Modern English Books of Power

Short Notes of Both Standard and Other Editions, With Lives, Sketches and Reminiscences.

The editions of Macaulay are so numerous that it is useless to attempt to enumerate them. A standard edition was collected in 1866 by his sister, Lady Trevelyan. Four volumes are devoted to the history and three to the essays and lives of famous authors which he wrote for the Encyclopedia Britannica. Macaulay's essays, which have enjoyed the greatest popularity in this country, may be found in many forms. A one-volume edition, containing the principal essays, is issued by several publishers. Sir George Otto Trevelyan's The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay in two volumes (1876) is a more interesting biography than Lockhart's Scott. The best single-volume estimate of Macaulay is J. Cotter Morison's Macaulay in the English Men of Letters series. Good short critical sketches of Macaulay and his work may be found in Sir Leslie Stephen's Hours in a Library, volume 2, and in Lord Morley's Critical Miscellanies, volume 2.

The edition of Scott, which was his own favorite, was issued in Edinburgh in forty-eight volumes, from 1829 to 1833. Scott wrote new prefaces and notes for this edition. Another is the Border edition, with introductory essays and notes by Andrew Lang (forty-eight volumes, 1892-1894). The recent editions of Scott are numerous for, despite all criticisms of his careless style, he holds his own with the popular favorites of the day. Of his poems a good edition was edited by William Minto in two volumes, in 1888. The Life of Scott by his son-in-law, J.G. Lockhart, is the standard work. This was originally issued in seven volumes but Lockhart was induced to condense it into one volume, which gives about all that the ordinary reader cares for. This may be found in Everyman's library. Scott's Journal and his Familiar Letters, both edited by David Douglas, contain much interesting material. The best short lives of Scott are by R.H. Hutton in the English Men of Letters series and by George Saintsbury in the Famous Scots series. Among the best sketches and estimates of Scott are by Andrew Lang in Letters to Dead Authors; Sir Leslie Stephen in Hours in a Library; Conan Doyle in Through the Magic Door; Walter Bagehot in Literary Studies; Stevenson in Gossip on Romance and in Memoirs and Portraits, and S.R. Crockett in The Scott Country. Abbotsford, by Washington Irving, gives the best personal sketches of Scott at home.

Carlyle's Essays and his French Revolution, upon which his fame will chiefly rest, are issued in many editions. It would be well if his longer works could be condensed into single volumes by competent hands. A revised edition of his Frederick was issued in one short volume. For the facts of Carlyle's life, the best book is his own Reminiscences issued in 1881 and edited by Froude, who was his literary executor with the full power to publish or suppress. Froude had so great an antipathy to what Carlyle himself called "mealy-mouthed biography" that he erred on the side of extreme frankness. In Thomas Carlyle—The First Forty Tears of His Life, Life in London and Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle, Froude permitted the publication of many malicious comments by Carlyle on his famous contemporaries. These and morbid expressions of remorse by Carlyle over imaginary neglect of his wife caused a great revulsion of public sentiment and the fame of Carlyle was clouded for ten years. Finally, after much acrimonious controversy, the truth prevailed and Carlyle came into his own again.

Among the best books on Carlyle are Lowell's Essays, volume 2; David Masson, Carlyle Personally and in His Writings; E.P. Whipple, Essays and Reviews; Emerson, English Traits; Lowell, My Study Windows; Morley, English Literature in the Reign of Victoria; Greg, Literary and Social Judgments; Moncure Conway, Carlyle, and Henley, Views and Reviews.

Among magazine and review articles may be mentioned George Eliot in Westminster Review, volume 57; John Burroughs in Atlantic Monthly, volume 51; Emerson in Scribner's Magazine, volume 22; Froude in Nineteenth Century, volume 10, and Leslie Stephen in Cornhill, volume 44.

It is a curious fact that the first complete edition of De Quincey's works was issued in Boston in twenty volumes (1850-1855) by Ticknor & Fields. Much of the material was gathered from English periodicals, as De Quincey was the greatest magazine writer of his age. This was followed by the Riverside edition in twelve volumes (Boston, 1877). The standard English edition is The Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey, fourteen volumes, edited by David Masson (1889-1890). A.H. Japp wrote the standard English Life of De Quincey (London, two volumes, 1879). The best short life is Masson's in the English Men of Letters series. George Saintsbury gives a good sketch of De Quincey in Essays in English Literature. Other estimates may be found in the following works: Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library; H.A. Page, De Quincey, His Life and Writings and in Mrs. Oliphant's Literary History of England.

