiece printed on text paper.
1875
TRADE MALICE: A Personal Narrative, and THE WANDERING HEIR: A Matter of Fact Romance. By CHARLES READE. London: Samuel French, 89 Strand, 1875. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. (viii) + 279 + (1). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (vi) to (viii). Green cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in April, 1875. _The Wandering Heir_ was first printed in the “Graphic.”
1877
A WOMAN HATER. By CHARLES READE, D.C.L. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, MDCCCLXXVII. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 280.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 285 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (287) and (288).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 282 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (283) and (284).
The words “Originally published in 'Blackwood's Magazine'” occupy verso of half-title in each volume. Bright blue cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Dark brown end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in June, 1877. When serialized the story was anonymous.
1877
*GOLDEN CROWNS: Sunday Stories. By CHARLES READE, D.C.L. Manchester: Tubbs and Brooke. 1 vol. 18mo.
NOTE—This publication was of a kind known as an “18mo packet.” It consisted of a number of loose sheets enclosed in a paper wrapper, designed either to gum or to tuck in, but wholly detached from its contents. Never having seen a copy of the packet in question, I cannot do more than conjecture that the loose sheets bore each a brief moral tale, which a devout parent could administer Sunday by Sunday to the deserving young.
1883
READIANA: Comments on Current Events. By CHARLES READE, D.C.L. with a steel-plate portrait. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1883. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. vi + 329 + (1). Frontispiece and title-page, printed together but not on text paper, are inset between pp. (ii) and (iii). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated July, 1882, bound in at end. Publishers' advertisement occupies p. (ii). Red cloth, gilt, blocked in black, uniform with the cheap edition of Reade's novels published just previously to this book's appearance. Brown-purple and white decorated end-papers. Engraved portrait frontispiece printed on same paper as title. Line engraving on title-page.
NOTE—Although this book is dated 1883, it was actually published in October, 1882.
1884
SINGLE HEART AND DOUBLE FACE: A Matter of Fact Romance: By CHARLES READE, D.C.L. London. Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1884. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (iv) + 240. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated December, 1883, bound in at end. Fawn cloth gilt, blocked in red and blue. Pale green and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in July, 1884. The story appeared serially in “Harper's Magazine.”
1884
GOOD STORIES OF MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS. By CHARLES READE, D.C.L. Illustrations by E. A. Abbey, Percy Macquoid and Joseph Nash. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1884. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. (ii) + 287 + (1). Frontispiece and title-page, printed together but not on text paper, are inset before p. (i), pp. (i) and (ii) forming a single leaf pasted to back of title. No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated October, 1884, bound in at end. Four illustrations in line, of which one is the frontispiece; all printed separately. Red cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Uniform with _Readiana_. Green and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in October, 1884.
1884
THE JILT: And Other Stories. By CHARLES READE, D.C.L. Four Illustrations by Joseph Nash. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1884. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. (ii) + 282 + (2). Frontispiece and title-page, printed together but not on text paper, are inset before p. (i), pp. (i) and (ii) forming a single leaf pasted to back of title. No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated September, 1884, bound in at end. Four full-page illustrations in line, of which one is the frontispiece; all printed separately. Line engraving on title. Red cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Uniform with _Readiana_. Green and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in October, 1884.
1884
A PERILOUS SECRET. By CHARLES READE, author of _Hard Cash_, _Put Yourself in His Place_, _It Is Never Too Late To Mend_, _Griffith Gaunt_ etc. London: Richard Bentley and Son, New Burlington Street, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen. 1884. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 296.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 312.
Red flowered cloth, gilt. Green and white decorated end-papers.
NOTE—Although this book is dated 1884, it was not actually published until March 10, 1885. The story appeared serially in the “Temple Bar Magazine.”
1888
BIBLE CHARACTERS: By CHARLES READE, D.C.L., author of _It Is Never Too Late To Mend_ etc. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1888. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4⅛ × 6½). Pp. (vi) + 106. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated September, 1888, bound in at end. Dark red paper wrappers, gilt. Black end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in September, 1888.
1910
A GOOD FIGHT. By CHARLES READE. Original version of _The Cloister and The Hearth_, with an introduction by ANDREW LANG. London: Henry Frowde. 1910. Fcap. 8vo (4½ × 6¾). Pp. (xii) + 208. Fifteen illustrations after Charles Keene printed on text paper. Dark olive-green cloth, blocked in gold. White end-papers.
NOTE—This is the first edition in book form of a story which appeared in 1859 in “Once a Week.” Reade afterwards expanded his idea into _The Cloister and the Hearth_.
EDITIONES PRINCIPES (_Continued_) B.—PLAYS: ORIGINAL, TRANSLATED, AND WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION
[1834 or 1835]
*PEREGRINE PICKLE.
NOTE—Reade has himself left a statement that while at Oxford he printed at his own cost a few copies of this dramatic version of Smollett's famous novel.
[1851]
THE LADIES' BATTLE: Or UN DUEL EN AMOUR. A Comedy in Three Acts. Hailes Lacy, Wellington Street, Strand, London. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7¼). Pp. 35 + (1). Note on p. (3) initialled “C.R.” Salmon-pink paper wrappers printed in black, uniform with the other volumes in Lacy's Acting Edition, of which this is No. 47.
[1851]
ANGELO: A Tragedy in Four Acts. Adapted to the English Stage by the author of _The Ladies' Battle_, _Peregrine Pickle_ etc. London: Hailes Lacy, Wellington Street, Strand. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7¼). Pp. 24. Salmon-pink paper wrappers, printed in black, uniform with the other volumes in Lacy's Acting Editions, of which this is No. 57.
[1852]
THE LOST HUSBAND: A Drama in Four Acts. Written and Adapted from the French by the author of _The Ladies' Battle_. London: Thomas Hailes Lacy, Wellington Street, Strand. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7¼). Pp. 36. Salmon-pink paper wrappers, printed in black, uniform with the other volumes in Lacy's Acting Editions, of which this is No. 86.
NOTE—This play is based on a French drama, _Les Dames de la Halle_.
[1853]
GOLD: A Drama in Five Acts. By CHARLES READE, one of the authors of _Masks and Faces_ etc. Thomas Hailes Lacy, Wellington Street, Strand, London. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7¼). Pp. 48. Salmon-pink paper wrappers, printed in black, uniform with the other volumes in Lacy's Acting Edition, of which this is No. 152.
[1854]
THE COURIER OF LYONS: Or THE ATTACK UPON THE MAIL: A Drama in Four Acts. Translated from the French of MM. Moreau, Siraudin and Delacourt. Thomas Hailes Lacy, Wellington Street, Strand. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7¼). Pp. 43 + (1). Advertisements occupy p. (44). Salmon-pink paper wrappers, printed in black, uniform with the other volumes in Lacy's Acting Edition, of which this is No. 220.
1854
MASKS AND FACES: Or BEFORE AND BEHIND THE CURTAIN: A Comedy in Two Acts. By TOM TAYLOR and CHARLES READE. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1854. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. (viii) + 71 + (1). Mustard-yellow paper wrappers, printed in black as title-page.
1854
TWO LOVES AND A LIFE: A Drama in Four Acts. By TOM TAYLOR and CHARLES READE. Produced at the Theatre Royal, Adelphi, April 1854. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1854. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. (viii) + 85 + (3). Mustard-yellow paper wrappers, printed in black as title-page.
1854
THE KING'S RIVAL: A Drama in Five Acts. By TOM TAYLOR and CHARLES READE, authors of _Masks and Faces_, _Two Loves and a Life_ etc. etc. First produced at the Theatre Royal, St. James's, October 4, 1854. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1854. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. (viii) + 72. Mustard-yellow paper wrappers, printed in black as title-page.
NOTES—(i) The three preceding items were also issued as one volume bound in maroon cloth, blocked in gold and blind, and lettered on the spine “Dramas by Tom Taylor and Charles Reade,” and with pale yellow end-papers. The sheets used were those of the original pamphlet issue, the separate title-pages and half-titles being preserved, but the sheets being cut to measure 4⅛ × 6⅝.
(ii) In their original separate form _Masks and Faces_ and _Two Loves and a Life_ were published on July 1, and _The King's Rival_ on October 17, 1854.
1857
POVERTY AND PRIDE: A Drama in Five Acts By CHARLES READE. Being the authorised English version of _Les Pauvres de Paris_, drama by Messrs. Edouard Brisebarre and Eugène Nus. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1856. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7¼). Pp. 64. Paper wrappers.
NOTE—This book was published on August 12, 1857.
1857
THE HYPOCHONDRIAC. Adapted to the English stage from the _Malade Imaginaire_ of Molière. By CHARLES READE. London: William Clowes and Sons, 14 Charing Cross. And Ticknor and Fields, Boston, U.S. 1857. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7⅛). Pp. 59 + (1). Light brown paper wrappers, printed in black; wording as title-page.
NOTE—This play was later acted under the title _The Robust Invalid_ (June, 1870). I do not know whether a printed text exists with this title.
1859
LE FAUBOURG SAINT-GERMAIN. Pièce en deux Actes. Ecrite en Français par CHARLES READE. Paris. Typographie: Morris et Comp. Rue Amelot 64. 1859. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5⅛ × 7⅜). Pp. 69 + (3). Pale blue paper wrappers, printed in black; wording as title-page.
[?1867]
DORA: A Pastoral Poem in Three Acts. With New Scenic Effect and Appropriate Music. Founded on Mr. Tennyson's poem and written by CHARLES READE. London: Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street and Charing Cross. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜). Pp. 53 + (3). Yellow paper wrappers, printed in black with the single word “Dora” enclosed in decorative frame.
NOTES—(i) This play was reissued about 1872 or 1873 by Williams and Strahan, 7 Lawrence Lane, Cheapside, in a fifty-page pamphlet measuring 4⅛ × 7⅛ and wrappered in buff paper, printed merely with the word “Dora” in black. The text shows slight variations from that of the first issue.
(ii) The date of the first of the above issues is doubtful. _Dora_ was written in 1863 or 1864, but evidence is wanting to show whether it was then printed, or not until its first production in 1867. It was revived in the early nineties.
[?1867]
THE DOUBLE MARRIAGE: A Drama in Five Acts. By AUGUSTE MAQUET and CHARLES READE. London: Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street and Charing Cross, 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7½). Pp. (iv) + 80. Yellow paper wrappers, printed in black, with play title only enclosed in decorative frame. This pamphlet is uniform in style with _Dora_.
NOTE—This play is based on _Le Château Grantier_ by Maquet. The date of printing is conjectural, being that of its first production. Reade's novel _White Lies_ (see above, p. 161) is a fictional version of the same plot.
[?1869]
KATE PEYTON: Or JEALOUSY. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7⅛). Pp. 84. Pink paper wrappers, printed with play title only.
NOTES—(i) This booklet bears no printer's name, date, or other mark of identification. The text differs slightly from that issued in 1883 and described below.
(ii) The date is purely conjectural. Coleman mentions no play of this title, but speaks of _Griffith Gaunt_ as having been produced in 1868 or 1869. The above item being a dramatic version of _Griffith Gaunt_, I am inclined to think that this is the play referred to, and have accordingly dated it as having been printed about the time of the first production.
[?1872 or 1873]
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND. Drama in Five Acts. By CHARLES READE. Author of _Gold_; _Rachel the Reaper_; _Ladies' Battle_; _Nobs and Snobs_; _The Lost Husband_; _The Double Marriage_; _Kate Peyton_; _Foul Play_; _Put Yourself in His Place_; _The Wandering Heir_; _Shilly Shally_; _The Courier of Lyons_; etc. etc. And one of the authors of _Masks and Faces_; _Two Loves and a Life_; _The First Printer_; _The King's Rival_. London: Printed by Williams and Strahan, 7 Lawrence Lane, Cheapside. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7) Pp. 97 + (1). Buff paper wrappers, printed in black with the play title only.
NOTES—(i) This play was reissued in 1890 in a pamphlet printed for private circulation by W. Spearing, 1, Great Queen Street, W.C. The booklet measures 5½ × 8½; contains pp. 148—of which (1) to (4) are regular prelims., (5) to (146) are printed alternately and paged (5) to 76, and (147) and (148) are blank—and is bound in grey paper wrappers, printed in black. The text of this second version shows considerable variation from that of the first, and the play is in four acts instead of five.
(ii) The date at the head of this item is conjectural. Reade's first original dramatization of _It's Never Too Late to Mend_ was written by 1864 and produced in 1865. Coleman speaks in that year of receiving from Laura Seymour a “yellow covered book” of the text of the play, and this book, if printed, was the real first edition. But I cannot prove the existence of a printed text at that date, and prefer to give first place to the pamphlet here described, although, because of the other plays mentioned on the title-page, it cannot be of earlier date than 1872.
(iii) In July, 1860, a dramatization of Reade's novel had been issued in Lacy's Acting Edition. Reade was rightly furious at the unauthorized issue of this version, and hastened to prepare one of his own. For the benefit of those interested I append details of the pirate booklet.
[1860-July]
NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND. A Drama of Real Life in Four Acts, founded on MR. CHARLES READE'S Popular Novel. By COLIN HAZLEWOOD, author of _The Return of the Wanderer_, _Jenny Foster_, _Trials of Poverty_, _Going to Chobham_, etc. etc. Thomas Hailes Lacy, 89 Strand (opposite Southampton Street, Covent Garden Market), London. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7¼). Pp. 65 + (1). List of plays occupies p. (66). Salmon-pink paper wrappers, printed in black, uniform with the other volumes in Lacy's Acting Editions. This volume is unnumbered.
[1877]
THE LADIES' BATTLE: Or UN DUEL EN AMOUR: A Comedy in Three Acts. By CHARLES READE Esq., author of _Gold_, _Art_, _The Lost Husband_, _The Foster Sisters_, and one of the authors of _Masks and_ _Faces_, _Two Loves and a Life_, _King's Rival_ etc. etc. London: Samuel French, Publisher, 89 Strand. New York: Samuel French and Son, Publishers, 122 Nassau Street. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 7¼). Pp. 41 + (3). Advertisements occupy pp. (43) and (44). Salmon-pink paper wrappers, printed in black, uniform with the other volumes in French's (late Lacy's) Acting Editions, of which this is No. 1609.
NOTE—This is a revised version of the play originally published in 1851 (see above, p. 170).
1878
THE WELL BORN WORKMAN: Or A MAN OF THE DAY. By CHARLES READE, author of _Never Too Late to Mend_, _Foul Play_ etc. London: Printed for Williams and Strahan, 74 New Cut, Lambeth. 1878. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6⅞). Pp. 82 + (2). Buff paper wrappers, printed in black, with the title and sub-title of the play.
1883
FOUL PLAY. Drama in a Prologue and Five Acts. By CHARLES READE. London. 1883. Printed by J. C. Durant, Clement's House, Clement's Inn Passage, Strand, W.C. But not published. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8½). Pp. 72. Grey paper wrappers, printed in black as title-page.
NOTE—This play was written in collaboration with Boucicault and produced early in 1868. It was attacked on the ground that it was pirated from a French drama: _La Portefeuille Rouge_. Reade hotly denied that he had read or even heard of this French play, and Coleman considers the denial to have been genuine enough. He is, however, less certain that Boucicault was not familiar with the supposed French original. _Foul Play_, as first acted, was later revived under different titles—_The Scuttled Ship_ and _Our Seaman_. Perhaps the text described above and bearing Reade's name only is a different version from that produced with Boucicault. Of the text in collaboration I can trace no printed issue.
1883
KATE PEYTON: Or JEALOUSY: A Drama, in a prologue and Four Acts. By CHARLES READE. London: 1883. Printed by J. C. Durant, Clement's House, Clement's Inn Passage, Strand, W.C. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8½). Pp. 76. Grey paper wrappers, printed as title-page.
1883
LOVE AND MONEY: An Original Drama in a Prologue and Four Acts. By CHARLES READE and HENRY PETTITT. London. 1883. Printed by J. C. Durant, Clement's House, Clement's Inn Passage, Strand, W.C. But not published. 1 vol. Small Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7). Pp. 53 + (3). Grey paper wrappers printed in black.
NOTE—There being no title-page to this pamphlet, the lettering given above is that of the wrapper.
1883
THE COUNTESS AND THE DANCER: Or HIGH LIFE IN VIENNA. A Comedy Drama in Four Acts. Altered from a masterpiece of VICTORIEN SARDOU by CHARLES READE. London: 1883. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8⅜). Pp. vi + 60. Grey paper wrappers, printed in black; wording as title-page.
NOTE
The bibliography of Reade's plays is obscure and confusing. I have listed in the foregoing pages only those of the printed issue of which I have found certain evidence. He is known, however, to have written many more, some at least of which were probably printed privately. Wherefore it seems desirable here to supply such particulars as can be found of the writing and acting of Reade's other plays. The facts are taken mainly from Coleman's book, which contains as an appendix a good list of titles and dates of production. Unfortunately the book itself is so confusingly put together that text and appendix are far from complementary and at times even in conflict.
A. EARLY UNACTED PLAYS, WRITTEN BEFORE 1851.
THE WAY THINGS TURN.
THE DANGEROUS PATH.
THE LOST SISTERS.
MARGUERITE.
LUCREZIA BORGIA.
A LADY'S OATH.
CHRISTIE JOHNSTONE
(The novel of the same name was built, long after, on the ruins of this unacceptable play).
B. ACTED PLAYS, WITH DATES OF FIRST PRODUCTION AND OTHER AVAILABLE DETAILS.
THE VILLAGE TALE (produced 1852)
(Based on _Claudie_, by George Sand. Revived in 1872 under the title _Rachel the Reaper_).
ART (produced 1852)
(An adaptation of _Tiridate_ and later christened _Nance Oldfield_).
NOBS AND SNOBS (produced 1854)
(Revived in 1865 under the title _Honour before Titles_).
THE FIRST PRINTER (produced 1854).
FREE LABOUR (produced 1870)
(A dramatic version of the novel _Put Yourself in his Place_).
SHILLY SHALLY (produced 1872)
(An unauthorized dramatization of Anthony Trollope's novel _Ralph the Heir_. Reade's action in appropriating the story was deeply resented by Trollope).
THE WANDERING HEIR (produced 1872 or 1873)
(A dramatic version of the story of the same name).
JEALOUSY (produced 1875)
(An adaptation of Sardou's comedy _Andrée_, and not to be confused with Reade's dramatizations of his own novel _Griffith Gaunt_).
RACHEL THE REAPER (produced 1876)
(See above: _A Village Tale_).
JOAN (produced 1876)
(Dramatized, without permission, from _That Lass o' Lowries_, by Mrs. Hodgson Burnett).
DRINK (produced 1879)
(Adapted from _L'Assommoir_ by Emile Zola).
SINGLE HEART AND DOUBLE FACE (produced 1882)
(A dramatic version of the story of the same name).
GEORGE JOHN WHYTE-MELVILLE 1821-1878
G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE
Although as an authority on matters sporting Whyte-Melville stands alone, it is yet impossible, with the best will in the world and with all the respect due to his personal chivalry and courage, to regard him in the rôle of novelist as anything but absurd.
His books, where they deal with the science and the joys of hunting, have the vivid appeal that only delighted conviction can give; but as fiction, as readings of life adequately expressed in English prose, they are negligible and often ludicrous.
Whyte-Melville, the sportsman, is a figure of dignity and inspiration; Whyte-Melville, the social novelist, is Ouida in breeches. That the breeches are of perfect cut may not disguise the conventional swagger of the legs they cover. The ways trodden by this author in his search for character and incident are the exclusive ways of Victorian landlordism. Their pavements are thronged with fair ladies and brave gentlemen, while in the roadway crowd the lower orders—some mildly criminal, some a little comic, but the majority joyous in their privilege to serve the brilliant purpose of their betters. The antics of these humble creatures are watched with kindly patronage by those to whom wealth and pleasure are a normal birthright. Conversing among themselves, heartily but with elegance, the Guardsmen and squirelings of the fashionable clubs find time to exchange gracious greeting with their poorer neighbours, whose uncouth speech strikes quaintly pleasant on their cultured ears. An instruction is given; half a sovereign changes hands; a cap is dutifully touched. God willed that of His creatures some be rich and others poor; let the former bear themselves honourably and remember (when not otherwise engaged) the duties of their station; let the latter be happy in the lot to which Providence has called them.
But genial condescension to his dependants is not the only or even the main business of the Whyte-Melville gentleman. His life has two absorbing interests—horses and ladies. To a point these interests merge. With identical _expertise_ he takes the points of a fine girl and of a blood mare. The former in her drawing-room, the latter in her stable, await in gleaming beauty his appreciative caress. At their point of ultimate usefulness, however, femininity and horseflesh part company. The latter is the hero's ally, the former his quarry in the chase; and while his adventures on horseback are told with the zest and knowledge of real authority, his exploits in lady-killing have the tedious unreality of a tale only half imagined and not a quarter lived.
It is for the falseness of his emotional writing that Whyte-Melville challenges comparison with Ouida. And, the comparison made, one is bound to concede victory to the latter. Both deal in the passions of the nobly born; but while the woman has at least the courage of bad taste, the man, fettered by good form, achieves no taste at all. Whyte-Melville's novels, like _Hamlet_, are full of quotations. He is the father of novelette; the wellspring of cliché. His lovely ladies are not women nor his gallants men: they are the dummies of suburban melodrama, exquisitely gowned, faultlessly tailored, mouthing the phrases of drawing-room passionates, but, even as dummies, failing to achieve that semblance of gilded sin that is their only purpose.
Nevertheless, despite their ineptitude, the books of Whyte-Melville compel a curious and obscure respect. Respect for what it were hard to say, for his written word is his own deadliest accuser. Sentences might be chosen almost at random from the novels of social life that would prove his possession of every fault possible to a novelist and to a writer of prose. And yet, through the screen of their fatuity, one has glimpses of the personality of the author himself—a personality at which one may make mock, but only with affection. This country gentleman turned novelist was an upright, guileless creature, hard riding, generous hearted, as unconscious of his innate snobbery as of his natural modesty, conventional because unaware of any world or school of thought beyond the narrow limits of his own. His pictures of England are as dull and as unreal as the pretty garden scenes in water-colour produced by county ladies to this day; but both the painter of these lifeless pictures and the comfortable amateurs responsible for horrid views of moorland and herbaceous border command a sort of wistful admiration. There is something so clean and easy and contented in the mentality from which these books and drawings spring that, if only it were not so stupid, so impenetrable to variety of idea, its passing might well be looked on with regret. Whyte-Melville's qualities, like those of the type he represents, are more obscure than his defects. The class of country gentleman to which he personally belonged is rapidly disappearing; when it is gone we shall wonder a little perplexedly why we miss it. It was so easy to ridicule, so pathetically a target for mockery and persecution. In our greater wisdom we have shot it to pieces, riddling its obtuse selfishness, its bland complacency, with the bullets of reforming zeal. But something fine will have perished with it, something indefinable but leaving a sense of gap, to remind us that destruction is never quite the discriminating triumph that iconoclasts claim for it in advance.
This, then, is one contemporary view of Whyte-Melville's novels, whose only demonstrable virtue is their sportsmanship. One may quote from _Market Harborough_, from _Riding Recollections_, even from the social stories, passages of speed and exhilaration, passages of unaffected wisdom and perception, descriptive of the hunting that, next to honour, he loved best of all that life could offer. In opposition may be printed page after page of stilted rhetoric, mawkish humour, the falsest of sentiment, the most wanton elaboration of noun and adjective. But after all quotation is done and a balance struck, there will still remain the elusive quality that gave character to the class from which the author came, an essence of breeding and tradition that no phrasing can crystallize, that vanishes in the moment of its expression. For this spiritual quality Whyte-Melville is admirable; for his literary faults he is unreadable. Such, in a nutshell, is the judgment of one reader who cannot excuse a book stupidity and pretentiousness for the sake of isolated passages of hunting lore, but seeks to appreciate in the character of a social generation that is fading fast, a distinction that to all seeming will fade with it.
There are, however, readers of other kinds, and for their sake and because among our grandmothers and our aunts the stories of Whyte-Melville were avidly admired, a summary classification of his books shall be attempted.
