Transcriber's Note:

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

EXCURSIONS IN

VICTORIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY

“If it is true that the Victorian time was ugly and vulgar, the excitement of those years between 1848 and 1890 was something like that of a religious revival.”

The Early Life of Mark Rutherford.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE

BENJAMIN DISRAELI

FREDERICK MARRYAT

WILKIE COLLINS

CHARLES READE

G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE

MRS. GASKELL

AND

HERMAN MELVILLE

EXCURSIONS IN VICTORIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY

BY

MICHAEL SADLEIR

LONDON

CHAUNDY & COX

40 MADDOX STREET

MCMXXII

TO MY

FATHER

ERRATA

P. [24] line 33 for “first” read “second.”
P. [24] line 36 for “Finn” read “Redux.”
P. [29] line 20 for “invented for” read “'presented' in.”

ADDENDUM.

P. [72]. The following paragraph should precede “1863/ A WELCOME, etc.”

1861

THE VICTORIA REGIA: A Volume of Original Contributions in Poetry and Prose. Edited by Adelaide A. Procter. London: Printed and Published by Emily Faithfull and Co., Victoria Press (for the Employment of Women), Great Coram Street, W.C. 1861. 1 vol. Royal 8vo (6¼ × 9⅜). Pp. x + 349 + (1). No half-title. Red-brown embossed cloth, all edges gilt, blocked in gold and blind. Red chocolate end-papers.

NOTE.—Pp. [187] to 214 are occupied by a story by Anthony Trollope entitled The Journey to Panama. This is the first appearance in book form of a tale afterwards published in Lotta Schmidt and other Stories.

CONTENTS

EXCURSIONS IN VICTORIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY

ADVERTISEMENT

This book is so essentially an accumulation of notes and so emphatically wanting in the qualities of completeness and learning proper to genuine bibliography that I have sought, even on the title-page, to indicate its limitations. It were indeed presumption to enter the field of nineteenth-century bibliography, in which already so much fine and skilful work has been accomplished, with the slight technical equipment to which I may lay claim. On the other hand, the experience of collectors conforms oddly to type, and where, in the study of certain Victorian first editions, I have found perplexity and doubt, others in the same study will likely find them too. Wherefore my annotations, in this book set in order and to a certain point rounded off, should help my fellow-students to a speedier knowledge of points and pitfalls in the collecting of their favourites than was easily accessible to myself. In time (maybe in short time) my work will be superseded by investigation more accomplished, by analysis more detailed. At such time collectors (and myself among them) will rightly substitute for this volume on their shelf of bibliographies the later, more comprehensive, handbooks that shall have taken its place. Meanwhile I dare to hope that the present work, with all its shortcomings, will find appreciative users, and among them a few who, realizing the difficulties that even so modest a compilation has been forced to surmount, will forgive its imperfections for the sake of its attributes.

With the general propriety of book-collecting I am not here concerned. Men there are to whom all collecting is folly; others to whom every passion is vile. To the logical asceticism of their private Utopias they are welcome, provided the lover be left to enjoy his mistress, the lepidopterist his butterflies, the bibliophile his books. Even the more subtle critic, who admits the lure of collecting but maintains that the craze of the first edition is senseless hysteria, shall not tempt me to dispute. This is a book about first editions, and will be read only by the initiate. If we be hystericals, we have at least our weakness in common. Let us therefore shut the door and compare symptoms, for we are all fools together.

The superior and the sceptical are now excluded from the privacy of our imaginary club-house. But a further reservation must be made. Although it were impractical idealism to demand that the collector transcend in his collecting every sordid consideration of market and fluctuating value, it is reasonable to look askance at the mere speculator. From the scope of this word I exclude, of course, the whole fraternity of booksellers. They exist frankly for the marketing of books; and who shall grudge them the profits of their toil? My animadversion is against the private person to whom rare books are mere scrip, to be bought and sold by telephone, their very titles meaningless, their contents utterly unknown. No doubt, if this book is of service at all, it will be of service incidentally to individuals of the kind described. That it should be so is unpreventable. But on the general ethics of collecting the compiler may be allowed the consolation of bearing his trivial testimony. The private collector who buys what he likes to read merits such reward as wise buying may earn for him. He, however, who buys by rote, puts away and resells, is no collector at all, but rather a trespasser on the preserves of the bookseller, taking advantage of a noble trade while sharing none of its burdens.

With this dictum I descend from the august to the particular. Collecting, collecting books, collecting first editions of books—all these are postulates. At this point is a parting of the ways. The frontiers of dispute now lie across our path; for within the bounds of the realm of first editions are to be found divergent tastes, conflicting fancies, all the clamour and thrust of an enthusiasm that grows ever more complex.

The collecting of first editions is, in its present form, a diversion of recent growth. Fifty years ago amateurs of books were few in number and, necessarily, rich in gold, for only the great books of past literature were regarded as fit material for collection, and great books, though cheaper then than now, were never to be had for love. But the passage of time has transformed, in another way than that of mere numbers, the community of book-collectors. Not only are there nowadays more collectors and a greater variety of books collected, but there has come to its own the great principle of original condition. This is not so pale a platitude as to many it will appear. A few book-buyers there have always been to whom original binding, original end-papers, uncut edges, incidental advertisements, errata slips, and half-titles have meant perfection. But they were rare exceptions. To the large majority a first edition was a book of a certain date without “Second” or “New Edition” on its title-page. Buyers of this school were indifferent to the disfigurement of library labels on side or end-paper; gave no thought to errata slips; but shaved their favourites, fore-edge and tail, dressed them in uniform calf gilt, affixed a bookplate, and went their way.

Such collectors as these are still amongst us, but they are now awaking to the folly of their past. The market—that indisputable witness to human taste—gives hard but practical proof of their wrongdoing. “Good and original condition” is nowadays three-quarters of a book's value, and the fraction, if it alters at all, will with the passage of time increase rather than decrease.

Is it too much to hope that the importance of original condition has now been permanently realized? The change, if it has really been effected, is in the main a healthy one. Although—for it is undeniable—the craze for the fine copy has produced its own extremism; although there are to-day book-lovers who refuse even to open the pages of their books lest, by such violation, they unsuit them for a mart in which, conventionally enough, virginity is value; although advance prospectuses and dust jackets of contemporary publications have scrupulously to be preserved in order that a “set” be genuinely complete—the desire for a book as issued does at least argue a consciousness of its individual personality. Standard authors, be they ancient or modern, can be purchased in calf by telephone and at so much per yard; but the obtaining of shelf furniture in original cloth is a matter of much seeking and of progress measured in fractions of an inch.

It has seemed well thus to emphasize the importance of “condition” to the modern book-collector, because “condition” in the case of such authors as those here examined is their admirer's greatest problem, and because the few bibliographies that already exist, while listing dates of publication and in one case at least supplying adequate collation of the various volumes, do not provide any real description of the externals of those volumes when in original state.

This description I have endeavoured to supply. That my work contains errors of omission I am certain; that it be free from errors of commission I may hardly dare to hope. But the trouble I have had even to arrive thus far on the way to completeness encourages belief that some portion of the donkey work may now be regarded as done for good and all, and that the trained minds of bibliographers proper may, if they incline, turn their talent to such refinements of detail as surely underlie many of the books herein examined.