Reprints of the Essays of Elia have been very numerous. One of the best editions of Lamb's complete works was edited by E.V. Lucas in seven volumes, to which he added in 1905 The Life of Charles Lamb in two volumes. Another is Complete Works and Correspondence, edited by Canon Ainger (London, six volumes). Ainger also wrote an excellent short life of Lamb for the English Men of Letters series. Hazlitt and Percy Fitzgerald have revised Thomas Noon Talfourd's standard Letters of Charles Lamb, With a Sketch of His Life. Among sketches of the life of Charles and Mary Lamb may be noted Barry Cornwall's Charles Lamb—A Memoir; Fitzgerald, Charles Lamb: His Friends, His Haunts and His Books; Walter Pater, Appreciations; R.H. Stoddard, Personal Recollections; Augustine Birrell, Res Judicatæ; Nicoll, Landmarks of English Literature; Talfourd, Final Memorials of Charles Lamb; Hutton, Literary Landmarks of London.

The first collective edition of Dickens' works was issued in 1847. The standard edition is that of Chapman & Hall, London, who were the original publishers of Pickwick. One of the best of the many editions of Dickens is the Macmillan Pocket edition with reproductions of the original covers of the monthly parts of the novels as they appeared, the original illustrations by Cruikshank, Leech, "Phiz" (Hablot Browne) and others, and valuable and interesting introductions by Charles Dickens the younger. Another good edition is in the World's Classics, with brilliant introductions by G.K. Chesterton. In buying an edition of Dickens it is well to get one with reproductions of the original illustrations, as these add much to the pleasure and interest of the novels.

For ready reference to Dickens' works there is a Dickens Dictionary, giving the names of all characters and places in the novels, by G.A. Pierce, and another similar work by A.J. Philip. Mary Williams has also prepared a Dickens Concordance.

Forster's Life of Charles Dickens, in three volumes, is the standard work, as Forster was closely connected with the novelist from the time he made his hit with Pickwick. George Gissing, the novelist, made an abridgment of Forster's Life in one volume, which is well done. Scores of shorter lives and sketches have been written. Among the best of these are Dr. A.W. Ward's Charles Dickens in the English Men of Letters series; Taine's chapter on Dickens in his History of English Literature; Sir Leslie Stephen's article in the Dictionary of National Biography; Mrs. Oliphant's The Victorian Age in English Literature; F.G. Kitton's Charles Dickens: His Life, Writings and Personality. The Letters, edited by Miss Hogarth and Mary Dickens, are valuable for the light they throw on the novelist's character and work.

In reminiscence of Dickens, the best books are Mary Dickens' My Father as I Recall Him; J.T. Fields' In and Out of Doors With Charles Dickens and G. Dolby's Charles Dickens as I Knew Him, the last devoted to the famous reading tours. Edmund Yates, Anthony Trollope, James Payn, R.H. Haine and many others have written readable reminiscences.

For the home life of Dickens and his haunts see F.G. Kitton's The Dickens Country; Thomas Fort's In Kent With Charles Dickens and H.S. Ward's The Real Dickens Land. Of poems on Dickens' death the very best is Bret Harte's Dickens in Camp. The Wisdom of Dickens, compiled by Temple Scott, is a good collection of extracts.

Almost as many editions of Thackeray's works have been published as of Dickens' novels, and the reader in his selection must be guided largely by his own taste. In choosing an edition, however, always get one that contains Thackeray's own illustrations, as, though the drawing is frequently crude, the sketches are full of humor and help one to understand the author's conception of the characters. The best general edition is The Biographical, with introductions by his daughter, Mrs. Richmond Ritchie (London, 1897-1900). The Charterhouse edition of Thackeray in twenty-six volumes, published in England by Smith, Elder & Co. and in this country by Lippincott, is an excellent library set containing all the original illustrations.

No regular biography of Thackeray has ever been written because of his expressed wish, but his daughter, Mrs. Richmond Ritchie, has supplied this lack with many sketches and introductions to various editions of her father's works. Anthony Trollope in his autobiography gives many charming glimpses of Thackeray but his sketch of Thackeray in the English Men of Letters series is not warmly appreciative.

One of the best short estimates of Thackeray is Charles Whibley's Thackeray (1905). Also valuable are sketches by Frederic Harrison in Early Victorian Literature; Brownell, Early Victorian Masters; Whipple, Character and Characteristic Men; R.H. Stoddard, Anecdote Biography of Thackeray; Andrew Lang, Letters to Dead Authors; G.T. Fields, Yesterdays With Authors; Jeaffreson, Novels and Novelists and W.B. Jerrold, The Best of All Good Company.

The reviews and magazines, especially in the last ten years, have abounded in articles on Thackeray. Among these the best have appeared in Scribner's Magazine. A small volume, The Sense and Sentiment of Thackeray (Harper's, 1909), gives numerous good extracts from the novels as well as from the essays.

