The Selected Works of Arnold Bennett: Essays, Personal Development Books & Articles. Arnold Bennett
Works: Globe Edition 0 3 6 Thomas Lodge, Rosalynde: Caxton Series 0 1 0 Robert Greene, Tragical Reign of Selimus: Temple Dramatists 0 1 0 Michael Drayton, Poems: Newnes's Pocket Classics 0 3 6 CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, Works: New Universal Library 0 1 0 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Works: Globe Edition 0 3 6 Thomas Campion, Poems: Muses' Library 0 1 0 Ben Jonson, Plays: Canterbury Poets 0 1 0 John Donne, Poems: Muses' Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0 John Webster, Cyril Tourneur, Plays: Mermaid Series 0 2 6 Philip Massinger, Plays: Cunningham Edition 0 3 6 Beaumont and Fletcher, Plays: a Selection: Canterbury Poets 0 1 0 John Ford, Plays: Mermaid Series 0 2 6 George Herbert, The Temple: Everyman's Library 0 1 0 ROBERT HERRICK, Poems: Muses' Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0 Edmund Waller, Poems: Muses' Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0 Sir John Suckling, Poems: Muses' Library 0 1 0 Abraham Cowley, English Poems: Cambridge University Press 0 4 6 Richard Crashaw, Poems: Muses' Library 0 1 0 Henry Vaughan, Poems: Methuen's Little Library 0 1 6 Samuel Butler, Hudibras: Cambridge University Press 0 4 6 JOHN MILTON, Poetical Works: Oxford Cheap Edition 0 2 0 JOHN MILTON, Select Prose Works: Scott Library 0 1 0 Andrew Marvell, Poems: Methuen's Little Library 0 1 6 John Dryden, Poetical Works: Globe Edition 0 3 6 [Thomas Percy], Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Everyman's Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0 Arber's "Spenser" Anthology: Oxford University Press 0 2 0 Arber's "Jonson" Anthology: Oxford University Press 0 2 0 Arber's "Shakspere" Anthology: Oxford University Press 0 2 0 £3 7 6
There were a number of brilliant minor writers in the seventeenth century whose best work, often trifling in bulk, either scarcely merits the acquisition of a separate volume for each author, or cannot be obtained at all in a modern edition. Such authors, however, may not be utterly neglected in the formation of a library. It is to meet this difficulty that I have included the last three volumes on the above list. Professor Arber's anthologies are full of rare pieces, and comprise admirable specimens of the verse of Samuel Daniel, Giles Fletcher, Countess of Pembroke, James I., George Peele, Sir Walter Raleigh, Thomas Sackville, Sir Philip Sidney, Drummond of Hawthornden, Thomas Heywood, George Wither, Sir Henry Wotton, Sir William Davenant, Thomas Randolph, Frances Quarles, James Shirley, and other greater and lesser poets.
I have included all the important Elizabethan dramatists except John Marston, all the editions of whose works, according to my researches, are out of print.
In the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods talent was so extraordinarily plentiful that the standard of excellence is quite properly raised, and certain authors are thus relegated to the third, or excluded, class who in a less fertile period would have counted as at least second-class.
SUMMARY OF THE FIRST PERIOD.
£ s. d.
19 prose authors in 36 volumes costing 2 1 6
29 poets in 36 " " 3 7 6
48 72 £5 9 0
In addition, scores of authors of genuine interest are represented in the anthologies.
The prices given are gross, and in many instances there is a 25 per cent. discount to come off. All the volumes can be procured immediately at any bookseller's.
1. For much counsel and correction in the matter of editions and prices I am indebted to my old and valued friend, Charles Young, head of the firm of Lamley & Co., booksellers, South Kensington.
Chapter XII
An English Library: Period II
After dealing with the formation of a library of authors up to John Dryden, I must logically arrange next a scheme for the period covered roughly by the eighteenth century. There is, however, no reason why the student in quest of a library should follow the chronological order. Indeed, I should advise him to attack the nineteenth century before the eighteenth, for the reason that, unless his taste happens to be peculiarly "Augustan," he will obtain a more immediate satisfaction and profit from his acquisitions in the nineteenth century than in the eighteenth. There is in eighteenth-century literature a considerable proportion of what I may term "unattractive excellence," which one must have for the purposes of completeness, but which may await actual perusal until more pressing and more human books have been read. I have particularly in mind the philosophical authors of the century.