To the collecting of first editions of Victorian novelists I came by the honourable way of literary liking. Brought up on Jane Austen, Scott, and Dickens, I read, during my years of flapperdom, Marryat, Trollope, and Wilkie Collins. Oxford and the audacities of undergraduate curiosity estranged me from all save the last quarter of the nineteenth century. While many of my contemporaries made sour sacrifice at the altars of disillusion, feeding their pessimism on Gissing and Butler, their taste for paradox on Bernard Shaw, I sought disreputable refuge among fleshly symbolists. The children of Baudelaire and Poe jostled the faint offspring of Gaelic legend on my shelves, and, while the voluptuous pallor of tuberoses shone against blue wall-paper, imagination floated on the dim tide of decadence. Came reaction as swift and irrational as were inevitable. From Paris echoed the clash of neo-barbarism, and before the strident onslaught of the rediscovered primitive the faint elegance of a pose too exhausted even for sin dissolved in air. They were great days, those early days of the new brutality. Blues and mauves gave place to orange checked with black, to vivid greens, to fierce outrageous reds. From the scented secrecy of lamplit boudoirs the young intellectual rushed into the wind and sunshine, and he who once made tired love to Phryne on a couch of silk now clipped the milkmaid grossly in a ditch. The way of other tastes went taste in letters and in art. After d'Annunzio, Synge; after Verlaine, Verhaeren; after Pater, Hardy; after Rops and Carrière, Gauguin and the rest.

For a while all was well. Cubism, a false interpretation of the synthetic doctrine of Cézanne, began its brief and rigid reign. Painters and writers fled naturalism in a search for true reality. Some are still wandering, drearily absurd, in the desert of their own bleak imaginings. The rest found reality, truly enough and rapidly enough—in war.

And now war has passed, leaving a world weary of fact and fever, weary of striving, weary almost of its own ideals. For long enough yet will persist turbulent discomfort and the clamour of quacks hawking the millennium; but at last will be peace, and it is surely a longing for that peace that has turned men's minds partly to high romance, but more generally to the manners and genius of a century ago. Those of an older generation than my own have, perhaps, never betrayed their gentle Victorian heritage. One may envy and applaud their wisdom. But we prodigals, returned from our rioting and sick with the husks of a démodé violence, stoop to any self-abasement, to any denial of our own past judgment, so we be allowed entry to the quiet courts and ordered opulence of the age we once affected to despise. Literary enthusiasm expresses itself in various ways. For my part to love an author is to collect him, for I can read no borrowed books, and only with difficulty such as are not first editions. Of the absurdity of this I am cheerfully aware. We have each one of us our foible, and this is mine. Considered broadly it is harmless enough, less cruel than killing birds, less degrading than drink. Naturally, however, it cannot be indulged to more than limited degree. Shakespeare and Sterne and Keats and Browning I may own, but in reprint. And so with many another. But to the extent possible in fact and a little beyond that permissible in money, I have contrived, from one phase to another, to keep myself fairly supplied with “reading firsts.” A decadent, I collected Verlaine and Mallarmé, Rimbaud and the Anglo-Irish nineties; a neo-primitive, I bought Synge and Verhaeren, Conrad and the chief Georgian poets of the new simplicity. And so matters progressed, while gradually novels ousted poetry from my shelves, and, again gradually, from the reading of modern novels I came once more to Trollope and the writers of his age.

It is not until one undertakes seriously the collecting of the less-known Victorian novelists that one realizes how prime the sport that their assembling offers, how destitute of guide-posts is the maze of their work. In the capacity of quarry few authors or groups of authors can rival those with whom this volume deals. The essence of collecting is the chase. The buyer of world-famous rarities, of which the whereabouts is trumpeted abroad, knows nothing of the thrill of that dusky provincial bookshop, among whose tumbled piles Victorians must surely lurk. The dapper expert in ingenious moderns with his prefaces, his cancel-titles, his censored (but disappointing) curiosa, his “works” and “limiteds,” can set one joy alone against my dozen. He may, if the gods be kind, on the shelves of bookshops proper find books that were bought for new, but have not sold and still remain, lacking an entry to the world of second-hand, still fresh, still offered at the published price. But in the main his life is one of “inside information”; his ally in the trade sells books instead of making them; it is the principle of the turf in terms of Whatman paper and grey Michalet boards. To the collector of Victorians (exception made, of course, of Dickens's parts, of Wuthering Heights, of Desperate Remedies, of other far reputed treasures) belongs neither the pursuit of “folios” across the world nor the click of the tape pegging out details of obscure pamphlets. Copies of three-volume novels by writers of reputation are hard to find at all, and very hard in anything of condition. Nevertheless, when found, they are often cheap. And then, when one is bought, there comes the reading of it.

And yet at times the collector feels forlorn and without guidance, for maybe the book he buys is a little known one, of which the very name is strange. Indeed, the lack of pointers obtrudes harshly, and in a sense no less literary than bibliographical. Not only is information as to actual titles scarce and unreliable, but among the great number of these writers' books the student must perforce read his own way to a sense of relative quality. At the cost of some hours of tedium and of many mistaken purchases I have arrived at a general knowledge of what these novelists wrote, when they wrote it, and what it looked like when it first appeared. This knowledge is herein set out for the possible assistance of all and sundry.

The relative value as literature or as story-telling of their many books makes more perilous judgment. I am no expert in comparative literature. I cannot even claim to have read all or nearly all the books that are, in the pages following, materially dissected. I have preferred therefore to make no pretence to serious literary criticism, but have contented myself with indicating at the beginning of each section the general character of the work of the writer in question, into what groups (if any) his novels fall, and have called attention here and there to certain little known or unknown stories that have pleased me and may, though hardly for that reason, please some of my contemporaries. Where an author has little attraction for me, I have said so. Books of all kinds are listed between these covers, and no single being will enjoy them all. But this is certain: that among them the inquirer, be his tastes what they may, will find reading to soothe him and to stimulate; will come to seek in the solidity, whether downright, fantastic, or lurid, in the quiet charm, in the dexterous sincerity of good Victorian fiction, a satisfaction of spirit produced by the novels of no other period of English literature.

Those who for years have known and pondered these Victorian tales will smile contemptuously at such pompous revelation of a stale secret. To them, in scorn of self and lest they lose any of that pleasurable pride allowable to old initiates who watch a novice at his scourgings, I offer the apology that is my book. Others, arrogant in knowledge of Dickensiana, in possession of priceless Borrows, of Jane Austen perfect in her boards, will turn from this humble chronicle of humble writers with the bored serenity of a brass hat on his way to conference. To them I make obeisance, wondering secretly whether great collections were amassed more joyfully than my little one. Last of all, however, may come a few, to whom, as to me, Trollope is balm and meat at once, who love three volumes of a novel for their very spacing and ornate expansiveness, who find shelves of cloth or labelled triplets more beautiful than any other shelves, to whom, in short, the collection and the reading of Victorian first editions is romance and quiet happiness. To them my book with all its faults will come kindly and joyfully, for they will welcome in it the voice of one who thinks and loves, as they do, the plaint of one suffering from the same sweet sickness as themselves.