He began as a writer of autobiographies, of the part-fashionable, part-sporting, part-knockabout kind, the tradition of which came down from the eighteenth century, through Frederick Marryat, to a dozen writers of the hard-drinking, riotous forties. _Digby Grand_ (1853) and _Tilbury Nogo_ (1854) are essentially novels of this type, while in _Kate Coventry_ (1856) the author merely adapts the recipe to the needs of a girl heroine. _The Interpreter_ (1858) strikes a note of its own, for the scenes in the Crimea and in Turkey were drawn from the writer's experience and give a convincing picture of the period and its happenings. Apart from them, however, the book is an ordinary first-person record of the social wanderings of a young Englishman of family.
Between the second and the third of the books above mentioned had appeared _General Bounce_ (1855), a transitional novel, not wholly apart from those that preceded it, but halfway to a place among the stories of contemporary love-making and sport, of which the author was to produce a lengthy list. These novels of English society contain much of the most repellent of Whyte-Melville's work, although many have refreshing interludes of hunting and scenes on the racecourse or in the stable that will endear them to specialists in the genre, if they cannot reconcile others to the artificial tedium of the love stories and the clumsy contriving of the plots. Here are the titles of the social novels:
GENERAL BOUNCE (1855), GOOD FOR NOTHING (1861), THE BROOKES OF BRIDLEMERE (1864), THE WHITE ROSE (1868), M OR N (1869), CONTRABAND (1871), SATANELLA (1872), UNCLE JOHN (1874), ROY'S WIFE (1878), BLACK BUT COMELY (1879).
Next in numerical importance are the costume novels, beloved of an earlier generation, but to the critical modern reader the poorest of poor stuff, so compact of Wardour Street, of hollow sentiment, and of forced, démodé attitude as to be intolerable.
HOLMBY HOUSE (1860)
(A tale of the Civil War with a strong bias in favour of the Cavalier party),
THE QUEEN'S MARIES (1862)
(A romantic tribute to Mary, Queen of Scots),
THE GLADIATORS (1863)
(A novel of Rome and Judæa at the time of Christ),
CERISE (1866)
(An eighteenth-century tale),
SARCHEDON (1871)
(A novel centring round the figure of Semiramis),
SISTER LOUISE (1876)
(A novel of seventeenth-century France),
ROSINE (1877)
(A novel of the French Revolution).
There remain two books of purely sporting significance, and _Katerfelto_.
_Market Harborough_ (1861), the pride of the Pytchley, is hardly a novel. It is a string of hunting and horse-dealing episodes into which Whyte-Melville threw all that he had of science and of enthusiasm. _Riding Recollections_ (1878) are what their name implies. It is not for any but the expert to criticize these books, which are held in some quarters to be essential textbooks to a hunting education. _Katerfelto_ (1875) will also escape comment here, but for a different reason. Among my childhood memories this Exmoor tale glows adored, uncriticized. How will it read to-day? To put it to the test frightens me. I dare not open it.
EDITIONES PRINCIPES FICTION, POETRY, ESSAYS
1850
HORACE: ODES, EPODES AND CARMEN SÆCULARE Translated into English verse by G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE Esq., late Coldstream Guards. London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Stationers Hall Court. 1850. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8½). Pp. (viii) + 120. Dark green cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.
1853
DIGBY GRAND: An Autobiography. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1853. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 303 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. iv + 312 + (4). No half-title. Publishers' advertisements, paged 1-4, occupy pp. (313) to (316).
Red cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in February, 1853. The story appeared serially in “Fraser's Magazine.”
1854
TILBURY NOGO: Or PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF AN UNSUCCESSFUL MAN. By the author of _Digby Grand_. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1854. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 8¾).
Vol. I. pp. iv + 310 + (2).
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 348.
No half-titles. Brown cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in June, 1854. The story appeared serially in “The Sporting Magazine.”
1855
GENERAL BOUNCE: Or THE LADY AND THE LOCUSTS. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1855. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 296 + (4). Advertisement of _Digby Grand_ occupies verso of half-title. Publishers' advertisements, numbered 1 to 4, occupy pp. (297) to (300).
Vol. II. pp. iv + 278 + (2). No half-title. Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (279) to (280).
Pale brown cloth, gilt. Pale brick end-papers.
NOTE—Although dated 1855 this book was actually published in December, 1854. The story appeared serially in “Fraser's Magazine.”
1856
KATE COVENTRY: An Autobiography. Edited by G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, author of _Digby Grand_. Originally published in “Fraser's Magazine.” London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1856. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾). Advertisement of books by the same author occupies p. (323) and publishers' list p. (324). Scarlet ribbed cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Chalk-blue end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in October, 1856.
[1857]
THE ARAB'S RIDE TO CAIRO: A Legend of the Desert. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Illustrated and Illuminated by Mrs. Wolfe Murray. Seton & Mackenzie, Edinburgh. Houlston & Stoneman, London. 1 vol. Fcap. 4to (6⅞ × 8¼). Pp. 14. Red cloth, full gilt, blocked in gold, or green morocco, full gilt, tooled in gold and black. Yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This volume was published in January, 1857.
(ii) It is hardly a book in the ordinary sense, consisting, as it does, of 14 pp. of stout card printed on one side only. Each page is printed in three or more colours, vaguely after the style of an illuminated MS. Pseudo-gothic lettering is used throughout, and the whole volume is typical of the Victorian table book at its most ornate.
1858
THE INTERPRETER: A Tale of the War. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, Author of _Digby Grand_, _General Bounce_ etc. etc. Originally published in “Fraser's Magazine.” London: John Parker and Son, West Strand. 1858. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅝). Pp. iv + 431 + (1). No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 8 pp., bound in at end. Red cloth, gilt, blocked in black, uniform with _Kate Coventry_. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in January, 1858.
1860
HOLMBY HOUSE: A Tale of Old Northants. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Author of _Digby Grand_, _The Interpreter_ etc. Originally published in “Fraser's Magazine.” London: John Parker and Son, West Strand, 1860. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 325 + (3). Pp. (i) and (ii) precede frontispiece and form technically a half-title, but p. (i) is not printed as such. Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (327) and (328).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 344 + (4). No half-title. Publishers' advertisements, numbered 1 to 4, occupy pp. (345) to (348).
Frontispiece in coloured lithograph to Vol. I., printed separately. Red-brown cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in March, 1860.
1861
MARKET HARBOROUGH: Or HOW MR. SAWYER WENT TO THE SHIRES. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1861. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7½). Pp. viii + 312. Olive-green cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in April, 1861.
1861
GOOD FOR NOTHING: Or ALL DOWN HILL. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Author of _Digby Grand_, _The Interpreter_, _Holmby House_ etc. Originally published in “Fraser's Magazine.” London: Parker, Son and Bourn, West Strand. 1861. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 298 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy p. (299).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 265 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (267) and (268).
No half-titles. Maroon cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in December, 1861.
1862
MARKET HARBOROUGH: Or HOW MR. SAWYER WENT TO THE SHIRES. 4th Edition. INSIDE THE BAR: Or SKETCHES AT SOAKINGTON. By the author of _Digby Grand_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1862. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7½). Pp. iv + 393 + (3). Buff cloth, printed, in red and black. White end-papers, of which the first inside front is printed with publishers' advertisements.
NOTE—This volume is the first edition of _Inside the Bar_. It was published in April, 1862.
1862
THE QUEEN'S MARIES: A Romance of Holyrood. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, Author of _Digby Grand_, _The Interpreter_, _Holmby House_, _Good for Nothing_ etc. London: Parker, Son and Bourn, West Strand. 1862. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 304.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 254 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy p. (255), and 8 pp. advertisements, printed on text paper but numbered 1 to 8, are bound in at end.
No half-titles, but in Vol. II. 2 pp. blank precede title. Violet cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in July, 1862.
1863
THE GLADIATORS: A Tale of Rome and Judæa. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, author of _Digby Grand_, _The Interpreter_, _Holmby House_, _The Queen's Maries_ etc. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green. 1863. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. iv + 324.
Vol. II. pp. iv + 305 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. iv + 291 + (1).
No half-titles. Red embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in gold and blind. Pale chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was announced for publication by Parker in November, 1863. In January, 1864, it appeared over Longmans' imprint, but dated 1863. Whether any copies are in existence with a Parker imprint I do not know; if so they are the real first edition.
1864
THE BROOKES OF BRIDLEMERE. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Author of _The Gladiators_, _Digby Grant_ (sic), _The Interpreter_, _Holmby House_, _The Queen's Maries_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1864. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 293 + (3).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 307 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 293 + (3). Publishers' catalogue, 36 pp., and dated October, 1864, bound in at end.
No half-titles. Red cloth, gilt. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on October 29, 1864.
1866
CERISE: A Tale of the Last Century. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, author of _The Gladiators_, _Digby Grand_, _The Brookes of Bridlemere_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1866. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. iv + 309 + (3).
Vol. II. pp. iv + 301+ (3).
Vol. III. pp. iv + 318 + (2).
No half-titles. Magenta cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale cream end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in April, 1866.
(ii) _Cerise_ was rapidly reprinted, and it is curious to report that copies of the _third_ edition exist with publishers' catalogue at the end of Vol. III. dated March, 1866—_i.e._, prior to the book's _first_ publication. The first edition contained no catalogue.
1868
THE WHITE ROSE. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, author of _Cerise_, _The Gladiators_, _Brookes of Bridlemere_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 262 + (2).
Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 263 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 252.
Red-purple cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in February, 1868.
1869
BONES AND I: Or THE SKELETON AT HOME. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Author of _The Gladiators_, _Cerise_, _Digby Grand_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1869. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜). Pp. iv + 287 + (1). No half-title. Brown cloth, gilt. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in June, 1869.
1869
SONGS AND VERSES. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1869. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. vii + (i) + 136. Errata slip inserted at p. 1. Dark red cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in September, 1869.
(ii) The author revised and added to the poems in this book on several occasions after its original publication. Strictly speaking, any new edition which contains even one fresh poem may rank as a first edition, and collectors of Whyte-Melville, who are also purists, may therefore be advised not to pass over any one of the first six or seven editions of _Songs and Verses_ without satisfying themselves that no fresh matter distinguishes it from its predecessors.
1869
M. OR N. “SIMILIA SIMILIBUS CURANTUR.” By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. Author of _Digby Grand_, _Cerise_, _The Gladiators_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1869. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. vi + 312 + (2).
Vol. II. pp. vi + 313 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (315) (316).
Light brown (or brown) embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published on October 15, 1869. I do not know which shade of binding is the earlier.
1871
CONTRABAND: Or A LOSING HAZARD. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. Author of _Digby Grand_, _Cerise_, _The White Rose_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1871. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. vi + 307 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. vi + 281 + (1).
Bright blue cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—Although this book is dated 1871, it was actually published in December, 1870.
1871
SARCHEDON: A Legend of the Great Queen. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Author of _The Gladiators_, _Holmby House_, etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1871. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 289 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (vi) + 270.
Vol. III. pp. (vi) + 251 + (1).
Bright blue cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pale chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in July, 1871.
1872
SATANELLA: A Story of Punchestown. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1872. 2 vols. Sm. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7¼).
Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 260.
Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 267 + (1).
Lithographed frontispiece to each volume printed separately and one other similar illustration in vol. ii. Red (or maroon) cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in June, 1872. I do not know which shade of binding is the earlier.
1873
THE TRUE CROSS: A Legend of the Church. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. Author of _The Gladiators_, _Sarchedon_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1873. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (iv) + 241 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated January, 1873, bound in at end. Green (or chocolate) cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in March, 1873.
(ii) Copies in red-brown cloth, gilt, without decorative blocking, are of later issue, although they sometimes contain a catalogue of the original date. Which shade of the original binding is the earlier, I do not know.
1874
UNCLE JOHN: A Novel. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. Author of _Market Harborough_, _The Gladiators_, _Kate Coventry_, _Satanella_ etc. etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1874. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 267 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 236.
Vol. III. pp. (viii) + 218 + (2).
Green cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in August, 1874.
1875
KATERFELTO: A Story of Exmoor. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE, author of _Digby Grand_, _Cerise_, _Uncle John_ etc. With Illustrations by Colonel Hope Crealocke, C.B. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1875. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5⅝ × 8⅝). Pp. (iv) + 291 + (1). No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 34 pp., dated November, 1874, bound in at end. Twelve illustrations in lithograph, printed separately. Dark red cloth, blocked in gold. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—Although dated 1875, this book was actually published in December, 1874.
