Excursions in Victorian Bibliography. Michael Sadleir
in inches, given in brackets in all but a handful of cases, will supply to an eighth of an inch any further detail required.
(iv) The half-title is something of a bugbear to the collector of Victorians. Its absence may be fatal; its presence may give pause. As the nineteenth century progressed, methods of bookmaking became standardized; but during the first fifty years publishers printed to paper and their own convenience, regardless of uniformity even between volumes of the same work. For this reason no certainty exists as to the possession by any book of a half-title. Usually examination will show whether, in a book lacking a half-title, the first sheet should rightly provide one or no. The publisher who found his preliminary matter adequate, without half-title, for four or eight pages, let it go at that; if, however, he had two pages of his four or eight to spare, he used them for half-title and verso. Wherever in the notes that follow I have satisfied myself that an absence of half-title is correct, I have drawn attention to that absence; wherever nothing is said, the silence should be taken to signify that in perfect copies half-titles must appear.
(v) In the matter of binding it was the custom from about 1830 to 1850 to issue many books both in cloth and in paper boards. The old fashion for boards and labels died hard, and doubtless the trade found it paid to humour at once the enthusiast for the new cloth and the conservative lover of ancient ways. The collector who has the choice of a book either in cloth or in boards (with which must be understood boards, half-cloth[1]) and lacks either inclination or money to buy the two should, if condition be equally good, buy the copy in boards. Such a copy may be of earlier but cannot be of later issue than one in cloth. Should the book be one of which the two styles were issued simultaneously the copies will rank equally, although even in such cases a board copy is preferable, seeing that probably fewer were published than of those in cloth, and certainly fewer have survived.
1. For convenience' sake the word “cloth” is used throughout these bibliographies to signify woven material used in binding. Technically, in the transition period between bound books and those fully bound, half-binding was carried out in “canvas,” cloth proper being of somewhat later date.
The phrase “boards (half-cloth) paper labels” is used in these bibliographies to describe books which may be found both in full-board and half-cloth styles. The colours of board and canvas vary greatly, as different tones were often used for books belonging to one edition.
(vi) It will be noticed that in the majority of cases I give the month as well as the year of a novel's publication. This, had it been possible, I would wish to have supplied throughout, for by its help alone can the vexed question of dated catalogues be properly determined. Unfortunately, with the disappearance in toto of many publishing firms, the absorption of others under new names, and the surprising lack of any complete files of lists and catalogues for the decades in question, it has been impossible in every case to fix the dates thus accurately. In determining the various issues of a first edition (for a publisher does not bind his whole printing at once, but in lots as required, and often at intervals of years), the date, if any, of the catalogues of publications generally bound at the end of Victorian novels is an essential factor. Where I give the month of publication in the pages that follow, there can be no difficulty in detecting copies bound up and issued after first publication. Elsewhere buyers can only be advised to compare the date of title-page with that of catalogue. If the latter predates or tallies with the former all may be well; if the catalogue date be later, the book is not a first issue, although still, so far as the sheets are concerned, a copy of the first edition. In a few rare cases, where numerous catalogues were printed during the same year, the earliest date found in any particular first edition of that year can be established only by experience. It is for this reason that identity of year between title-page and catalogue may rather than must indicate a true first issue.
(vii) Advice as to condition is easily given.
Never buy a rebound book or one of which the edges have been shaved.[2]
2. In this, as always, generalization fails. The vast majority of the books here listed were first issued uncut; there are, however, a few—and those among the books of later date—that were published cut. The collector can identify these, if in original binding, by comparing measurement with that here given.
Be wary of books in cloth which bear no publisher's imprint on the spine; a few are right, but the majority are remainder-bound. Only in the very early days of cloth binding were spines unimprinted. Of course labelled books, whether in boards or half-cloth, never show publishers' imprint at the tail of their spines.
Always examine end-papers. The quality of Victorian end-papers cannot be obtained to-day, and it is rare that the substitution in one book of an old end-paper from another is so neatly done as to defy detection.
Library labels and their horrid traces have no place in a fine copy. If, however, a buyer inclines to accept ex-library copies pending better fortune, he should prefer those marked inside front covers to those of which the actual cloth is disfigured. Should the choice be between a copy in disfigured cloth and one of which the cloth is clean but the end-papers renewed to obliterate some previous damage, the wise buyer will take the first and leave the second. Better a dirty original than a book neat but doctored.
Do not reject an otherwise good copy of a book because the case is loose or the back-stitching perished. Such deterioration is easily and painlessly repaired.
In the case of books illustrated with etchings or steel engravings, compare the date often to be found on the plates with that on the title-page. These dates should tally, or, if they do not, thought or examination of prefatory matter should show the reason why.
Several cases exist of books reissued more than once, but without printed indication of reissue, in a style identical with that of the first edition. In such cases the plates, more often than not, bear their silent witness, and the careful buyer, momentarily uncertain of his dates, is saved the purchase of a book he does not want.
(viii) The volumes listed which I have not myself seen and examined are asterisked and thus expressly noted as catalogued without personal investigation. As may be imagined, some of the obscurer works of the authors dealt with are extremely rare, and all my seeking has failed to discover some of them. In every other case personal handling has preceded analysis, even although collation may already have existed in published form.
(ix) In conclusion I would appeal to any reader of my book who can emend, develop, or dispute the statements therein contained to send me forthwith his criticisms and suggestions. To work of this kind can be no finality. Freak copies, copies containing catalogues of earlier date, copies in earlier varieties of binding—of such things is the sport of bibliography composed. No individual can be sure that one particular issue of any book is the earliest; comparative certainty comes only from cooperation. Wherever possible I have compared several copies of the same book, but this was by no means everywhere. Consequently to look forward to revision and yet more revision is, in the circumstances, a matter for hope rather than one for shame.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Perhaps the most pleasant element in the compiling of this book has been the generosity and enthusiasm with which persons able to help have responded to inquiries.
Among those who have contributed of their private knowledge facts that but for them I could never have discovered, Mr. Richard Bentley must have first place. Unique as an authority on Victorian publishing, Mr. Bentley not only replied promptly and in detail to my importunate inquiries, but made suggestions and gave information—often at considerable personal trouble—which have greatly extended the scope and utility of my book.
Other publishers and editors were no less ready to give me access to such records of the past as were still in their keeping. To Mr. Arthur Waugh (of Messrs. Chapman and Hall), to Mr. Kelk and to Mr.