A NOTE ON THE TERMS USED IN THE BIBLIOGRAPHIES WHICH FOLLOW
TOGETHER WITH OBSERVATIONS RELATIVE TO VICTORIAN BOOKMAKING, RECOMMENDATIONS TO COLLECTORS, AND AN APPEAL TO THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHER STUDENTS FOR ASSISTANCE AND CORRECTION

(i) I am aware that bibliographers proper designate by means of upright strokes the alignment of wording on the title-pages of books subject to their analysis. This mannerism I have eschewed, and for two reasons. In the first place, a bibliography so displayed baffles the inexpert reader by a suggestion of mathematical obscurity. Tempted by the desire to attract a few such readers to a book that, for all its overplus of sinew and lack of flesh, is in intention a tribute to a group of very human and consoling writers, I have sought an appearance of readability at the cost of a small technical sacrifice. The sacrifice is small—and here lies the second justification of my heterodox technique—because no variety of any one of the books hereafter listed depends either on the alignment of title-page wording or (save in a single case to which attention is specially drawn) on the phrasing, absence or presence of a note of reservation of foreign or dramatic rights. In short, that which is required for the identification of a first edition I have given; but beyond that—nothing.

(ii) The first editions of almost any author include, in addition to books written wholly by him, a number of works for some part of which only he is responsible. These secondary items cannot be neglected by collectors, for any book in which for the first time is published an essay, a story, a poem, or what not by one particular writer ranks as a first edition of that writer. Naturally, however, complete works take precedence over partial works, and I have grouped at the end of each section of this book such partial or minor first editions as I have been able to identify.

It must be clearly understood that first magazine publication is not here referred to. The only periodical issue of a book that can rank with book issue is that in parts, according to which the text of a novel made its appearance in monthly or weekly sections, separately wrappered, under its own title and unaccompanied by any extraneous matter save advertisements. Part issues are essential to a collector; on the other hand, the numbers of magazines in which this story or that made serial appearance may be ignored. In many cases I have stated where (if anywhere) novels were serialized, but such information is of general rather than of collecting interest, save to those whose catholicity of taste and house-room permit them the luxury of adding sets of magazines to those of actual books.

(iii) The terms used to-day to describe sizes in uncut books vary from those of an earlier period. For example, the terms “Post 8vo” and “12mo” are now rarely met with, whereas prior to 1880 they were in regular and common currency. Fearing that the modern buyer or seller of books would be puzzled by too frequent an encounter with technicalities virtually obsolete, I have expressed book sizes in terms familiar to present-day ears and as nearly equivalent to those replaced as makes no matter. The “8vo” book of the fifties is the “Demy 8vo” of the nineteen-twenties; “Post 8vo” has become “Extra Crown 8vo”; “12mo” has become “Foolscap 8vo.” The phraseology adopted, being familiar, will give an immediate general idea of a book's dimensions; the measurement 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. Barnard (of Messrs. Longmans, Green), to Mr. Spalding (of Messrs. Chatto and Windus), to Mr. Herbert Virtue (of Messrs. Virtue and Co.), to Mr. Farquharson and to Mr. Leonard Huxley (of Messrs. John Murray), to Mr. Marston (of the “Publishers' Circular”), I tender my best thanks.

Gratitude must next be expressed to booksellers and owners of books whose contribution differed in kind but not in degree from that of the foregoing. Mr. Walter Spencer put his unrivalled stock of Victorian first editions wholly at my disposal, thus enabling me to examine many rare items not elsewhere discoverable. He also lent me a series of autograph letters from which certain details were obtainable. To Messrs. Bain and Messrs. Maggs I owe opportunities of seeing books necessary to my list. Mr. Hugh Walpole gave me access to his private collection, and Mr. Cecil Davis, Mr. J. A. Green, and Mr. Clement Shorter helped to a clearer understanding of the bibliography of Captain Marryat and of Mrs. Gaskell.

Further, I should like to set down my appreciation of the facilities afforded to me by the authorities of the British Museum and of the Bodleian Library. Their willingness to shorten in my favour the tedious process of extracting scattered volumes from their stores and vaults saved much fatigue and hours of valuable time.

To my mother, to my wife, and to one of my publishers I owe thanks for friendly collaboration at points where two heads and four hands had more than twice the value of half their number. Lastly, and perhaps mostly, I am indebted, for secretarial assistance and for help in the labour of research, to Miss Martha Smith, whose accuracy and devotion have halved my personal toil.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE
1815-1882

ANTHONY TROLLOPE[^[3]]

Trollope's novels, like those of Jane Austen, are of the very essence of fiction. Whatever they may lack in verbal subtlety, in passion, in tragedy or in comedy of idea, they never lack that spiritual skeleton without which no structure of a story-teller's imagining can survive. Palaces more delicate, more romantic, more brilliant and more terrible than those of Trollope have been erected and have stood to win the admiration of posterity; but their splendour and their beauty are due more to the solid material that upholds their walls and roofs than to the skill and fancy of their decoration. Other palaces, because they lacked such invisible but vital solidity, have drawn for an hour the fickle favour of the crowd and then toppled into dust. It is easy, in fiction, to create a nine days' wonder, but hard indeed to win the esteem of ninety years.

[3]. For his consent to the reprinting of this Essay I am grateful to the Editor of the “Nineteenth Century and After.”

Trollope has achieved that victory. Oblivion can now never be his, for he has lived his bad times and survived. As must any artist worth the name, he suffered eclipse—temporary, indeed, but so severe as at one time to threaten permanence. He was scorned as dowdy and parochial by the brilliant metropolitans of a succeeding generation. Only in the hearts of quiet folk and among readers uninstructed in the genius of their own time were his books remembered and cherished.

Until, slowly and slowly, opinion has begun to change. Quality has outstayed vogue, and the latter comes smirking back to the smiles of a lover yesterday despised. Indeed, Trollope is in a fair way to become once again the fashion. For a while he will be honoured by the enthusiasm of the intellectuals. Then, when they have turned their volatile benevolence to some other quarter, he will settle firmly in the respect of the critical. And that will at once be fame and his deserts.

Any summary analysis of Trollope's individual novels is wellnigh impossible, in view not only of the bulk of his work but also of its scope and richness of content. His quality is more intangible and at the same time more concentrated than that of the other writers treated in this book. “Of all the needs a book has, the chief need is that it be readable,” wrote Trollope himself. And again: “The primary object of a novelist is to please.” Readability has, in these latter days, become a term of condescension. But that is the fault of a superior age, and for the ten who use the word contemptuously there are ten thousand who, did they care to do so, would give it an older and a more honourable meaning. To them, as always to the large public of novel-readers, fiction, when it is not costume-romance, mystery-story, or topical propaganda, is a revelation of their own lives. It is this demand for an expression of emotions in which the normal reader can share that Trollope so amazingly satisfies. No précis of plot, no indication of social setting, of character types, nor of period, can in his case convey the essence of any particular novel.

Nevertheless his stories fall into certain specific categories, some of which form actual series of tales with characters reappearing from volume to volume, while others, although severally independent and self-contained, may be classified as belonging to one type of fiction or to another.

The best known group of novels is that dealing with the society of the city of Barchester and of the surrounding neighbourhood. The Chronicles of Barsetshire, as they have been called, are six in number:

The Warden (1855),

Barchester Towers (1857),

Doctor Thorne (1858),

Framley Parsonage (1861),

The Small House at Allington (1864), and

The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867).

Although these famous stories undoubtedly contain much of Trollope's best work, they do not contain the whole of it. It is a mistake to suppose that they rank altogether higher than his other books, and one of the most disastrous results of the disfavour into which his novels fell after their author's death is that a wealth of really first-rate material, just because it is included in books of which the late eighties chose to forget the titles, lies hidden to-day and withdrawn from the enjoyment of modern readers.

Cases of such unmerited neglect are encountered immediately and among the novels of Trollope's second continuous and interconnected series. The “political” stories, like those of Barsetshire, are six in number:

Can You Forgive Her? (1864),

Phineas Finn (1869),

The Eustace Diamonds (1873),

Phineas Redux (1874),

The Prime Minister (1876), and

The Duke's Children (1880).

It is truly remarkable to what an extent these admirable tales have fallen into oblivion. Not only do they introduce many of Trollope's most masterly characters, but they present, vividly and with knowledge, the minds and manners of the political aristocracy, the social hangers-on, the Tadpoles and Tapers of the day. Speaking generally, the social setting of the political novels is different from that of The Chronicles of Barsetshire. Indeed, it could hardly be otherwise, seeing that the whole series takes its tone from the personalities of Plantagenet Palliser and his wife Lady Glencora, who, as the stories progress and by natural course of inheritance, become the Duke and Duchess of Omnium and the greatest of English nobility. Trollope's method is not slavishly to serialize the life story of any individual character or pair of characters. All the political novels have their own clearly defined plot. They are, however, all tinged with the compelling personalities of Lady Glencora and her husband, into which Trollope threw all that he had of art and enthusiasm.

Can You Forgive Her? is a long novel, concerned primarily with the troubles of a motherless girl who breaks an engagement with an oppressively upright man in order to return to a youthful love affair with a dissipated and unscrupulous cousin. Mr. Grey, the honourable man, gets in the end the wife he wants; but Trollope does not hesitate to show fairly the preference of a high-spirited girl for an adventurous rascal, and there will be many who, when the book is finished, will regret—a little ashamedly—that virtue has ultimately triumphed. In the life story of Lady Glencora Can You Forgive Her? is important, for it pictures her newly married and literally on the verge of running away from her shy, proud, inarticulate husband, with a beautiful young reprobate, whose previous intimacy with her the reader may imagine at his discretion. The fallibility of Lady Glencora is skilfully contrasted with that of Alice Vavasor, the heroine of the book; their circumstances are so similar, and yet the young women react to them so differently!

Phineas Finn is a tale of political ambition. The hero, by whose name the book is called, is a poor Irishman who comes to seek his fortune in Parliament. The ups and downs of his career; Lady Laura Kennedy, who loves him but from family pressure marries millions; Madame Max Goesler, the fascinating, mysterious widow who rejects flattering if dubious proposals from the old Duke of Omnium, combine with a mass of other material to make a really dramatic story that is continued, and equally well continued, in Phineas Redux.

Not the least remarkable feature of the second of these two books is the hero's trial for murder. Trollope has a genius for trial scenes, and to my mind it is an open question whether that in Phineas Redux is not finer than its more celebrated predecessors in The Three Clerks and in Orley Farm.

The Eustace Diamonds turns on the personality of Lizzie Eustace, a selfish but attractive little woman who keeps possession, in the teeth of lawyers and of her late husband's relations, of certain priceless jewels to which she has no right whatever. There are two or three subplots in the story, all of good quality; but the character of Lizzie Eustace, who, for all her lying and her insincerity and her cheap smartness, is seductive and appealing, stands out as the book's essential achievement.

The Prime Minister and The Duke's Children are the only two novels of the political series in which Plantagenet Palliser, now Duke of Omnium, is admittedly the central figure. The former book is so constructed as to give prominence to the love affair and unhappy marriage of Emily Wharton with Ferdinand Lopez, a stock gambler and commercial adventurer. But although the history of the Lopez ménage is admirably told, and gives scope for the reintroduction of Lizzie Eustace, as well as other strange and disreputable people, the story of the first premiership of the Duke of Omnium is the real story of the book. By the time he came to the writing of The Prime Minister, Trollope had become deeply interested in presenting in the person of the Duke his ideal conception of an English aristocrat. No praise can be too high for the skill with which he implies, but does not describe, the divergent qualities of ambition possessed by the Duke and by his wife. Throughout the book she is for ever striving to make him in the eye of the world the greatest gentleman of the greatest kingdom of all time. He, on the other hand, sees in his position only duty and responsibility and disappointment. Not the least of his troubles are his wife's insistence that the life of a public man is never private, and her expressed conviction that give and take is the essence of political compromise and therefore of premiership.

In the interval between The Prime Minister and The Duke's Children the Duchess of Omnium dies. The unhappy Duke is left to find, if he may, in the achievements of his children that completeness and success to secure which he feels that he has himself so utterly failed. Everything goes awry. His only daughter gives her love to an unknown and penniless commoner. His younger son, after ragging through his university career, resorts disastrously to cards and racing. Finally, his heir—Lord Silverbridge—stands for Parliament in the opposite interest to that of his father, and, worse still, turns from the girl the Duke has chosen as his bride, in order to throw his title and prospects at the feet of the beautiful daughter of an American savant. The Duke struggles against his own humanity; slowly and unhappily, as is his way, he adjusts himself to the changing times; at the last he sacrifices his ideals of nobility to personal affection. The Duke's Children worthily closes a series of fine novels. In some ways this last story of the political group is the best, and it speaks a good deal for the author's power of sustained imagination that he contrived, over a period of sixteen years, to maintain the interest and develop the vitality of so complex a collection of characters.

The rough classifications of novels in themselves independent may, out of respect for chronology, begin with the stories of Irish life. The Macdermotts of Ballycloran (1847), The Kellys and the O'Kellys (1848), Castle Richmond (1860) and The Landleaguers (1883), are the four books which belong, properly speaking, to this category. Of course there are Irish scenes in many other novels, for Trollope lived for years in Ireland, knew it well and loved it, and was for ever introducing Irishmen and Irish incidents into his work. The books above mentioned are, however, wholly and deliberately novels about Ireland. The first two have the faults of very early work, in that they are prolix and lack that control of character and material that marks the experienced novelist. Both, however, are worth reading, and the plot of The Kellys needs no excuse on the score of inexperience. Castle Richmond, however, is definitely an unsuccessful book. It is packed with information about the Irish famine, and the story is over-melodramatic for Trollope's method. One of his most characteristic qualities as a novelist is his refusal to keep the reader in suspense. In direct contrast to Wilkie Collins, he goes out of his way to explain, as he comes to it, each seemingly inexplicable event. It is as though he scorns to save himself the trouble of characterization by erecting between himself and the reader a screen of mystery. For this reason, the secret power exercised by the unsavoury Molletts over Sir Thomas Fitzgerald is, because it soon ceases to be secret, a weak foundation upon which to erect a story. The Landleaguers, the book left unfinished by Trollope when he died, is concerned to present the social condition of Ireland in the early eighties, as was Castle Richmond to depict that of the famine-ridden forties. And yet what a difference! In The Landleaguers the novelist presents his picture of politics in his actual story. There are no passages of blue-book instructionalism, but it is doubtful whether a more vivid impression of the state of Ireland at the time can be obtained from any other source. Even if there were no others among Trollope's old-age novels to disprove the theory, The Landleaguers alone should put an end to the contention that toward the end of his life he had lost his cunning or written himself out.