PROSE WRITERS.
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JOHN LOCKE, Philosophical Works: Bohn's Edition (2 vols.) 0 7 0 SIR ISAAC NEWTON, Principia (sections 1, 2, and 3): Macmillan's 0 12 0 Gilbert Burnet, History of His Own Time: Everyman's Library 0 1 0 William Wycherley, Best Plays: Mermaid Series 0 2 6 WILLIAM CONGREVE, Best Plays: Mermaid Series 0 2 6 Jonathan Swift, Tale of a Tub: Scott Library 0 1 0 Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels: Temple Classics 0 1 6 DANIEL DEFOE, Robinson Crusoe: World's Classics 0 1 0 DANIEL DEFOE, Journal of the Plague Year: Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, Essays: Scott Library 0 1 0 William Law, Serious Call: Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Lady Mary W. Montagu, Letters: Everyman's Library 0 1 0 George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge: New Universal Library 0 1 0 SAMUEL RICHARDSON, Clarissa (abridged): Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 John Wesley, Journal: Everyman's Library (4 vols.) 0 4 0 HENRY FIELDING, Tom Jones: Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 HENRY FIELDING, Amelia: Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 HENRY FIELDING, Joseph Andrews: Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 David Hume, Essays: World's Classics 0 1 0 LAURENCE STERNE, Tristram Shandy: World's Classics 0 1 0 LAURENCE STERNE, Sentimental Journey: New Universal Library 0 1 0 Horace Walpole, Castle of Otranto: King's Classics 0 1 6 Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker: Routledge's Edition 0 2 0 Tobias Smollett, Travels through France and Italy: World's Classics 0 1 0 ADAM SMITH, Wealth of Nations: World's Classics (2 vols.) 0 2 0 Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets: World's Classics (2 vols.) 0 2 0 Samuel Johnson, Rasselas: New Universal Library 0 1 0 JAMES BOSWELL, Life of Johnson: Everyman's Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0 Oliver Goldsmith, Works: Globe Edition 0 3 6 Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling: Cassell's National Library 0 0 6 Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Art: Scott Library 0 1 0 Edmund Burke, Reflections on the French Revolution: Scott Library 0 1 0 Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Present Discontents: New Universal Library 0 1 0 EDWARD GIBBON, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: World's Classics (7 vols.) 0 7 0 Thomas Paine, Rights of Man: Watts and Co.'s Edition 0 1 0 RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, Plays: World's Classics 0 1 0 Fanny Burney, Evelina: Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Gilbert White, Natural History of Selborne: Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Arthur Young, Travels in France: York Library 0 2 0 Mungo Park, Travels: Everyman's Library 0 1 0 Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals: Clarendon Press 0 6 6 THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS, Essay on the Principle of Population: Ward, Lock's Edition 0 3 6 William Godwin, Caleb Williams: Newnes's Edition 0 1 0 Maria Edgeworth, Helen: Macmillan's Illustrated Edition 0 2 6 JANE AUSTEN, Novels: Nelson's New Century Library (2 vols.) 0 4 0 James Morier, Hadji Baba: Macmillan's Illustrated Novels 0 2 6 £5 1 0
The principal omissions here are Jeremy Collier, whose outcry against the immorality of the stage is his slender title to remembrance; Richard Bentley, whose scholarship principally died with him, and whose chief works are no longer current; and "Junius," who would have been deservedly forgotten long ago had there been a contemporaneous Sherlock Holmes to ferret out his identity.
POETS.
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Thomas Otway, Venice Preserved: Temple Dramatists 0 1 0 Matthew Prior, Poems on Several Occasions: Cambridge English Classics 0 4 6 John Gay, Poems: Muses' Library (2 vols.) 0 2 0 ALEXANDER POPE, Works: Globe Edition 0 3 6 Isaac Watts, Hymns: Any hymn-book 0 1 0 James Thomson, The Seasons: