Literary Taste: How To Form It Part 4

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, cla.s.s who in a less fertile period would have counted as at least second-cla.s.s.

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.

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. s. d.

JOHN LOCKE, _Philosophical Works_: Bohn's Edition (2 vols.) 0 7 0

SIR ISAAC NEWTON, _Principia_ (sections 1, 2, and 3): Macmillans 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 Cla.s.sics 0 1 6

DANIEL DEFOE, _Robinson Crusoe_: World's Cla.s.sics 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 Cla.s.sics 0 1 0

LAURENCE STERNE, _Tristram Shandy_: World's Cla.s.sics 0 1 0

LAURENCE STERNE, _Sentimental Journey_: New Universal Library 0 1 0

Horace Walpole, _Castle of Otranto_: King's Cla.s.sics 0 1 6

Tobias Smollett, _Humphrey Clinker_: Routledge's Edition 0 2 0