It is now necessary to examine that large and heterogeneous collection of novels which, from one point of view or another, satirize contemporary life or present some definite aspect of the English social scene. Let me once more insist that the classification of Trollope's books here attempted should not be understood too literally. All the Barchester novels, all the political novels, are in one sense wholly presentments of society; in the same way many of them contain passages definitely satirical. But they have other claims to special grouping which the numerous isolated stories now to be considered do not possess; and, while satire is mainly incidental to the tales of Barchester and to those of political life, it is in some at least of Trollope's other books the principal purpose of the story.

First, then, the books which may fairly be termed books of social satire. The earliest in date is The Bertrams, which, although the situations and characters are of the kind which Trollope was to make essentially his own, is a failure even more complete than Castle Richmond. The central theme is one to which the author more than once returns. Caroline Waddington rejects George Bertram for reasons of income and prospects. She marries his successful lawyer friend, only to find that she has sold herself to a greedy tyrant. The parallel case of Julia Brabazon and Harry Clavering immediately suggests itself; but where in The Claverings Trollope achieves an intense humanity, in The Bertrams he is dully mechanical. He allows the subsidiary plots to disturb and obscure his main story. When, as frequently, he attempts the comic in social enjoyment he comes clumsily to grief. The widow's seaside picnic in Can you Forgive Her? has only to be contrasted with the excursion from Jerusalem described in The Bertrams to make clear the difference between successful and unsuccessful satire. And yet there are points in The Bertrams. The close-fisted old man, the disposal of whose money provides the motive of most of the incident, is drawn with consistent restraint. There are touches in the description of society at Littlebath that prepare the reader for the pleasure of Miss Mackenzie. On the whole the book should be read. It is Trollope “off” (or rather “not yet on to”) his game, but it was published at an important moment in his career and helps to make clear his subsequent development.

Rachel Ray (1863) and Miss Mackenzie (1865) may, without any critical licence, be considered together. Both are bitter satires on Evangelical Christianity. Trollope inherited from his mother a hatred of the brimstone school of religious teachers, and in these novels he lets himself go with considerable effect. The earlier of the two books contains comparatively few characters, and those of modest social position. Rachel herself is delightful and gives to the book, despite its obvious weaknesses of construction, a freshness and charm that is very pleasing. Mrs. Prime and her horrible clerical admirer are frankly caricature, but that they should be so is not unnatural, seeing that they represent the very puritanism that the book is intended to attack.

In Miss Mackenzie we are given the story of a spinster of thirty-five, to whom unexpectedly a small fortune is bequeathed. She becomes immediately the quarry of fortune hunters—shabby social, religious, and commercial. Some of the best scenes in the story are staged in Littlebath, where Miss Todd and Miss Baker (who help to retrieve The Bertrams from disaster) make welcome reappearance. As satire the novel is more dexterous than Rachel Ray, but it lacks the attraction of a real Trollope heroine, and throughout has a faint tinge of the sordid. It is interesting to note on page 242 of the second volume a mention of Lady Glencora Palliser, whom Trollope had 'presented' in Can you Forgive Her?

Not until 1875 did Trollope publish another definitely satirical novel. When he did so, the event marked an important stage in his evolution as a novelist. Critics had begun to grumble at comedies of manners, which spoke of the suavity of yesterday rather than of the competitive hustle of to-day. England was moving step by step along the road to commercialism. Trollope, with his county and clerical families, his political aristocrats and comic tuft-hunters, was shrugged aside as out of date. Such treatment was intolerable, and, with a gesture half impatient, half appealing, he sent out into the world The Way We Live Now. This long and crowded novel—perhaps, with the exception of The Last Chronicle of Barset, the most abundant of all his books—presents, in the person of Mr. Melmotte, the financial magnate of alien origin proper to a truly modern story of English life. Whether the cavillers, whose complaints spurred Trollope to so violent an effort, admitted, after reading The Way We Live Now, that the old dog could in truth out-modern the best of them, history does not relate; but undeniably this book, in which he asserted his vitality and showed that in the matter of satiric observation he was well abreast of the times, has no lack of vigour or luxuriant invention.

That Mr. Scarborough's Family (1883) may reasonably be said to conclude the list of Trollope's satirical novels is perhaps disputable. And yet, because its power is mainly ironic, I prefer to mention it here rather than treat of it as a purely social story. A while ago one example was quoted of a first-rate book from Trollope's last period. Mr. Scarborough's Family is another.

An aged and wealthy cynic suddenly (and, as it turns out, with deliberate falsehood) makes public the illegitimacy of his eldest son. With the complications of inheritance, with the changing relations between old Mr. Scarborough and his two sons, of whom the elder is now destitute and the latter coldly triumphant in his unexpected good fortune, is involved an elaborate second plot, centring round the love story of an amiable young man, whose fortunes depend on the favour of a peevish and eccentric uncle. Analysis of a tale so full of happening and character is impossible in a few lines. Sufficient to say that Mr. Scarborough's Family, were it not for the date on its title-page, might be thought to belong to a much earlier period, not only of Trollope, but of fiction as a whole, to a period more lavish than subtle, more genial and full-blooded than detached and sensitive.

With The Three Clerks (1858) opens the chronology of those novels which, although partially satirical, are in the main straightforward stories of English cultivated life. The Three Clerks is one of the few Trollope novels that has been seriously overrated. In its pages Mr. Chaffanbrass, the notorious Old Bailey lawyer, makes his first appearance, but he is infinitely more effective in Orley Farm and in Phineas Finn than at his first entrance on the Trollope stage. In so far as The Three Clerks gives a picture of the Civil Service that the author himself knew, it has documentary value, but as fiction it is formless and flaccid. Its young women are wholly devoid of that freshness and frankness that place Trollope, as a creator of femininity, apart from all other novelists of his generation; its menfolk are either riotous dummies like those in Smedley's novels, or prigs and villains, compounded so slavishly by recipe as to have little meaning beyond that of the conventional types they represent.

Of Orley Farm (1862) it is unnecessary to speak, the novel being one of the two or three outside the Barchester series which are still read to-day. The Belton Estate (1866), on the other hand, badly needs rehabilitation. Henry James, in a review written when quite a young man, concluded a long paragraph of hostile criticism with the words: “The Belton Estate is a stupid book.” One may venture that the obtuseness was not all on one side. Using a cast of four principal and as few subsidiary characters, Trollope fills three good volumes with the matrimonial dilemma of Clara Amedroz, who has to choose between the uncouth, well-to-do farmer to whom passes her thriftless father's estate, and the polished, self-seeking Captain Aylmer—in parlance, though not in fact, also her cousin—who offers her marriage because at the deathbed of his rich aunt and as part condition of becoming her heir he swore to do so. The Belton Estate has, to a greater degree than any other of Trollope's books, that art of concealing art which delights one type of mind, but by another is dismissed as “stupid.” In a sense it is the most difficult to appreciate of all the important novels, and, were an examination in Trollope a thing of practical import, the examining board would be wise to make this book the test question of their paper.

The Claverings (1867) and He Knew He Was Right (1869) are very long books, each of which turns on a theme highly characteristic of the author. Mention has already been made of Julia Brabazon, heroine of the former book, who jilts the nobody she loves for a rich invalid peer. The price she has to pay is counted in full in the pages of The Claverings, which also introduce a number of excellent characters, from Sir Hugh Clavering, hard, savage, and selfish, to Sophie Gordeloup and her scoundrelly brother, who play so desperately for the wealth and person of Lord Ongar's lonely and embittered widow. He Knew He Was Right describes the steady growth in a husband's mind of unjust suspicion of his wife's fidelity. As a crescendo of hysterical mistrust, the book is a fine piece of sustained writing. As a novel, it would be gloomy and distressing but for an admirable and humorous by-plot laid in cathedral Exeter. It would, perhaps, be hypercritical and unappreciative of his adroit handling of incident to blame the author for the very liberal use of coincidence with which he aids the progress of his story.

Of the six social novels that remain, one is first-rate, three are very good second-rate, one is ordinary second-rate and the last frankly bad. Is He Popenjoy? (1878) may rank with The Claverings as a book undeservedly excluded from the upper room of every Trollope-lover's mind. The Dean of Brotherton, son of a jobmaster, father of the heroine and ultimately grandfather of a marquis, is a Trollope dignitary of the first water. His daughter is as eminent in the world of heroines as is her father in that of ecclesiastics. She is gay, loving, whimsical, courageous, and always natural. Her dour husband with his excessive sense of duty and inadequate sense of humour; her aristocratic sisters-in-law, shrouding in ill-nature and good works the emptiness of their lives and purses; the society siren; the society matchmaker; and perhaps above all the ill-tempered, dissolute marquis, on the legitimacy of whose son turns the whole mechanism of the story, are each one of them fictional characters that only a master could create.

Ralph The Heir (1871)—the plot of which was pirated by Charles Reade and dramatized under the title Shilly Shally—contains some good characters and perhaps the best parliamentary election of all those contrived by its author. The troubles and difficulties of the shy, ineffective Sir Thomas Underwood, and the determination of Mr. Neefit, the breeches-maker, to buy up a bankrupt young squire as husband for his daughter would give distinction to any story. Lady Anna (1874) is a delicate elaboration of Trollope's favourite motif—projected or (as in this case) actual misalliance. The American Senator (1877) contains some excellent hunting and much good general observation. Ayala's Angel (1881), like The Belton Estate but less pronouncedly, is a book that must be read to be realized, for it is quiet Trollope and a thing of shades rather than one of definite, contrasted colours.

There remains Marion Fay (1882), once again a tale of misalliance. This is undeniably the worst book that its author ever wrote. Everywhere but here he contrives to keep either his hero or his heroine (and more frequently both) sympathetic, sensible, and convincingly normal; but in Marion Fay he sinks to mawkishness and to a deathbed scene that is frankly inexcusable.

Plenty of novels still remain of this astonishing and untiring writer. They may, however, be somewhat summarily dismissed. The most interesting group is that of the short, single-theme stories which succeeded the publication of The Way We Live Now. It is not unreasonable to attribute to the mood of challenge in which that novel was sent out the noticeable change in the author's method during the years that followed. It is as though he had determined to try his hand at the psychological analysis which was just coming into fashion among novelists. And so we are given in quick succession six little books, each written round a single event or describing the reactions of one individual to a definite set of circumstances. The titles are as follow:

An Eye for An Eye (1879),

Cousin Henry (1879),

Doctor Wortle's School (1881),

The Fixed Period (1882),

Kept in the Dark (1882),

An Old Man's Love (1884).

It so happened that An Eye for An Eye was written before the publication of The Way We Live Now, although not published until some while after. It is, however, clearly the product (if an unconscious one) of the same impulse as gave birth to the other books, and its theme—the struggle in the mind of a young Englishman between pride of family and desire to fulfil a marriage promise to a girl who has become his mistress—is a theme of the type peculiar to these six brief stories and distinctly foreign to Trollope's more bulky and eventful work.

A further group of five stories may roughly be termed Trollope's “oversea” novels. The first three—Nina Balatka (1867), Linda Tressel (1868), and The Golden Lion of Granpere (1872)—were written more or less intentionally to form a distinct trio. They are semi-romantic tales, staged respectively in old Prague, in old Nürnberg, and among the Vosges mountains; pleasant enough, but quite definitely of minor importance. The first two were published anonymously but achieved little success, and were later reissued over the author's name. Harry Heathcote of Gangoil (1874) and John Caldigate (1879) are novels of Australia, based on the knowledge of that continent which the author gained when visiting one of his sons who had established himself there. I understand that as pictures of Australian life they are vivid and reliable. Be that as it may, the untutored reader, seeking only for Trollope, will find him abundantly in Harry Heathcote, which is an eventful, almost an adventurous story, and to a very satisfying degree in the longer book that appeared five years later.

Of Trollope's various volumes of short stories nothing need here be said. Of Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite (1871) there is little that can be said. Of The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson (1870) there is much that had better be left unsaid. One important full-length novel remains, good in itself and at the same time remarkable as the only one of the author's tales in which he arms himself formally as a social crusader.

The Vicar of Bullhampton (1870) is a novel written in defence of the “fallen woman.” It is quaint to read Trollope's solemn and tactful preface, in which he almost apologizes to his public for venturing on such indelicate ground. Fortunately the book is so feeble as propaganda that, but for the preface, one would be unaware that it was written with any special purpose. It can be enjoyed as a good story of village life, with a delightful parson as central figure and the necessary complement of charming Trollope ladies, gruff farmers, lonely landowners, and aggressive Nonconformity.

This novel, like all Trollope's really good work, impresses the reader first and foremost with its Englishry. Perhaps it would not be too much to say that the very greatness of the author himself springs from this same quality. He is intensely English, with the quiet humour, the shy sympathy masquerading as indifference, the delicate sense of kindliness and toleration, the occasional heaviness, the occasional irritability, that mark a man or a book as English. But if to these qualities he owes his place in our proud heritage of literature, to them also he owes the tarrying of due recognition, for they and the natures that possess them are of all qualities and of all natures the most difficult to impress upon the sceptical outsider, seeing that their very beauty and preciousness and power lie in their elusiveness.

BIOGRAPHY

ANTHONY TROLLOPE: His Work, Associates and Literary Originals. By T. H. S. Escott. London: John Lane, 1913.

This book will be of interest to the general reader, although it is rather overloaded with analyses of novel-plots and the arrangement is not ideal.

By far the most valuable feature of the volume is the bibliography of Trollope by Margaret Lavington included at the end. For the help this careful and documented compilation has given me I wish to make acknowledgment, although I have throughout worked independently and from original sources and taken none of the facts hereafter given without verification. Miss Lavington's descriptions lack certain details essential to the collector, she makes one or two actual mistakes, but, within the limits she has laid down for herself, her work is wonderfully complete and accurate.

I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPES
FICTION, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVEL-BOOKS, ESSAYS, ETC.

1847

THE MACDERMOTTS OF BALLYCLORAN. By Mr. A. Trollope. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, Publisher, 72 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square. 1847. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (ii) + 345 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 382.

Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 437 + (1).

No half-titles. Boards, half-cloth, paper label. White end-papers. Also in dark brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—On the title-page of Vol. III. “Mortimer” should be spelt “Morimer.” In the same volume, p. 437 is mis-paged “743.” Copies of the first edition were reissued in 1848 with title-pages so dated and differently worded, but with no indication of reprint. On this second title-page the misprint is corrected. The wording is as follows:

THE MACDERMOTTS OF BALLYCLORAN: A Historical Romance. By A. Trollope, Esq., author of The Kellys and the O'Kellys. London: T. C. Newby, 72 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square. 1848.

1848

THE KELLYS AND THE O'KELLYS: Or Landlords and Tenants. A Tale of Irish Life. By A. Trollope, Esq. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1848. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. (ii) + 298.

Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 298.

Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 285 + (1). Publisher's catalogue, 24 pp., undated, bound in at end.

No half-titles. Paper boards (half-cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in July, 1848.

1850

LA VENDÉE: An Historical Romance. By Anthony Trollope, Esq. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1850. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 320.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 330.

Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 313 + (1). No half-title to this volume. Publisher's advertisement occupies p. (314). Publisher's catalogue, 16 pp., undated, bound in at end.

Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in June, 1850.

1855

THE WARDEN. By Anthony Trollope. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. 1855. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo. (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. iv + 336. No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 24 pp., dated September, 1854, bound in at end. Pale brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Brick-red end-papers printed on inside front and inside back covers with publishers' advertisements.

Notes—(i) This book was published in January, 1855. An edition of 1,000 copies was printed, of which 600 were sold during the first eighteen months of publication. The balance of 400 was bound, very nearly uniform with the first issue, in 1858 and a catalogue dated with that year inserted at end.

(ii) In 1879 Chapman and Hall published, under the series title Chronicles of Barsetshire, Trollope's novels dealing with the city and district of Barchester. The Warden was the first volume of this reissue, and was preceded by a brief introduction by Trollope not previously published.

1857

BARCHESTER TOWERS. By Anthony Trollope, author of The Warden. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts. 1857. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 305 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (307) and (308). Advertisement of The Warden occupies p. (ii). Half-title to this volume.

Vol. II. pp. iv + 299 + (1). No half-title.

Vol. III. pp. iv + 321 + (3). No half-title. Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (323) and (324).

Pale brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Brick-red end-papers printed with publishers' advertisements.

Note—This book was published in May, 1857. The earliest issue had end-papers of a much redder brown than those used for later bindings of the first edition sheets. The latter can also be identified by the date of a publishers' catalogue bound in at the end of Vol. I.

1858

THE THREE CLERKS: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope, author of Barchester Towers etc. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1858. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 340.

Vol. II. pp. iv + 322 + (2).

Vol. III. pp. iv + 334 + (2).

No half-titles. Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers. Also in dark grey-purple watered cloth, gilt, blocked in blind, with yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) Although dated 1858, this book was actually published in December, 1857.

(ii) I have seen a copy of this book in a binding of the grey-purple cloth above mentioned, but with paper labels as employed on the half-cloth edition.

1858

DOCTOR THORNE: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope, author of The Three Clerks, Barchester Towers etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1858. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 305 + (3). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated April, 1858, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. iv + 323 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. iv + 340.

No half-titles. Dark grey-purple cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale green end-papers.

Note—This book was published in June, 1858.

1859

THE BERTRAMS: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope, author of Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1859. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 335 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. iv + 344.

Vol. III. pp. iv + 331 + (1).

No half-titles. Dark grey-purple cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This novel was published in March, 1859.

1859

THE WEST INDIES AND THE SPANISH MAIN. By Anthony Trollope, author of Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, The Bertrams etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1859. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾). Pp. iv + 395 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated November, 1859, bound in at end. No half-title. Coloured map printed separately facing title. Maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in October, 1859.

(ii) It is possible that the earliest copies of all contained no publishers' catalogue, but I have been unable to find a copy with a catalogue dated earlier than that mentioned above.

1860

CASTLE RICHMOND: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope, author of Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, The West Indies and the Spanish Main etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1860. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 303 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. (vi) [p. vi is erroneously numbered iv] + 300.

Vol. III. pp. vi + 289 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated May, 1860, bound in at end.

Dark grey-purple cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in May, 1860.

1861

FRAMLEY PARSONAGE. By Anthony Trollope, author of Barchester Towers etc. etc. With 6 illustrations by J. E. Millais, R.A. London: Smith Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXI. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅝).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 333 + (3).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 318 + (2).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 330 + (2). Publishers' catalogue, 14 pp., dated April, 1861, bound in at end.

No half-titles. Each volume contains two line-engraved illustrations printed separately. Grey-purple cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in May, 1861. The story appeared serially in the “Cornhill.”

1861

TALES OF ALL COUNTRIES. By Anthony Trollope, author of Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, The West Indies and the Spanish Main. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1861. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. (iv) + 312. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated November, 1861, bound in at end. No half-title. Blue embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Bright blue end-papers.

Contents: La Mère Bauche—The O'Conors of Castle Conor—John Bull on the Guadalquivir—Miss Sarah Jack, of Spanish Town, Jamaica—The Courtship of Susan Bell—Relics of General Chassé—An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids—The Château of Prince Polignac.

Note—This book was published in November, 1861.

1862

ORLEY FARM. By Anthony Trollope, author of Doctor Thorne, Barchester Towers, Framley Parsonage etc. With illustrations by J. E. Millais. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1862. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 320. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated October, 1861, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. viii + 320.

Each volume contains twenty illustrations. Brown-purple embossed cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

This story originally appeared in twenty demy 8vo one shilling parts, dated March (1861) to October (1862), bound in fawn wrappers printed in blue and red, and containing the illustrations by J. E. Millais afterwards included in the two-volume edition. Each part contains two illustrations.

Note—The first volume of this novel was published in book form on December 3, 1861; the second volume on September 25, 1862. Both title-pages are, however, dated 1862.

ORLEY FARM: Part Issue.

The following advertisement pages, etc., should be found in a complete set. The advertisements at the front of each number are headed: “Orley Farm Advertiser.” All wrappers except front covers are printed with advertisements.

Part I: Front—16 pp., dated March, 1861. Back—10 pp., unnumbered, of which the first two on pink paper.

Part II: Front—8 pp., dated 1861. Back—4 pp., unnumbered, of which the first two on yellow paper.

Part III: Front—8 pp., dated May, 1861. Back—2 pp., unnumbered, on lilac paper.

Part IV: Front—8 pp., dated June, 1861. Back—2 pp., unnumbered, on pale yellow paper.

Part V: Front—8 pp., dated July, 1861. Back—4 pp., unnumbered, of which the first two on lilac paper.

Part VI: Front—Inset slip of yellow paper advertising the serialization in “Great Expectations” of A Strange Story, by Lytton. 8 pp., dated August, 1861. Back—6 pp., unnumbered, of which the first two on yellow paper, the third in coloured lithograph, the fifth and sixth on pink (or green) paper, the fifth being blank and a sample of cambric frilling being attached to the sixth.

Part VII: Front—8 pp., dated September, 1861. Back—4 pp., unnumbered, of which the first printed in colours, and the last two a foolscap 8vo leaflet on blue paper advertising “The Queen.”