1876
SISTER LOUISE: Or THE STORY OF A WOMAN'S REPENTANCE. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE, Author of _Digby Grand_, _The Gladiators_, _Katerfelto_. With Illustrations by Miriam Kerns. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1876. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5⅜ × 8⅝). Pp. xii + 268. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated December, 1875, bound in at end. Eight illustrations, roughly lithographed. Green cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTES—(i) Although dated 1876, this book was actually published in December, 1875.
(ii) Copies without catalogue and with yellow end-papers are probably of a subsequent issue.
1877
ROSINE. By J. G. [_sic_] WHYTE-MELVILLE, Author of _Cerise_, _Katerfelto_ etc. etc. With illustrations by Miriam Kerns. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly, 1877. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¾ × 8⅝). Pp. (vi) + 266. Publishers' catalogue, 36 pp., dated December, 1876, bound in at end. Eight illustrations. Magenta cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Very dark green end-papers.
NOTES—(i) Although dated 1877, this book was actually published in December, 1876.
(ii) Copies in maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in black but without other decoration on side save a simple rectangular frame are of later issue.
1878
RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. With Illustrations by Edgar Giberne. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1878. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (5¼ × 7⅞). Pp. xii + 251 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated November, 1877, bound in at end. Eight illustrations, being photographs from drawings pasted on to thin card. Dark brickish-red cloth, blocked in black and gold. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in April, 1878.
1878
ROY'S WIFE: A Novel. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1878. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).
Vol. I. pp. vi + 299 + (1).
Vol. II. pp. vi + 310.
Olive-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Cream end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in July, 1878.
1879
BLACK BUT COMELY: Or THE ADVENTURES OF JANE LEE. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1879. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 303 + (i).
Vol. II. pp. viii + 304.
Vol. III. pp. viii + 292 + (4). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (293) to (296). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated December, 1878, bound in at end.
A four-page slip of publishers' advertisements should be found inserted between the front end-papers of Vol. I. This slip predates the catalogue in Vol. III. Blue-grey cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in January, 1879.
[?1879 or 1880]
THE BONES AT ROTHWELL: A Lecture delivered by the late Captain WHYTE MELVILLE, being an account of the remarkable bone cavern beneath Rothwell Church. Price 1d. Rothwell, printed by Ed. Chamberlain, 3 Market Place. (Quotation from Gray's _Elegy_ heads title-page and wrapper.) 1 vol. Cr. 8vo. 16 pp. White paper wrappers, printed in black. Outside back wrapper occupied by printer's advertisements.
NOTE—This is the text of a lecture delivered by Whyte-Melville on January 3, 1862, to the Moulton Religious and Useful Knowledge Society, and printed in the “Northampton Mercury” for January 11 of the same year. When first the pamphlet above described was issued I cannot be certain, but R. B. Wallis, in a booklet published in 1888, and entitled _All About the Rothwell Bones_, speaks of the lecture as obtainable in pamphlet form from Chamberlan of Rothwell. Certainly, therefore, the publication predates 1888, and I have ventured above on the date of the year following Whyte-Melville's death because it seems possible that the lecture was first issued in pamphlet form to combine the interest in the Rothwell Bones with that likely to be created in Whyte-Melville by his decease. The clumsiness with which Whyte-Melville is spoken of as “the late,” but at the same time given the rank of “Captain” instead of that of “Major,” implies a hasty reprint from the file of the “Northampton Mercury,” by someone aware of his death but careless of the military rank to which he finally attained.
The colour of the paper wrapper varies with different issues. In addition to a white copy, as above described, I have seen one in a pale yellow cover.
ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL 1810-1865
MRS. GASKELL
_BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICAL REMINISCENCE_
MRS. GASKELL: HAUNTS, HOMES AND STORIES. By ESTHER A. CHADWICK. London. 1910.
MRS. GASKELL. By the same. London. 1913.
MRS. GASKELL. By A. E. BAYLEY. (Women Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign.) London. 1897.
MRS. GASKELL AND KNUTSFORD. By G. A. PAYNE. London. 1906.
_BIBLIOGRAPHY_
Much valuable bibliographical information is contained in two little books by Mr. John Albert Green of the Manchester Reference Library:
A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDE TO THE GASKELL COLLECTION IN THE MOSS-SIDE LIBRARY. Manchester. 1911.
CATALOGUE of an Exhibition of Books and Autographs illustrating the Life and Work of Mrs. E. C. Gaskell. Manchester. 1911.
Students may also be referred to:
GASKELL BIBLIOGRAPHY. A list of the writings of Mrs. E. C. Gaskell and of the Rev. William Gaskell. By Wm. E. A. and Ernest Axon. Manchester. 1895.
I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPES FICTION, BIOGRAPHY, ETC.
1848
MARY BARTON: A Tale of Manchester Life. (Quotation from Carlyle.) London: Chapman and Hall, 186 Strand. MDCCCXLVIII. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (x) [paged as viii] + 317 + (3). The place of half-title and verso is taken by a publishers' advertisement, 2 pp., listing: “Chapman and Hall's Series of Original Works in Fiction, Biography, and General Literature.”
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 312.
No half-titles. Ribbed mulberry cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in October, 1848.
[1850]
LIBBIE MARSH'S THREE ERAS: A Lancashire Tale. London: Hamilton Adams and Co. 1 vol. 16mo. Pp. 72. Paper wrappers printed with title of story.
NOTE—This story first appeared in 1847, in Vol. I. of “Howitt's Journal,” over the pseudonym “Cotton Mather Mills.” It was issued by Chapman and Hall over the author's name in 1855 as a fourpenny pamphlet of twenty-four pages.
1850
*THE SEXTON'S HERO AND CHRISTMAS STORMS AND SUNSHINE. Contributed by the authoress of _Mary Barton_. For the benefit of the Macclesfield Public Baths and Washhouses. Manchester: Johnson, Rawson and Co. 1850. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo. Pp. 28. Paper wrappers.
NOTE—These stories first appeared in 1847 and 1848 in Vols. II. and III. of “Howitt's Journal,” over the pseudonym “Cotton Mather Mills.” They were reissued under one cover by Chapman and Hall in 1855 over the author's name.
1850
*LIZZIE LEIGH: A Domestic Tale from “Household Words.” By CHARLES DICKENS. New York. Dewitt and Davenport. 1850. 1 vol. 12mo. Buff paper wrappers printed in black with wording as above.
NOTE—This pamphlet was a pirated edition of a story published anonymously in “Household Words” and rashly assumed by the pirates to have been written by Dickens. It made a further appearance the next year in _The Irving Offering_ (New York, 1851), still over Dickens' name.
1850
THE MOORLAND COTTAGE. By the author of _Mary Barton_. With illustrations by Birket Foster. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1850. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. (viii) + 182 + (2). Advertisement of _Mary Barton_ occupies p. (183). Line-engraved frontispiece and picture title-page precede printed title-page. Other line-engraved illustrations here and there in the text. Maroon cloth, full gilt, blocked in gold and blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in December, 1850.
1853
RUTH: A Novel. By the author of _Mary Barton_ (Quotation from Phineas Fletcher.) London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1853. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅞).
Vol. I. pp. (ii) + 298. Publishers' advertisements, 36 pp., dated 1853, bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 328.
Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 311 + (1).
No half-titles. Dull purple cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers, of which those at front of Vols. I. and II. are printed with publishers' advertisements.
NOTE—This book was published in January, 1853.
1853
CRANFORD. By the author of _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1853. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. iv + 324. No half-title. Olive-green embossed cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.
1854
*TWO LECTURES ON LANCASHIRE DIALECT. By the author of _Mary Barton_. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Paper wrappers.
1855
LIZZIE LEIGH AND OTHER TALES. By the Author of _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_ etc. Cheap Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1855. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7). Pp. (viii) + 304. Yellow paper boards.
_Contents_: The Well of Pen Morfa—The Heart of John Middleton—Disappearances—The Old Nurse's Story—Traits and Stories of the Huguenots—Moreton Hall—My French Master—The Squire's Story—Company Manners—Mr. Harrison's Confessions—Libbie Marsh's Three Eras—The Sexton's Hero—Christmas Storms and Sunshine—Hand and Heart—Bessie's Troubles at Home.
This is the first edition of all the above stories, with the exception of _Lizzie Leigh_, _Libbie Marsh's Three Eras_, _The Sexton's_ _Hero_, _Christmas Storms and Sunshine_, _Hand and Heart_, and _Bessie's Troubles at Home_.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in September, 1855. It is a volume in Chapman and Hall's Select Library of Fiction, published at two shillings.
(ii) It may be of interest to enthusiasts to know that _Lizzie Leigh_ was adapted for the stage by W. R. Waldron and published in May, 1872, as No. 1393 in Lacy's Acting Editions of British Plays. Mrs. Gaskell must be absolved from all responsibility for this dramatization.
1855
NORTH AND SOUTH. By the author of _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_, _Cranford_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1855. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 320. Advertisement of previous works by the same author occupies p. (i), preceding half-title. Publishers' advertisements, 4 pp., bound in at end.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 361 + (1). Dark brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in March, 1855.
1855
*HAND AND HEART and BESSIE'S TROUBLES AT HOME. By the author of _Mary Barton_. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1855. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Paper wrappers.
1857
THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË, AUTHOR OF _Jane Eyre_, _Shirley_, _Villette_ ETC. By E. C. Gaskell, author of _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_ etc. (Quotation from _Aurora Leigh_.) London: Smith Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. 1857. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 8).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 352.
Vol. II. pp. viii + 327 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., dated March, 1857, bound in at end.
Three illustrations in steel engraving—two in Vol. I., one in Vol. II.—all printed separately. Dark brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in April, 1857.
1859
ROUND THE SOFA. By the author of _Mary Barton_, _Life of Charlotte Brontë_ etc. etc. London: Sampson Low Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill. 1859. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅞).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 340. Publishers' advertisement slip, printed on yellow paper, should be found inserted between the front end-papers.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 297 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 12 pp., printed on text paper and dated March, 1859, bound in at end.
No half-titles. Scarlet embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
_Contents_: Vol. I., Round the Sofa—My Lady Ludlow. Vol. II., The Accursed Race—The Doom of the Griffiths—Half a Life-time Ago—The Poor Clare—The Half-Brothers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in March, 1859.
(ii) It should be observed that only Vol. II. contains a list of contents, the corresponding page (iv) in Vol. I. being occupied by an author's note.
1860
RIGHT AT LAST: And Other Tales. By the author of _Mary Barton_, _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, _Round the Sofa_ etc. etc. London: Sampson Low Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill. 1860. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾). Pp. (vi) + 318. No half-title. Scarlet embossed cloth, gilt, uniform with _Round the Sofa_. Yellow end-papers.
_Contents_: Right at Last—The Manchester Marriage—Lois the Witch—The Crooked Branch.
NOTE—This book was published on May 10, 1860.
1861
LOIS THE WITCH AND OTHER TALES. By E. C. GASKELL, author of _Mary Barton_, _The Life of Charlotte Brontë_. Copyright edition. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz. 1 vol. (4½ × 6¼). Pp. (viii) + 338 + (2). Usual Tauchnitz paper wrappers.
_Contents_: Lois the Witch, The Grey Woman, The Doom of the Griffiths, The Half-Brothers, The Crooked Branch.
NOTE—This is a first edition of _The Grey Woman_.
1863
SYLVIA'S LOVERS. By Mrs. GASKELL, author of _The Life of Charlotte Brontë_, _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_, _North and South_ etc. (Quotation from Tennyson.) London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXIII. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅝).
Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 310 + (2).
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 294. No half-title.
Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 284 + (4). No half-title. Advertisement of _The Life of Charlotte Brontë_ occupies pp. (285) to (288).
Magenta cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Greenish-buff end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in March, 1863.
1863
A DARK NIGHT'S WORK. By Mrs. GASKELL, author of _Sylvia's Lovers_, _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_ etc. etc. London: Smith Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXIII. 1 vol. Slim Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7⅝). Pp. (iv) + 299 + (1). Brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Cream end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in May, 1863.