Smith, Elder & Co. of London were the publishers of Jane Eyre and they also issued the first collected edition of Charlotte Brontë's works. This firm still publishes the standard English edition, the Haworth edition, with admirable introductions by Mrs. Humphrey Ward and with many illustrations from photographs of the places and people made memorable in Charlotte's novels. A good American edition is the Shirley edition, with excellent illustrations, many of them reproductions of rare daguerreotypes.

The standard life of Charlotte Brontë until fifteen years ago was Mrs. Gaskell's, one of the most appealing stories in all literature. Clement K. Shorter's Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle is now indispensable because of the mass of facts that the author has gathered in regard to the life of the sisters in the lonely parsonage and their remarkable literary development. Augustine Birrell has written a good short life of Charlotte, while A.M.F. Robinson (Mme. Duclaux) has a volume on Emily Brontë in the Famous Women series.

T. Wemyss Reid was the first writer to make original research among the Brontë material and his book, Charlotte Brontë—A Monograph, paved the way for the exhaustive study of this strange family of genius by Clement Shorter. Other books that give much original material are The Brontës in Ireland, by Rev. Dr. William Wright, and Charlotte Brontë and Her Sisters, by Clement Shorter. Mr. Shorter also in The Brontës—Life and Letters gives all of Charlotte's letters in the order of their dates.

The first collected edition of George Eliot's works was brought out in 1878-1880 in London and Edinburgh. Many editions have since appeared in England and in this country, the best one being the English Cabinet edition, published by A. & C. Black.

The standard life of George Eliot is George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals, edited by her husband, J.W. Cross, who served for ten years as curate of Haworth. Leslie Stephen has written a remarkably good short life of George Eliot in the English Men of Letters series.

Among critical articles on George Eliot may be mentioned Henry James in Partial Portraits; Mathilde Blind, George Eliot; Oscar Browning, Life of George Eliot in Great Writers series; Dowden, Studies in Literature; Oscar Browning, Great Writers; Mayo W. Hazeltine, Chats About Books; R.H. Hutton, Modern Guides of Religious Thought; R.E. Cleveland, George Eliot's Poetry; Frederic Harrison, The Choice of Books and Sydney Lanier, The Development of the English Novel.

The great edition of Ruskin is the Library edition by E.T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, begun in 1903. It is splendidly illustrated and is a superb specimen of book-making. English and American editors of Ruskin are numerous.

The standard life of Ruskin is by W.G. Collingwood, his secretary and ardent disciple. One of his pupils, E.T. Cook, published Studies in Ruskin, which throws much light on his methods of teaching art. J.A. Hobson in John Ruskin, Social Reformer discusses his economic and social teaching. Dr. Charles Waldstein of Cambridge in The Work of John Ruskin develops his art theories. Good critical studies may also be found in W.M. Rossetti's Ruskin and Frederic Harrison's Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill and Other Literary Estimates; Justin McCarthy, Modern Leaders; Mary R. Mitford, Recollections of a Literary Life and R.H. Hutton, Contemporary Thought and Thinkers.

Among magazine articles may be noted W.J. Stillman in the Century, volume 13; Charles Waldstein in Harper's, volume 18; Justin McCarthy in the Galaxy, volume 13, and Leslie Stephen in Frazer's, volumes 9 and 49.

The best edition of Tennyson is the Eversley in six volumes, published by the Macmillans and edited by his son Hallam, which contains a mass of notes left by the poet and many explanations of peculiar words and metaphors which the father gave to the son in discussing his work. This edition also gives the changes made by the poet in his constant revision of his works, some of which were not improvements.

A mass of critical commentary and reminiscence has been published on Tennyson and his poetical work. Among the best of these volumes are Tennyson, Ruskin and Mill, by Frederic Harrison; Tennyson and His Friends, by Mrs. Richmond Ritchie; The Homes and Haunts of Tennyson, by Napier; Tennyson, His Art and Relation to Modern Life, by Stopford A. Brooke; The Poetry of Tennyson, by Henry Van Dyke; the chapter on Tennyson in Stedman's Victorian Poets; a commentary on Tennyson's In Memoriam by Prof. A.C. Bradley; Alfred Tennyson, by Andrew Lang; Views and Reviews, by W.E. Henley; Yesterdays With Authors, by J.T. Fields; The Victorian Age, by Mrs. Oliphant. Dr. Henry Van Dyke contributed five articles on Tennyson to Scribner's Magazine, volume 6.

An enormous literature of comment, appreciation and interpretation has grown up around Browning, largely due to the work of various Browning societies in this country and in Europe. The London Browning Society especially has brought out many papers that will be of interest to Browning students. Other works are Arthur Symons, Introduction to the Study of Browning (London, 1886); G.W. Cooke, Browning Guide Book (New York, 1901); Fotheringham, Studies (London, 1898); Stedman, Victorian Poets; Prof. Hiram Corson, Introduction to Browning; George E. Woodberry, Studies in Literature and Life; Hamilton W. Mabie, Essays in Literary Interpretation; A. Birrell, Obiter Dicta; George Saintsbury, Corrected Impressions.

The first edition of Browning's poems appeared in two volumes in 1849, a second in three volumes in 1863 and a third in six volumes in 1868. A revised edition containing all the poems was issued in sixteen volumes in 1888-1889. A fine complete edition in two volumes, edited by Augustine Birrell and F.G. Kenyon, was issued in 1896, and Smith, Elder & Co., London, brought out a two-volume edition in 1900. In this country the Riverside edition of Browning's Poetical Works in six volumes, issued by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., and the Camberwell edition in twelve handy volumes, with notes by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke, published by Crowell, are valuable for Browning students.

The standard life is The Life and Letters of Robert Browning, by Mrs. Sutherland Orr, but valuable are The Love Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, issued by Browning's son in 1899. For Edmund Gosse's Robert Browning—Personalia the poet supplied much of the material in notes. Good short sketches and estimates are Chesterton's Browning in the English Men of Letters series and Waugh's Robert Browning.

The standard edition of Meredith's works is the Boxhill edition in seventeen volumes, with photogravure frontispieces, issued in this country by the Scribners. The same text is used in the Pocket Edition in sixteen volumes, which does not include the unfinished novel, Celt and Saxon. A mass of comment on Meredith may be found in the English and American reviews and magazines, to which Poole's Index furnishes the best guide.

Mrs. M.S. Henderson, George Meredith: Novelist, Poet, Reformer; George Macaulay Trevelyan, The Poetry and Philosophy of George Meredith; John Lane, Biography of George Meredith, and R. Le Gallienne, Characteristics of George Meredith.

Robert Louis Stevenson's early work appeared in fugitive form in magazines and reviews and even after he had written The New Arabian Nights and Travels With a Donkey he was forced to see such excellent matter as The Silverado Squatters cut up into magazine articles and more than half of it discarded. The vogue of Stevenson was greater in this country than in England until he had fully established his reputation. In 1878 An Inland Voyage appeared and in 1879 Travels With a Donkey, but it was not until 1883 that Treasure Island made him well known. The standard edition of Stevenson is the Thistle edition, beautifully printed and illustrated, and issued at Edinburgh and New York, 1894-1898. The Letters of Stevenson to His Family, originally issued in 1899, have now been incorporated with Vailima Letters and issued in four volumes. They are arranged chronologically, with admirable biographical commentary by Sydney Colvin, to whom a great part of them was written. Stevenson's personality was so attractive that a mass of reminiscence and comment has been produced since his death in 1894. The best books are Graham Balfour, Life of Robert Louis Stevenson; Walter Raleigh, R.L. Stevenson; Simpson, Stevenson's Edinburgh Days, and Memoirs of Vailima, by Isobel Strong and Lloyd Osbourne, the novelist's stepchildren. Henry James in Partial Portraits has a fine appreciation of Stevenson and Robert Louis Stevenson in California, by Katharine D. Osbourne is rich in reminiscence.

Since 1895, Thomas Hardy has written no fiction. The standard edition of his works is published in this country by the Harpers. Recently this firm has issued Hardy in a convenient thin paper edition which may be slipped into the coat pocket. His first novel, Desperate Remedies, appeared in 1871 but it was not until the issue of Far From the Madding Crowd in 1874 that he gained popular fame. Many magazine articles have been written on the "corner of Dorsetshire" which Hardy calls Wessex. Good books on the Hardy country are The Wessex of Romance, by W. Sherren, and The Wessex of Thomas Hardy, by Windle.

The standard edition of Kipling is the Outward Bound edition, published in this country by the Scribners. It contains a general introduction by the author and special prefaces to each volume, with illustrations from bas reliefs made by the novelist's father. Doubleday, Page & Co. are issuing a pocket edition of Kipling, on thin paper with flexible leather binding, which is very convenient. Any additional books will be added to each of these editions. Kipling has told of his early life in India and of his precocious literary activity in My First Book (1894). Richard Le Gallienne made a study of the novelist in Rudyard Kipling—A Criticism and Edmund Gosse in Questions at Issue discusses his short stories. Prof. William Lyon Phelps in Essays on Modern Novelists has a fine chapter on Kipling. Andrew Lang in Essays in Little treats of "Mr. Kipling's Stories" and Barrie has an appreciation in Contemporary Review for March, 1891. A useful Kipling Index is issued by Doubleday, Page & Co. All titles are indexed so that one may locate any story or character.