Immortal Memories Part 17

{277b} _The Memoirs of Count de Gramont_, by Anthony, Count Hamilton, can be obtained in splendid type, unannotated, in an edition published by Arthur L. Humphreys. A well-ill.u.s.trated and well-edited edition is that published by Bickers of London and Scribner of New York, edited by Allan Fea.

{277c} Gray's _Letters_, with poems and life, form 4 volumes in Macmillan's Eversley Library, edited by Edmund Gosse.

{277d} You can obtain Southey's _Nelson_, originally written for Murray's Pocket Library as a publisher's commission, in one well-printed volume, with Introduction by David Hannay, published by William Heinemann. It should, however, be supplemented in the _Life_ by Captain Mahan (2 volumes, Sampson Low & Co.), or by Professor Laughton's _Nelson and His Companion in Arms_ (George Allen).

{277e} Moore's _Life and Letters of Byron_ is published by John Murray in 6 volumes. It is best purchased second-hand in an old set. Moore's book must be supplemented by the 6 volumes of _Correspondence_ edited by Rowland Prothero for Mr. Murray.

{278a} Sir George Trevelyan says in his _Early History of Charles James Fox_ that Hogg's _Life of Sh.e.l.ley_ is "perhaps the most interesting book in our language that has never been republished." The reproach has been in some slight measure removed by a cheap reprint in small type issued by the Routledges in 1906. The reader should, however, secure a copy of the first edition, 2 volumes, 1857. Professor Dowden, in his _Life of Sh.e.l.ley_, 1886, uses the book freely.

{278b} "What is the best book you have ever read?" Emerson is said to have asked George Eliot when she was about twenty-two years of age and residing, unknown, near Coventry. "Rousseau's _Confessions_," was the reply. "I agree with you," Emerson answered. But the book should not be read in a translation. The completest translation is one in 2 volumes published by Nicholls. There is a more abridged translation by Gibbons in 4 volumes.

{278c} _The Life of Carlyle_, by James Anthony Froude, which created so much controversy upon its publication, is worthy of a cheap edition, which does not, however, seem to be forthcoming. The book appeared in 4 volumes, _The First Forty Years_ in 1882 and _Life in London_ in 1884. It had been preceded by _Reminiscences_ in 1881. Every one should read the _Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle_, 3 volumes, 1883. All the 9 volumes are published by the Longmans.

{279a} Samuel Rogers' _Table Talk_ has been given us in two forms, first as _Recollections of the Table Talk of Samuel Rogers_, edited by Alexander Dyce, 1856, and second as _Reminiscences of Samuel Rogers_, 1859. The _Recollections_ were reprinted in handsome form by H. A.

Rogers, of New Southgate, in 1887, and the material was combined in a single volume in 1903 by G. H. Powell (R. Brimley Johnson). I have the four books, and delight in the many good stories they contain.

{279b} _The Confessions of St. Augustine_ may be commended in many small and handy editions. One, with an Introduction by Alice Meynell, was published in 1900. The most beautifully printed modern edition is that issued by Arthur Humphreys in his Cla.s.sical Series.

{279c} Amiel's _Journal_ is a fine piece of introspection. A translation by Mrs. Humphry Ward is published in 2 volumes by the Macmillans. De Senancour's _Obermann_, translated by A. E. Waite (Wellby), should be read in this connexion.

{279d} _The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius_, translated by George Long, appears as a volume of Bohn's Library, and more beautifully printed in the Library of Arthur Humphreys. There are many other good translations--one by John Jackson, issued in 1906 by the Clarendon Press, has great merit.

{279e} George Henry Lewes's _Life of Goethe_ has gone through many editions and remains a fascinating book, although it may be supplemented by the translation of Duntzer's _Life of Goethe_, 2 volumes, Macmillan, and Bielschowsky's _Life of Goethe_, Vols. I and II (Putnams).

{280a} _The Life of Lessing_, by James Sime, is not a great biography, but it is an interesting and most profitable study of a n.o.ble man.

Lessing will be an inspiration greater almost than any other of the moderns for those who are brought in contact with his fine personality.

The book is in 2 volumes, published by the Trubners.

{280b} You can read Benjamin Franklin's _Autobiography_ in 1 volume (Dent), or in his Collected Works--_Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin_, edited by his grandson, William Temple Franklin, 6 volumes (Colburn), 1819. There have been at least two expensive reprints of his _Works_ of late years.

{280c} _The Greville Memoirs_ were published in large octavo form in the first place. Much scandal was omitted from the second edition. They are now obtainable in 8 volumes of Longmans' Silver Library. They form an interesting glimpse into the Court life of the later Guelphs.

{280d} It has been complained of John Forster's _Life of Charles d.i.c.kens_ that there is too much Forster and not enough d.i.c.kens. Yet it is the only guide to the life-story of the greatest of the Victorian novelists. Is most pleasant to read in the 2 volumes of the Gadshill Edition, published by Chapman & Hall.

{280e} _The Early Diary of Frances Burney_, afterwards Madame D'Arblay, edited by Annie Raine Ellis, has just been reprinted in two volumes of Bohn's Library (Bell). We owe also to Mr. Austen Dobson a fine reprint of the later and more important _Diaries_, which he has edited in 6 volumes for the Macmillans.

{281a} The _Apologia pro Vita Sua_ of John Henry Newman is one of the volumes of Cardinal Newman's _Collected Works_ issued by the Longmans. It is the most interesting, and is perhaps the most destined to survive, of all the books of theological controversy of the nineteenth century.

{281b} There is practically but one edition of the _Paston Letters_, that edited by James Gairdner, of the Public Record Office, and published by the firm of Archibald Constable. The luxurious Library Edition issued by Chatto & Windus in 6 volumes should be acquired if possible.

{281c} _The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini_ is best known in the translation of Thomas Roscoe in Bohn's Library. Mr. J. Addington Symonds, however, made a new translation, issued in two fine volumes by Nimmo.

{281d} The _Religio Medici_ of Sir Thomas Browne can be obtained in many forms, although the well-to-do collector will be satisfied only with the edition edited by Simon Wilkin. The book is admirably edited by W. A.

Greenhill for the "Golden Treasury Series."