1865
THE GREY WOMAN: And Other Tales. By Mrs. GASKELL, Author of _Mary Barton_, _North and South_, _Sylvia's Lovers_, _Cousin Phillis_, _Cranford_ etc. Illustrated Edition. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXV. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. (iv) + 280. No half-title. Wood-engraved frontispiece and picture title-page precede printed title. Two illustrations in course of the text, wood engraved and printed separately. Red embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
_Contents_: The Grey Woman—Curious if True—Six Weeks at Heppenheim—Libbie Marsh's Three Eras—Christmas Storms and Sunshine—Hand and Heart—Bessie's Troubles at Home—Disappearances.
NOTE—This book was published in October, 1865. It is a first edition of _Curious if True_ and _Six Weeks at Heppenheim_.
1865
COUSIN PHILLIS: And Other Tales. By Mrs. GASKELL, author of _Mary Barton_, _North and South_, _Sylvia's Lovers_, _Cranford_ etc. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXV. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. (iv) + 286 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (287) and (288). No half-title. Wood-engraved frontispiece and picture title-page, printed separately, precede printed title. Two illustrations in the course of the text, wood engraved and printed separately. Red embossed cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Uniform with _The Grey Woman_. Cream end-papers.
_Contents_: Cousin Phillis—Company Manners—Mr. Harrison's Confessions—The Sexton's Hero.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in December, 1865.
(ii) It is a first edition of _Cousin Phillis_, which story appeared serially in the “Cornhill.”
1866
WIVES AND DAUGHTERS: An Everyday Story. By Mrs. GASKELL. With 18 illustrations by George du Maurier. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. 1866. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8⅝).
Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 336.
Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 332.
No half-titles. Ten illustrations in Vol. I. and eight in Vol. II., all wood engraved and printed separately. Maroon cloth, blocked in gold. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in February, 1866. The story appeared serially in the “Cornhill.”
_NOTE_
The Knutsford edition of Mrs. Gaskell's works (Smith, Elder and Co., 1906, 8 vols.), edited by A. W. Ward, contained in Vols. I., III., VI., and VII. material not previously issued in book form. Further additional matter (notably a chapter of _Cranford_) was published by Clement Shorter in the edition of Mrs. Gaskell's works edited by him for The World's Classics. The same authority published an edition of _The Life of Charlotte Brontë_ in 1900 (Smith, Elder) with many valuable notes. He has also issued a privately printed edition of Mrs. Gaskell's Letters on Charlotte Brontë, but this booklet, in accordance with the plan of the present volume, is not herein specifically listed. Full details of the various appearances of Gaskell miscellanea (with the exception of that last mentioned above) will be found in J. A. Green's Bibliographical Guide to the Gaskell Collection, referred to on p. 203.
II.—BOOKS PARTIALLY WRITTEN, ATTRIBUTED TO, OR EDITED BY MRS GASKELL.
1840
VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES: Old Halls, Battle Fields, and Scenes illustrative of striking passages in English History and Poetry. By WILLIAM HOWITT, author of _The Rural Life of England_, _Boy's Country-Book_ etc. Illustrated by Samuel Williams. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans. MDCCCXL. 1 vol. Med. 8vo (5¾ × 9). Pp. vii + (i) + 526. No half-title. Wood-engraved vignette on title-page and numerous other illustrations. Pp. 130 to 146 are occupied by an account of Clopton Hall, written by Mrs. Gaskell. Fawn cloth, blocked in gold.
1853
*THE SICKNESS AND HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE OF BLAEBURN. By the author of _Mary Barton_. Boston. 1853. 1 vol. 12mo. Paper wrappers.
NOTE—This is a reprint (unauthorized) of a story that appeared anonymously in Vol. I. of “Household Words.” The attribution to Mrs. Gaskell is a mistake, Harriet Martineau being the real author of the tale.
1857
MABEL VAUGHAN. By the author of The _Lamplighter_. Edited, by arrangement with the author, by Mrs. GASKELL, author of _Mary Barton_. London: Sampson Low, Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill. 1857. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. viii + 459 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 12 pp., paged but undated, bound in at end. Line-engraved frontispiece, printed separately. Dark green cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Pale yellow end-papers. Also issued simultaneously in boards.
NOTE—This book was published in September, 1857.
1862
GARIBALDI AT CAPRERA. By COLONEL VECCHI. Translated from the Italian. With Preface by Mrs. GASKELL. Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., and 23 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. London. 1862. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6⅝). Pp. xi + (i) + 130 + (2). Publishers' advertisement occupies p. (131). Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., undated, bound in at end. Frontispiece in tinted lithograph, showing Garibaldi's house. Scarlet cloth, blocked in gold. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in February or March, 1862.
HERMAN MELVILLE 1819-1891
HERMAN MELVILLE
At intervals during the last forty years, Herman Melville has been discovered by intellectuals, belauded, a little read, and once more forgotten. It is typical of the man and of his perverse withdrawal from the lettered world, that even before his death he was the subject of spasmodic battues by appreciative readers, who sought to startle into activity their idol's reputation by methods suited to the enlivenment of an author long dead and hidden by the undergrowth of time.
The latest and the most thorough stimulation to which the repute of Melville has been subjected is now at full stretch. Whatever its critical shortcomings, this concerted attempt to write a new name on the roll of nineteenth-century genius bids fair to achieve one important triumph—the immortalization of _Moby Dick_ and, consequentially, of the man who wrote it.
A very minor result of the same Melville boom is his inclusion in this book. Save in the matter of date, he has little in common with the other writers here treated. They are of Victorianism Victorian; he, if he belongs to any period or to any genealogy, is of the ageless, race-less family of the lonely giants. That his fellows between these covers are all lesser novelists than he, I am unprepared to admit. Trollope excels him in humour, wisdom and depth of understanding; he must rank, as master of technique, below all save Whyte-Melville and perhaps Disraeli. But he has a quality of grandeur, a majesty of isolation that they lack, and his very inchoate bitterness of spirit transcends by its datelessness their well-rounded friendliness and their complacent wit.
If that were not enough, he differs from them also in the very texture and subject of his work. His mysticism, for all its yearning and its gloom, is of a spiritual quality far rarer than that of their materialism, for all its vivacity and its aspiration. Between him and Reade is a certain soul resemblance, but the advantage in this is Melville's. He directly influenced the Englishman,[4] and beside his remote immensity Reade, even at his most massive and his most contentious, seems but a dwarf, roaring disgruntlement against the walls of Grub Street.
Footnote 4:
There is in existence the copy of _Moby Dick_ in which Reade made extensive notes and excisions, maybe with the idea of issuing an abbreviated version. Readers of _Love Me Little, Love Me Long_ will immediately detect the influence of Melville's great book on the whaling narrative related by Frank Dodd to Mr. Fountain and to his lovely niece.
Melville's books are the strange mirror of a strange life. The young writer, famous at thirty, who yet lives out a diminuendo of appreciation to an old age of disappointed poverty, is no unfamiliar figure. One thinks immediately of William Harrison Ainsworth, from the foppish eminence of his early twenties to the last sad years in a Tonbridge villa, when he laboured at the regular production of three-volume fiction—one novel a year at seventy-five pounds the time—alone amid the memories of vanished splendour. But the man who as a youth wins reputation in letters and passes, of deliberate purpose, maturity and age in other, non-literary, pursuits is a scarcer type, of which Melville is an unusual example.
Born in 1819, he published _Typee_ at the age of twenty-seven, _Moby Dick_ five years later, and _The Piazza Tales_ in 1856. From then until his death, in 1891, he wrote little, and, to the even greater detriment of his fame, withdrew entirely from the society of writers, hiding his name and his very existence behind the screen of an obstinate reserve.
I have no intention here either of summarizing the life or of passing judgment on the works of Herman Melville. The former is related in detail by Professor Raymond Weaver, whose large biography is of so recent date that any shorter presentment of the facts must merely be a précis of the information therein contained. The respective merits of the outstanding books are already (and will remain for long enough) the sport of literary publicists, to whose views and counter-views I refer the curious. One feature, nevertheless, of contemporary opinion challenges to protest my amateur temerity. Apart from _Moby Dick_, the neo-Melvillian has little beyond patronizing approval for the books of his hero; _Typee_ (1846) and _Omoo_ (1847) are interesting records of travel, remarkable mainly for the early date of their appearance and as forerunners of the South Sea School in letters and in painting. _Mardi_ (1849), _Redburn_ (1849), and _White Jacket_ (1850) claim respect as autobiography and for passages that reveal their author's genius struggling toward a more complete expression. These are the rising steps to the crowning summit of Melville's work. There, unique and peerless, stands _Moby Dick_; beyond it the terraces fall away again, and even more steeply than they rose.
Is this opinion a just one? I am a little uncertain. With no desire to denigrate _Moby Dick_ or to deny it the first place in _importance_ among Melville's books, I would venture that his genius is more perfectly and skilfully revealed in a volume of stories belonging to the so-called decadence. _The Piazza Tales_ are liable to be dismissed by the critic of to-day with kindly condescension as “the best of the later work,” a judgment as misleading as it is easily explained. In some degree the worship of _Moby Dick_ and the comparative neglect of the other work are inevitable corollaries to the Melville boom at its present stage. During the first period of any new æsthetic wonder, the peculiar transcends the normal in the imagination of disciples. Let the case of Melville be paralleled with that of Tintoretto's pupil, Greco. When first set in the revival of interest in this painter's work, he was most admired when most bizarre. He won favour for the contrast he presented to his immediate forerunners and his contemporaries. The name of Greco stood for certain mannerisms in colour and composition, and, the more a Greco picture revealed those mannerisms, the better a Greco it was judged to be. Already, from the hand of time, this formula of appreciation is suffering adjustment, but Melville is to-day precisely at the point where yesterday Greco stood. Like the master of Toledo, he has peculiar and noticeable tricks of matter and of style. Because _Moby Dick_ is of these tricks more redolent than the author's other books, it tickles the palate of contemporary enthusiasm more thoroughly than do they.
Such preference is by its very nature tenacious. _Moby Dick_, for all that it is unmistakably Melville, is far from flawless. What if Melville recognized its weaknesses? What if he deplored those very characteristics that are to-day lauded as his priceless individuality and chief claim to fame? With all its vastness and its wonder, the epic story of Ahab and the great white whale displays the faults of its author as strikingly as it reveals his talents. In years to come, when the glamour of oddity has paled a little, it will be admitted that the book labours under a sad weight of intolerable prolixity. Nor is this prolixity implicit in the greatness of Melville's writing. This is proved by the two chief stories in _The Piazza Tales_. _Benito Cereno_ and _The Encatadas_ hold in the small compass of their beauty the essence of their author's supreme artistry. They are profound and lovely and tenderly robust, but they are never tedious and never wilful. Surely it were generous to admit that Melville sought to improve on _Moby Dick_ and that, in the matter of technical control, he succeeded? These two stories cannot as literary achievement compare with their vast and teeming predecessor. That is natural. But they may not be ignored as the last glimmer of a dying lamp. They mark the highest technical level of their author's work, and, had not within a year or two of their appearance the darkness of self-distrust descended on him, might well have proved a revelation of something yet to come from the brain of Herman Melville, something destined—but for the treacherous inhibition of human frailty—to excel in power everything to which that brain had previously given birth.
_BIOGRAPHY_
HERMAN MELVILLE, MARINER AND MYSTIC. By RAYMOND M. WEAVER. New York. Doran. 1921. London: Humphrey Milford. 1922.
This long and careful book is based on the papers and information of the Melville family and represents the sum of present-day knowledge of Melville's life and ideas.
_NOTE_
Collectors should observe the fact that it was the custom of American publishers in the fifties and sixties to bind one edition in cloths of various colours for the purposes of window display. Consequently Melville's first American editions are met with in a variety of colourings which, in the matter of date of issue, rank equally.
I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPES FICTION, POETRY, TRAVEL
1846
*TYPEE: A Peep at Polynesian Life during a Four Months Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas with notices of the French Occupation of Tahiti and the Provisional Cession of the Sandwich Islands to Lord Paulet. By HERMAN MELVILLE. Part One. (Part Two.) New York. Wiley and Putnam, London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1846. 2 vols. Sm. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7¼).
Vol. I. pp.[5] Vol. II. pp.[5]
Footnote 5:
That the pagination of these volumes must be omitted is a misfortune that was unpreventable. A detailed description of the books was sent me from America, but the slip on which the actual pagination was set out did not arrive.
The half-titles to both volumes read: Wiley and Putnam's Library of American Books: Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. On the verso of half-title to Vol. I. is a list of books of travel; on that to Vol. II. the titles in the Library of American Books. Vol. I. contains a map. Dark green cloth, gilt. Fawn end-papers.
1846
NARRATIVE OF A FOUR MONTHS RESIDENCE AMONG THE NATIVES OF A VALLEY OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS: Or A PEEP AT POLYNESIAN LIFE. By HERMAN MELVILLE. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1846. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7). Pp. xvi + (ii) + 285 + (1). Publisher's advertisements, 16 pp., dated March, 1846, bound in at end. A sketch map of the Marquesas Islands on page (xviii) faces page (1). Red cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. White end-papers.
NOTE—A volume in Murray's “Colonial and Home Library” (No. 15). Subsequently named _Typee_. The lettering on the spine reads: Colonial and Home Library Vol XV Melvilles Marquesas Islands Murray.
1847
*TYPEE: A Peep at Polynesian Life during a Four Months Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas. Revised Edition with a Sequel. By HERMAN MELVILLE. New York: Wiley and Putnam. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1847. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7¼). Pp[6]. Of this book pp. 291-307 are occupied by the sequel to _Typee_ entitled _The Story of Toby_, and not previously published. Map faces title-page.
Footnote 6:
See footnote to previous page.
1847
TYPEE: Or A NARRATIVE OF A FOUR MONTHS RESIDENCE AMONG THE NATIVES OF A VALLEY OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS: Or A PEEP AT POLYNESIAN LIFE. By HERMAN MELVILLE. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1847. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7). Pp. xvi + 301 + (1). Pp. 287-301 are occupied by _The Story of Toby_, a sequel to _Typee_ not previously published. Publisher's advertisement precedes half-title proper, occupying reverse of a series half-title of “The Home and Colonial (_sic_) Library,” these two pages being inset on other than text paper. Publisher's catalogue, Fcap. 8vo, 16 pp., dated March, 1847, bound in at end. Red cloth, gilt, uniform with preceding item. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—The lettering on the spine is identical with that of the 1846 issue.
1847
OMOO: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas. By HERMAN MELVILLE, author of _Typee_. New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers. London: John Murray. 1847. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (408). The pagination of this volume is very confusing. Pp. (1)-(16) are paged xv + (i). Pp. 17-389 are so paged, p. (390) is unpaged, pp. (391)-(399) are paged (xv) to xxiii, p. (400) is unpaged, and pp. (401)-(408) are paged (1) to 8. Title-page printed in red and black, half-title in red. Line-engraved map printed separately facing title. Blue cloth, blocked in gold and blind. White end-papers.
NOTE—As an example of the varieties to be met with among American publications of this date, I append a collation of this same book, made by a friend from a copy seen in the United States. The variation of binding and end-papers is unimportant (see note on p. 220).
1847
*OMOO: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas. By HERMAN MELVILLE, author of _Typee_. New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers. London: John Murray, 1847. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. 398, of which (1)-(9) are unpaged, (10)-(17) are paged in roman numerals, 18-389 in arabic numerals, while pp. (390)-(398) are occupied by publishers' advertisements. Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., bound in at end. Title-page printed in red and black, half-title in red. Line-engraved map facing title-page. Brown cloth, blocked in gold. Marbled end-papers.
1847
OMOO: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas, being a sequel to the _Residence in the Marquesas Islands_. By HERMAN MELVILLE, author of _Typee_. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1847. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7). Pp. xiii + (i) + 321 +(1). Line-engraved map printed on text paper facing title-page. Red cloth, gilt, uniform with preceding item. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) The lettering on the spine reads: Adventures in the South Seas Murray.
(ii) A volume in Murray's “Colonial and Home Library” (No. 22). The Preface is dated New York, January 28, 1847.
(iii) Contemporary announcements of Murray's “Colonial and Home Library” speak of an issue of this book in _two parts_, “_sewed_,” and numbered respectively 43 and 44 of the series. I have never seen such wrappered issues, but, to judge by their numbering in the Library, they postdate the edition above described.
1849
MARDI AND A VOYAGE THITHER. By HERMAN MELVILLE, author of _Typee_ and _Omoo_. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1849. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. x + 336 + (2).
Vol. II. pp. x + 335 + (3).
Vol. III. pp. viii + 348.
Titles printed in two colours. Pale apple-green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Blue and white decorated end-papers, printed with publisher's advertisements.
NOTE—This book was published on March 16, 1849. The English edition predates the American one. 1,000 copies were printed.
1849
MARDI: AND A VOYAGE THITHER. By HERMAN MELVILLE. New York: Harper and Bros. Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. 1849. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜).
Vol. 1. pp. (376). The paging is very irregular. Pp. (1) to (6) are blank and unpaged; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) bears dedication; p. (10) is blank; p. (11) bears preface dated New York, January, 1849; p. (12) is blank; p. (13) is half-title; p. (14) is blank; pp. (15) to (18) are occupied by List of Contents paged (ix) to xii; pp. (19) to (371) are paged (13) to 365; pp. (372) to (376) are blank and unpaged. Pp. (1) (2) and (375) (376) are pasted down to front and back inside end-papers.
Vol. II. pp. (408), of which pp. (1)-(6) are blank and unpaged; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) is half-title; p. (10) is blank; pp. (11)-(14) are occupied by List of Contents paged (ix) to xii; pp. (15) to (393) are paged (9) to 387; p. (394) is blank and unpaged; pp. (395)-(402) are occupied by publishers' advertisements paged (1) to 8; pp. (403)-(408) are blank and unpaged. Pp. (1) (2) and (407) (408) are pasted down to front and back inside end-papers.
It should be noted that in each volume the printed half-title follows the title-page.
Dark green cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.
1849
REDBURN: HIS FIRST VOYAGE. Being the Sailor boy confessions and reminiscences of the son of a gentleman in the Merchant Service. By HERMAN MELVILLE. Author of _Typee_, _Mardi_ etc. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1849. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 316. No half-title.
Vol II. pp. viii + 314.
Dark blue cloth, gilt, blocked in blind, white end-papers patterned in blue and printed with publisher's advertisements.
NOTES—(i) This book was published on September 29, 1849. The English edition predates the American one. 750 copies were printed.
(ii) I have seen a copy of this edition bearing on the case the name of T. C. Newby as publisher, but with the Bentley title-page. This was probably a “remainder” copy, for Newby frequently bought sheets of books that had not sold when originally published, and issued them at a cheaper price wholly or partially over his imprint.
1849
REDBURN: HIS FIRST VOYAGE. Being the sailor boy confessions and reminiscences of the son of a gentleman in the Merchant Service. By HERMAN MELVILLE, Author of _Typee_, _Mardi_. New York: Harper and Bros., Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. 1849. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. (420). The numbering of pages is very erratic. Pp. (1)-(6) are blank and unpaged; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) bears dedication; p. (10) is blank; pp. (11)-(17) are occupied by List of Contents paged (v)-xi; p. (12) is blank; pp. (13) to 390 are so paged; pp. (391)-(394) are unpaged and occupied by advertisements of other works by Melville; pp. (395)-(406) form a publishers' list, dated October, 1849, and paged (1) to 14; pp. (407) and (408) are occupied by publishers' advertisements, undated, but paged (1) and 2; pp. (409)-(412) are blank; pp. (413) and (414) are pasted down to inside back end-paper. No printed half-title. Purple-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—Copies of the first edition are found with fewer advertisement pages at the end. These may well, in view of the irregular nature of American bookmaking at that period, be contemporary in issue with those more extensively furnished, but the collector will naturally prefer a copy as complete as possible.
1850
WHITE JACKET: Or THE WORLD IN A MAN OF WAR. By HERMAN MELVILLE. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1850. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. vi + 322.
Vol. II. pp. iv + 315 + (1).
No half-titles. Pale blue cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers, printed with publisher's advertisements.
NOTES—(i) This book was published on January 23, 1850. The English edition predates the American one. 1,000 copies were printed.
(ii) Vol. I. pp. iii and iv contain a preface dated October, 1849, and different in content from the note on p. iv of the American edition, dated March, 1850.
1850
WHITE JACKET: Or THE WORLD IN A MAN OF WAR. By HERMAN MELVILLE. Author of _Typee_, _Omoo_, _Mardi_ and _Redburn_. New York: Harper and Bros., Publishers, 82 Cliff Street. London: Richard Bentley. 1850. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. (484). Here again the paging is irregular. Of the preliminary matter pp. (1)-(6) are blank; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) bears quotation from Fuller's _Good Sea-Captain_; p. (10) bears author's note, dated New York, March, 1850; pp. (11)-(13) are occupied by List of Contents and are paged in roman numerals, (v) to vii; p. (14) is blank; pp. (15) to (471) are paged (9) to 465; p. (472) is blank; pp. (473)-(476) are unpaged and occupied by advertisements of other works by Melville; pp. (477) (478) are also unpaged and occupied by publishers' advertisements; pp. (479)-(484) are blank and unpaged. No printed half-title. Dark brown or blue-grey cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—The varieties of binding are of simultaneous date.
1851
THE WHALE. By HERMAN MELVILLE, author of _Typee_, _Omoo_, _Redburn_, _Mardi_, _White Jacket_. (Quotation from _Paradise Lost_.) London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1851. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).
Vol. I. pp. viii + 312.
Vol. II. pp. iv + 303 + (1).
Vol. III. pp. iv + 328.
Quarter cream cloth blocked in gold; bright blue embossed cloth sides, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published on October 18, 1851. The English edition predates the American one. 500 copies were printed.
(ii) Vol. I. only has half-title, on which the story is described as _The Whale or Moby Dick_.
1851
MOBY DICK: Or THE WHALE. By HERMAN MELVILLE, Author of _Typee_, _Omoo_, _Redburn_, _Mardi_, _White-Jacket_. New York: Harper and Bros. Publishers. London: Richard Bentley. 1851. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (xxx) [paged as xxiii + (i)] + 634 + (12). Epilogue occupies p. (635). Publishers' advertisements, 6 pp., occupy pp. (637)-(642). Pp. (i) (ii) and (647) (648) are pasted down to front and back inside end-papers. No printed half-title. Slate-blue or scarlet cloth, gilt. Orange end-papers.
NOTES—(i) The varieties of binding are of simultaneous date.
(ii) This book was expurgated for publication in England, the American text containing thirty-five passages not included in Bentley's edition (see previous item).
1852
PIERRE: Or THE AMBIGUITIES. By HERMAN MELVILLE. New York: Harper and Bros., Publishers, 329 and 331 Pearl Street, Franklin Square. 1852. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (xii) [paged as viii] + 495 + (6). Pp. (i) (ii) and (501) (502) are pasted down to front and back inside end-papers. No printed half-title. Dark grey cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Dark grey end-papers.
1852
PIERRE: Or THE AMBIGUITIES. By HERMAN MELVILLE. London: Sampson Low Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill. 1852. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. viii + 495 + (i). No half-title. Blue embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in November, 1852.
(ii) This English edition consists of American printed sheets with cancel title. It is as scarce as, if not scarcer than, the American edition, the bulk of which was destroyed by fire.
1855
ISRAEL POTTER: HIS FIFTY YEARS OF EXILE. By HERMAN MELVILLE. Author of _Typee_, _Omoo_ etc. New York: G. P. Putnam and Co., 10 Park Place. 1855. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (280) [paged as (2) + 276 + (2)]. No printed half-title. Purple-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.
NOTE—On the case, this book is entitled “Fifty Years Exile.” A pirated edition, under the title _The Refugee_, was published in Philadelphia in [1865].
1855
ISRAEL POTTER: HIS FIFTY YEARS OF EXILE. By HERMAN MELVILLE, author of _Typee_, _Omoo_ etc. London: G. Routledge and Co., Farringdon Street. 1855. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4 × 6½). Pp. 174. Bright yellow paper wrappers printed in black. The outside back wrapper is occupied by publishers' advertisements. Also issued simultaneously in cloth.
NOTE—This book was published in April, 1855.
1856
THE PIAZZA TALES. By HERMAN MELVILLE, author of _Typee_, _Omoo_, etc. etc. New York: Dix and Edwards, 321 Broadway. London: Sampson Low, Son and Co. 1856. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅛). Pp. (vi) + 431 + (11). No printed half-title. Publishers' advertisements, unpaged and undated, occupy pp. (433)-(439). Purple-brown cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Grey-blue end-papers.
_Contents_: The Piazza—Bartleby—Benito Cereno—The Lightning-Rod Man—The Encantadas; or Enchanted Islands—The Bell-Tower.
NOTES—(i) This book was published in May or June, 1856.
(ii) It is doubtful whether copies of this book were ever actually issued in England, despite the fact that Sampson Low and Co. advertised the book at 9s. in June, 1856. At the most, copies may exist with an English cancel title, but even this is improbable in view of the joint imprint on the New York edition. It will be noted that when previously Low imported Melville sheets (_cf._ _Pierre_, 1852) they inserted their own title-page and bound the book differently for English issue, but in that case their name was not printed on the American edition.
(iii) Copies of the first American edition exist, with pale yellow end-papers. These are thinner in quality than the grey-blue ones above mentioned, and not chalk surfaced to the extent usual with American tinted papers of the period. Indeed, they have more the appearance of English than of American end-papers, but it is difficult to believe that Sampson Low and Co. could have imported sheets and cases from America, merely carrying out in this country the process of binding.
1857
THE CONFIDENCE MAN: HIS MASQUERADE. By HERMAN MELVILLE, Author of _The Piazza Tales_, _Omoo_ etc. etc. New York: Dix Edwards and Co., 321 Broadway. 1857. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. (x) [paged as vi] + 394 + (4). No printed half-title. Purple-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Dark green end-papers.
1857
THE CONFIDENCE MAN: HIS MASQUERADE. By HERMAN MELVILLE, author of _The Piazza Tales_, _Omoo_, _Typee_ etc. etc. Authorized edition. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts. 1857. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. vi + 354. No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 24 pp., dated September, 1855 [_sic_], bound in at end. Yellow-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Brick-red end-papers, partially printed with publishers' advertisements.
NOTE—This book was published in April, 1857.
1866
BATTLEPIECES AND ASPECTS OF THE WAR. By HERMAN MELVILLE. New York: Harper and Bros., Publishers, Franklin Square. 1866. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜). Pp. (298), of which pp. (i)-(6) are blank and unpaged; p. (7) is title-page; p. (8) bears note of the book's official registration; p. (9) bears dedication; p. (10) is blank; p. (11) bears Author's Note; p. (12) is blank; pp. (13)-(16) are occupied by List of Contents paged (vii)-x; pp. (17) to (278) are paged (11) to 272; pp. (279)-(284) are blank and unpaged. No printed half-title. Brown or violet cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—There was no English edition of this book.
1876
CLAREL: A Poem and a Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. By HERMAN MELVILLE. In four parts. I. Jerusalem. II. The Wilderness. III. Mar Saba. IV. Bethlehem. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, No. 182 Fifth Avenue, 1876. 2 vols. Sq. 16mo (6⅞ × 5⅛).
Vol. I. pp. (304), of which pp. (8) and (9) are paged ii and iii, pp. (10) and (11) unpaged, and pp. (12)-(304) are paged 8 to 300.
Vol. II. pp. (312). In this volume the paging is even more erratic; pp. (i)-(5) are unnumbered, p. (6) is numbered iv, pp. (7), (8), and (9) are unnumbered, pp. (10) to (309) are numbered 304 to 571, pp. (310) to (312) are unnumbered.
Bright green cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.
NOTE—This book was published in July, 1876. There was no English edition.
1888
JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS, WITH SOME SEA PIECES. New York: De Vinne Press. 1888. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4½ × 6¾). Pp. (iv) + 103 + (1). Cream paper wrappers printed in black.
NOTE—Only twenty-five copies of this edition were printed.
1891
*TIMOLEON etc. New York: Canton Press. 1891. 1 vol. (4½ × 7). Pp. (72), of which (1)-(5) are unnumbered, (6) is paged in roman numerals, pp. 7-70 in arabic numerals, and (71) and (72) unnumbered. Buff paper wrappers, printed in black.
NOTE—Only twenty-five copies of this edition were printed.
II.—BOOKS PARTIALLY WRITTEN BY HERMAN MELVILLE
There are only two items that it is possible to list under this heading, and to each one of them Melville's contribution is so slight as to make unnecessary their detailed collation. P. 30 of the _Memorial to James Fenimore Cooper_, published in one volume by Putnam, New York, in 1852, bears a letter from Melville in praise of Cooper addressed to the Committee organizing the Cooper celebration. Pp. 399 and 400 of _The History of Pittsfield, Massachusetts from 1800 to 1876_, by J. E. A. Smith, and published in Springfield by C. W. Bryan and Co., 1876, bear an account of Major Thomas Melville written by Herman Melville, but not nominally attributed to him.
INDEX OF BOOK-TITLES
AFTER DARK (Collins), 130, 139
AMERICAN SENATOR, The (Trollope), 33, 64
ANGELO (Reade), _Play_, 170
ANTONINA (Collins), 136
ARAB'S RIDE TO CAIRO, The (Whyte-Melville), 191
ARMADALE (Collins), _Novel_, 131, 142
ARMADALE (Collins), _Play_, 152
ART (Reade), _Play_, 178
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (Trollope), 60
AUTOBIOGRAPHY, An (Trollope), 71
AYALA'S ANGEL (Trollope), 33, 68
BARCHESTER TOWERS (Trollope), 22, 39
BASIL (Collins), 134, 138
BATTLEPIECES AND ASPECTS OF THE WAR (Herman Melville), 232
BELTON ESTATE, The (Trollope), 31, 33, 49
BERTRAMS, The (Trollope), 28, 29, 40
BESSIE'S TROUBLES AT HOME (Gaskell), 207, 210
BIBLE CHARACTERS (Reade), 169
BLACK AND WHITE (Collins), _Play_, 153
BLACK BUT COMELY (Whyte-Melville), 187, 199
BLACK ROBE, The (Collins), 132, 133, 148
BLIND LOVE (Collins), 132, 151
BONES AND I (Whyte-Melville), 195
BONES AT ROTHWELL, The (Whyte-Melville), 200
BOX TUNNEL, The (Reade), 162
BRITISH SPORTS AND PASTIMES (Trollope), 72
BROOKES OF BRIDLEMERE, The (Whyte-Melville), 187, 194
CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? (Trollope), 23, 24, 28, 29, 45
CASTLE RICHMOND (Trollope), 26, 28, 41
CERISE (Whyte-Melville), 187, 194
CHILDREN OF THE NEW FOREST, The (Marryat), 80, 95
CHRISTIE JOHNSTONE (Reade), _Novel_, 160
CHRISTIE JOHNSTONE (Reade), _Play_, 178
CHRISTMAS STORMS AND SUNSHINE (Gaskell), 204, 206, 210
CLAREL (Herman Melville), 232
CLAVERINGS, The (Trollope), 28, 31, 32, 52
CLERGYMEN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND (Trollope), 49
CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH, The (Reade), 163
CODE OF SIGNALS FOR THE USE OF VESSELS EMPLOYED IN THE MERCHANT SERVICE, A (Marryat), 82
COMMENTARIES OF CÆSAR, The (Trollope), 57
CONFIDENCE MAN, The (Herman Melville), 231, 232
CONINGSBY (Disraeli), 110, 111, 119
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE COPYRIGHT QUESTION (Collins), 147
CONTARINI FLEMING (Disraeli), 107, 108, 109, 115
CONTRABAND (Whyte-Melville), 187, 196
COUNTESS AND THE DANCER, The (Reade), _Play_, 177
COURIER OF LYONS, The (Reade), _Play_, 171
COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUN SMOOTH, The (Reade), 161
COUSIN HENRY (Trollope), 33, 66
COUSIN PHILLIS (Gaskell), 210
CRANFORD (Gaskell), 206
CREAM (Reade), 162
CRISIS EXAMINED, The (Disraeli), 117
DANGEROUS PATH, The (Reade), _Play_, 178
DARK NIGHT'S WORK (Gaskell), 209
DEAD SECRET, The (Collins), 130, 139
DIARY IN AMERICA, A (Marryat). Part 1, 89; part 2, 90
DIARY OF A BLASÉ, The (Marryat), 88
DID HE STEAL IT? (Trollope), _Play_, 55
DIGBY GRAND (Whyte-Melville), 186, 189
DOCTOR THORNE (Trollope), 22, 40
DOCTOR WORTLE'S SCHOOL (Trollope), 33, 67
DORA (Reade), _Play_, 173
DOUBLE MARRIAGE, The (Reade), _Play_, 174
DREAM WOMAN, The (Collins), _Play_, 154
DRINK (Reade), _Play_, 179
DUKE'S CHILDREN, The (Trollope), 23, 25, 26, 67
EDITOR'S TALES, An (Trollope), 56
EIGHTH COMMANDMENT, The (Reade), 162
ENDYMION (Disraeli), 107, 108, 122
ENGLAND AND FRANCE (Disraeli), 115
ENQUIRY INTO THE PLANS, PROGRESS AND POLICY OF AMERICAN MINING COMPANIES, An (Disraeli), 113
EUSTACE DIAMONDS, The (Trollope), 23, 24, 60
EVIL GENIUS, The (Collins), 132, 149
EYE FOR AN EYE, An (Trollope), 33, 34, 65
FALLEN LEAVES, The (Collins), 132, 133, 147
FIRST PRINTER, The (Reade), _Play_, 178
FIXED PERIOD, The (Trollope), 34, 70
FLORAL TELEGRAPH, The (Marryat), 98
FOUL PLAY (Reade), _Novel_, 164
FOUL PLAY (Reade), _Play_, 176
FRAMLEY PARSONAGE (Trollope), 22, 41
FREE LABOUR (Reade), _Play_, 178
FROZEN DEEP, The (Collins), _Story_, 144
FROZEN DEEP, The (Collins), _Play_, 153
GARIBALDI AT CAPRERA (Gaskell), 213
GENERAL BOUNCE (Whyte-Melville), 186, 187, 190
GLADIATORS, The (Whyte-Melville), 187, 193
GOLD (Reade), _Play_, 170
GOLDEN CROWNS (Reade), 166
GOLDEN LION OF GRANPERE, The (Trollope), 34, 59
GOOD FIGHT, A (Reade), 169
GOOD FOR NOTHING (Whyte-Melville), 187, 192
GOOD STORIES OF MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS (Reade), 167
GREY WOMAN, The (Gaskell), 209, 210
GRIFFITH GAUNT (Reade), _Novel_, 163
GUILTY RIVER, The (Collins), 149
HAND AND HEART (Gaskell), 207, 210
HARD CASH (Reade), 163
HARRY HEATHCOTE OF GANGOIL (Trollope), 34, 61
HAUNTED HOTEL, The (Collins), 132, 133, 146
HEART AND SCIENCE (Collins), 132, 133, 148
HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT (Trollope), 31, 32, 54
HENRIETTA TEMPLE (Disraeli), 110, 118
HERO AND A MARTYR, A (Reade), 165
HIDE AND SEEK (Collins), 130, 134, 138
HOLMBY HOUSE (Whyte-Melville), 187, 191
HORACE (Whyte-Melville), 189
HOW THE 'MASTIFFS' WENT TO ICELAND (Trollope), 65
HUNTING SKETCHES (Trollope), 48
HYPOCHONDRIAC, The (Reade), _Play_, 173
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BURMESE WAR (Marryat), 103
INFERNAL MARRIAGE, The (Disraeli), 121
INSIDE THE BAR (Whyte-Melville), 193
INTERPRETER, The (Whyte-Melville), 191
I SAY NO (Collins), 132, 148
IS HE POPENJOY? (Trollope), 32, 64
ISRAEL POTTER (Herman Melville), 230
IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND (Reade), _Novel_, 160
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND (Reade), _Play_, 174
IXION IN HEAVEN (Disraeli), 121
JACK ASHORE (Howard), 101
JACOB FAITHFUL (Marryat), 78, 79, 84, 85
JAPHET IN SEARCH OF A FATHER (Marryat), 77, 78, 81, 87
JEALOUSY (Reade), _Play_, 179
JEZEBEL'S DAUGHTER (Collins), 132, 147
JILT, The (Reade), 168
JOAN (Reade), _Play_, 179
JOHN CALDIGATE (Trollope), 34, 66
JOHN MARR AND OTHER SAILORS (Herman Melville), 233
JOSEPH RUSHBROOK (Marryat), 78, 93
KATE COVENTRY (Whyte-Melville), 186, 191
KATE PEYTON (Reade), _Play_, 174, 177
KATERFELTO (Whyte-Melville), 188, 197
KELLYS AND THE O'KELLYS, The (Trollope), 26, 37
KEPT IN THE DARK (Trollope), 34, 69
KING'S OWN, The (Marryat), 78, 83
KINGS' RIVAL, The (Reade), _Play_, 172
LADIES' BATTLE, The (Reade), _Play_, 170, 175
LADY ANNA (Trollope), 33, 61
LADY'S OATH, A (Reade), _Play_, 178
LANDLEAGUERS, The (Trollope), 26, 70
LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET, The (Trollope), 22, 29, 50
LA VENDÉE (Trollope), 38
LAW AND THE LADY, The (Collins), 132, 133, 144
LAWYERS AND LEGISLATORS (Disraeli), 113
LAZY TOUR OF TWO IDLE APPRENTICES, The (Collins), 151
LE FAUBOURG SAINT-GERMAIN (Reade), _Play_, 173
LEGACY OF CAIN, The (Collins), 132, 150
LETTERS OF RUNNYMEDE, The (Disraeli), 118
LIBBIE MARSH'S THREE ERAS (Gaskell), 204, 206, 210
LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË (Gaskell), 207
LIFE OF CICERO, The (Trollope), 67
LIFE OF PAUL JONES, The (Disraeli), 123
LINDA TRESSEL (Trollope), 35, 53
LITTLE NOVELS (Collins), 132, 150
LITTLE SAVAGE, The (Marryat), 80, 96
LIZZIE LEIGH (Gaskell), 205, 206
LOIS THE WITCH (Gaskell), 208, 209
LORD GEORGE BENTINCK (Disraeli), 120
LORD PALMERSTON (Trollope), 69
LOST HUSBAND, The (Reade), _Play_, 170
LOST SISTERS, The (Reade), _Play_, 178
LOTHAIR (Disraeli), 111, 122
LOTTA SCHMIDT (Trollope), 53
LOVE ME LITTLE LOVE ME LONG (Reade), 162
LOVE AND MONEY (Reade), _Play_, 177
LUCREZIA BORGIA (Reade), _Play_, 178
MABEL VAUGHAN (Gaskell), 212
MACDERMOTTS OF BALLYCLORAN, The (Trollope), 26, 37
MAN AND WIFE (Collins), 132, 133, 142
MARDI AND A VOYAGE THITHER (Herman Melville), 219, 225
MARGUERITE (Reade), _Play_, 178
MARINE COAST, The (Howard), 102
MARION FAY (Trollope), 33, 69
MARKET HARBOROUGH (Whyte-Melville), 185, 188, 192
MARY BARTON (Gaskell), 204
MASKS AND FACES (Reade), _Play_, 171
MASTERMAN READY (Marryat), 80, 81, 92
MEMOIRS OF ADMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH (Howard), 101
MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF WILLIAM COLLINS (Collins), 136
MESSAGE FROM THE SEA, A (Collins), _Play_, 152
MISS GWILT (Collins), _Play_, 155
MISSION, The (Marryat), 80, 94
MISS MACKENZIE (Trollope), 28, 29, 47
MISS OR MRS.? (Collins), 144
MOBY DICK (Herman Melville), 218, 219, 220, 229
MOONSTONE, The (Collins), _Novel_, 129, 131, 142
MOONSTONE, The (Collins), _Play_, 155
MOORLAND COTTAGE, The (Gaskell), 205
M. OR N. (Whyte-Melville), 187, 195
MR. MIDSHIPMAN EASY (Marryat), 78, 80, 88
MR. SCARBOROUGH'S FAMILY (Trollope), 30, 70
MR. WRAY'S CASH BOX (Collins), 133, 134, 137
MY MISCELLANIES (Collins), 141
NARRATIVE OF A FOUR MONTHS' RESIDENCE AMONG THE NATIVES OF A VALLEY OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS (Herman Melville), 222, 223
NARRATIVE OF THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF MONSIEUR VIOLET IN CALIFORNIA, etc. (Marryat), 80, 93
NAVAL OFFICER, The (Marryat), 78, 79, 83
NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND (Hazlewood), _Play_, 175
NEW MAGDALEN, The (Collins), _Novel_, 132, 133, 143
NEW MAGDALEN, The (Collins), _Play_, 155
NEWTON FORSTER (Marryat), 78, 83
NINA BALATKA (Trollope), 34, 50
NOBS AND SNOBS (Reade), _Play_, 178
NO NAME (Collins), _Novel_, 131, 141
NO NAME (Collins), _Play_, 152, 154
NORTH AMERICA (Trollope), 44
NORTH AND SOUTH (Gaskell), 207
NO THOROUGHFARE (Collins), _Story_, 151
NO THOROUGHFARE (Collins), _Play_, 153
OLD COMMODORE, The (Howard), 100
OLD MAN'S LOVE, An (Trollope), 34, 71
OLLA PODRIDA (Marryat), 91
OMOO (Herman Melville), 219, 224
ORLEY FARM (Trollope), 24, 30, 31, 42
OUTWARD BOUND (Howard), 101
PACHA OF MANY TALES, The (Marryat), 78, 81, 85
PEG WOFFINGTON (Reade), 160
PERCIVAL KEENE (Marryat), 78, 79, 93
PEREGRINE PICKLE (Reade), _Play_, 170
PERILOUS SECRET, A (Reade), 168
PERILS OF CERTAIN ENGLISH PRISONERS (Collins), 151
PETER SIMPLE (Marryat), 78, 79, 81, 84, 85
PHANTOM SHIP, The (Marryat), 80, 89
PHINEAS FINN (Trollope), 23, 24, 30, 54
PHINEAS REDUX (Trollope), 23, 24, 60
PIAZZA TALES, The (Herman Melville), 218, 219, 220, 231
PIERRE (Herman Melville), 229, 230
PIRATE, AND THE THREE CUTTERS, The (Marryat), 78, 79, 85
PLOT IN PRIVATE LIFE, A (Collins), 140
POOR JACK (Marryat), 78, 79, 90
POOR MISS FINCH (Collins), 134, 143
POVERTY AND PRIDE (Reade), _Play_, 172
PRESENT STATE OF MEXICO, The (Disraeli), 113
PRIME MINISTER, The (Trollope), 23, 25, 62
PRIVATEER'S-MAN, The (Marryat), 78, 79, 95
PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE (Reade), 164
QUEEN OF HEARTS, The (Collins), 130, 140
QUEEN'S MARIES, The (Whyte-Melville), 187, 193
RACHEL RAY (Trollope), 28, 29, 44
RACHEL THE REAPER (Reade), _Play_, 179
RALPH THE HEIR (Trollope), 32, 58
RAMBLES BEYOND RAILWAYS (Collins), 137
RATTLIN THE REEFER (Marryat/Howard), 99
READIANA (Reade), 167
REDBURN (Herman Melville), 219, 226, 227
REVOLUTIONARY EPICK, The (Disraeli), 117, 121
RIDING RECOLLECTIONS (Whyte-Melville), 185, 188, 199
RIGHT AT LAST (Gaskell), 208
ROGUE'S LIFE, A (Collins), 146
ROSINE (Whyte-Melville), 187, 198
ROUND THE SOFA (Gaskell), 208
ROY'S WIFE (Whyte-Melville), 187, 199
RUTH (Gaskell), 205
SARCHEDON (Whyte-Melville), 187, 196
SATANELLA (Whyte-Melville), 187, 196
SETTLERS IN CANADA, The (Marryat), 80, 94
SEXTON'S HERO, The (Gaskell), 204, 206, 210
SHILLY SHALLY (Reade), _Play_, 32, 179
SHOCKING STORY, A (Collins), 145
SICKNESS AND HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE OF BLAEBURN (wrongly attributed to Gaskell), 212
SIMPLETON, A (Reade), 165
SINGLE HEART AND DOUBLE FACE (Reade), _Novel_, 167
SINGLE HEART AND DOUBLE FACE (Reade), _Play_, 179
SIR HARRY HOTSPUR OF HUMBLETHWAITE (Trollope), 34, 58
SIR HENRY MORGAN (Howard), 102
SISTER LOUISE (Whyte-Melville), 187, 198
SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON, The (Trollope), 22, 45
SNARLEYOW (Marryat), 80, 88
SONGS AND VERSES (Whyte-Melville), 195
SOUTH AFRICA (Trollope), 64
STAR CHAMBER, The (Disraeli), 123
STORIES OF THE SEA (Marryat), 87
STORY OF TOBY, The (Herman Melville), 223
STRUGGLES OF BROWN, JONES AND ROBINSON, The (Trollope), 34, 57
SUGGESTION FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF IMPRESSMENT IN THE NAVAL SERVICE (Marryat), 82
SYBIL (Disraeli), 110, 111, 120
SYLVIA'S LOVERS (Gaskell), 209
TALES OF ALL COUNTRIES (Trollope). First series, 41; second series, 44
TANCRED (Disraeli), 110, 111, 120
TERRIBLE TEMPTATION, A (Reade), 165
THACKERAY (Trollope), 65
THOMPSON HALL (Trollope), 68
THREE CLERKS, The (Trollope), 24, 30, 39
TILBURY NOGO (Whyte-Melville), 186, 189
TIMOLEON (Herman Melville), 233
TRADE MALICE (Reade), 166
TRAGEDY OF COUNT ALARCOS, The (Disraeli), 119, 121
TRAVELLING SKETCHES (Trollope), 49
TRUE CROSS, The (Whyte-Melville), 197
TWO DESTINIES, The (Collins), 131, 144
TWO LECTURES ON LANCASHIRE DIALECT (Gaskell), 206
TWO LOVES AND A LIFE (Reade), _Play_, 172
TYPEE (Herman Melville), 218, 219, 222, 223
UNCLE JOHN (Whyte-Melville), 187, 197
VALERIE (Marryat), 78, 96
VENETIA (Disraeli), 110, 119
VICAR OF BULLHAMPTON, The (Trollope), 35, 55
VILLAGE TALE, The (Reade), _Play_, 178
VINDICATION OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION IN A LETTER TO A NOBLE AND LEARNED LORD (Disraeli), 117
VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES (Howitt Gaskell), 212
VIVIAN GREY (Disraeli), 107, 108, 110, 114
VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN POPANILLA, The (Disraeli), 108, 109, 110, 114, 121
WANDERING HEIR, The (Reade), _Story_, 166
WANDERING HEIR (Reade), _Play_, 179
WARDEN, The (Trollope), 22, 38
WAY THINGS TURN, The (Reade), _Play_, 178
WAY WE LIVE NOW, The (Trollope), 29, 33, 34, 62
WELCOME, A (Trollope), 72
WELL BORN WORKMAN, The (Reade), 176
WEST INDIES AND THE SPANISH MAIN, The (Trollope), 40
WHALE, The (Herman Melville), 228, 229
WHAT IS HE? (Disraeli), 116
WHITE JACKET (Herman Melville), 219, 227, 228
WHITE LIES (Reade), 161
WHITE ROSE, The (Whyte-Melville), 187, 194
WHY FRAU FROHMANN RAISED HER PRICES (Trollope), 68
WIVES AND DAUGHTERS (Gaskell), 211
WOMAN HATER, A (Reade), 166
WOMAN IN WHITE, The (Collins), _Novel_, 129, 131, 132, 140
WOMAN IN WHITE, The (Collins), _Play_, 154
WONDROUS TALE OF ALROY, The (Disraeli), 108, 116
WORKS OF ISAAC DISRAELI, Ed. B. Disraeli, 124
YOUNG DUKE, The (Disraeli), 109, 114
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BILLING AND SONS, LIMITED, GUILDFORD AND ESHER.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
1. Made corrections indicated in Errata and Addendum. 2. Silently corrected typographical errors. 3. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 5. Superscripts are denoted by a carat before a single superscript character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.