Part VIII: Front—8 pp., dated October, 1861. Back—2 pp., unnumbered, on pale yellow paper.

Part IX: Front—8 pp., dated November, 1861. Back—nil.

Part X: Front—8 pp., dated December, 1861. Back—2 pp., unnumbered, on yellow paper. [Note—This part contains half-title, title, contents and list of illustrations (in all 8 pp.) to Volume I.]

Part XI: Front—8 pp., dated January, 1862. Back—12 pp., unnumbered.

Part XII: Front—8 pp., dated February, 1862. Back—2 pp., unnumbered, on pale yellow paper.

Part XIII: Front—Inset slip of yellow paper advertising the serialization in “All the Year Round” of No Name, by Wilkie Collins. 8 pp., dated March, 1862. Back—4 pp.

Part XIV: Front—8 pp., dated April, 1862. Back—8 pp., of which the first two (unnumbered) are on blue paper, the next four are numbered, and the last two unnumbered.

Part XV: Front—8 pp., dated May, 1862. Back—12 pp., of which 1-4 unnumbered and the rest a publishers' catalogue paged (1) to 8 and dated April 25, 1862.

Part XVI: Front—8 pp., dated June, 1862. Back—10 pp., of which the first two (unnumbered) are on yellow paper and the remainder are a publishers' catalogue paged (1)-8 and dated April 25, 1862.

Part XVII: Front—8 pp., dated July, 1862. Back—4 pp.

Part XVIII: Front—8 pp., dated August, 1862. Back—6 pp., unnumbered, of which the first two on green paper.

Part XIX: Front—8 pp., dated September, 1862. Back—4 pp.

Part XX: Front—8 pp., dated October, 1862. Back—12 pp., of which the first two unnumbered and on orange paper, the next two unnumbered, and the remainder a publishers' catalogue paged (1)-8 and dated September 24, 1862. [Note—This part contains half-title, title, contents and list of illustrations (in all 8 pp.) to Volume II.]

1862

NORTH AMERICA. By Anthony Trollope, author of The West Indies and the Spanish Main, Doctor Thorne, Orley Farm etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1862. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 467 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated May, 1862, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. viii + 494 +(2).

In Vol. I. a folding map is inserted facing p. 1. Maroon embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Chocolate end-papers.

Note—This book was published in May, 1862.

1863

TALES OF ALL COUNTRIES: Second Series. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1863. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. (iv) + 371 + (1). No half-title. Blue embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Uniform with Tales of All Countries: First Series. Pale yellow end-papers.

Contents: Aaron Trow—Mrs. General Talboys—The Parson's Daughter of Oxney Colne—George Walker at Suez—The Mistletoe Bough—Returning Home—A Ride Across Palestine—The House of Heine Brothers in Munich—The Man Who Kept His Money in a Box.

Note—This book was published in February, 1863.

1863

RACHEL RAY: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope, author of Barchester Towers, Castle Richmond, Orley Farm etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1863. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 319 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. iv + 310 + (2).

No half-titles. Maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Cream end-papers.

Note—This book was published in October, 1863.

1864

THE SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON. By Anthony Trollope. With 18 illustrations by J. E. Millais, R.A. London: Smith Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXIV. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8⅝).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 312.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 316.

No half-titles. Vol. I. contains ten illustrations, and Vol. II. eight illustrations. Green embossed cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Chocolate end-papers, printed with publishers' advertisements.

Note—This book was published in March, 1864, and completed its serial run in the “Cornhill” the month following.

1864

CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? By Anthony Trollope, author of Orley Farm, Doctor Thorne, Framley Parsonage etc. With illustrations. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1864. [1865, Vol. II.] 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 320.

Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 320.

Vol. I. contains twenty etched illustrations by Phiz, and Vol. II. twenty illustrations [by a Miss Taylor], all printed separately. Red embossed cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.

This story originally appeared in twenty demy 8vo one shilling parts, dated January, 1864, to August, 1865, bound in fawn paper wrappers printed in blue and red, and containing the illustrations afterwards included in the two-volume edition. Each part contains two illustrations.

Note—The first volume of this novel appeared in book form on October 1, 1864, the second volume in August, 1865. The title-pages are dated differently.

CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?: Part Issue.

The following advertisement pages, etc., should be found in a complete set. The advertisements at the front of each number are headed “Can you Forgive Her? Advertiser.” All wrappers, except front cover, are printed with advertisements.

Part I: Front—8 pp., dated January, 1864. Back—14 pp., of which the first two unnumbered on buff paper, the next four printed in blue on white paper, and the remainder a publishers' catalogue paged 1-8 and dated January 1, 1864.

Part II: Front—4 pp., dated February, 1864. Back—2 pp., unnumbered, on pink paper.

Part III: Front—4 pp., dated March, 1864. Back—6 pp.

Part IV: Front—4 pp., dated April, 1864. Between pp. 2 and 3 an inset slip on green paper advertising the part issue of Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. Back—8 pp., of which the first two on yellow paper and unnumbered, the second two unnumbered, and the remainder a publishers' catalogue paged 1-4 and dated April 1st, 1864.

Part V: Front—4 pp., dated May, 1864. Back—14 pp., of which the first four paged 1-4, the next two a reproduction on green paper of the wrapper of Part I of Our Mutual Friend, and the remainder a publishers' catalogue paged 1-8 and dated April 30, 1864.

Part VI: Front—4 pp., dated June, 1864, and printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—14 pp., of which the first four and the publishers' catalogue the same as in Part V. A wrapper of Our Mutual Friend, this time of Part II, completes the total.

Part VII: Front—4 pp., dated July, 1864, printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—2 pp., unnumbered, on yellow paper.

Part VIII: Front—4 pp., dated August, 1864, printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—4 pp., numbered 1-4.

Part IX: Front—4 pp., dated September, 1864, printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—Inset slip of yellow paper announcing the serialization in “All the Year Round” of Never Forgotten, by the author of Belladonna. 2 pp., unnumbered, on yellow paper.

Part X: Front—4 pp., dated September [sic], 1864, printed on buff paper as wrapper. In later issues “September” corrected to October. Back—8 pp., of which the last four a publishers' catalogue paged 1-4 and dated October 1, 1864. [Note—This part contains half-title, title, contents and list of illustrations (in all 8 pp.) to Volume I. It is also the last part illustrated by Hablot K. Browne.]

Part XI: Front—4 pp., dated November, 1864, and printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—6 pp., of which 1-4 on lilac (or blue) paper. [Note—Although the illustrator had already been changed, the wrapper to this part still bears the name of H. K. Browne.]

Part XII: Front—4 pp., dated December, 1864, printed on buff paper as wrapper. Inset slip on yellow paper announcing Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy as Christmas number to “All the Year Round.” Back—8 pp., of which the last four a publishers' catalogue paged 1-4 and dated November 25.

Part XIII: Front—4 pp., undated and printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—2 pp., of which the first printed in lilac.

Part XIV: Front—4 pp., undated and printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—Inset slip of green paper and 2 pp. unnumbered, printed on yellow.

Part XV: Front—4 pp., undated and printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—Inset slip of blue paper and publishers' catalogue 4 pp., dated February 28, 1865. Inset slip on white paper advertising the part issue of the Headless Horseman, by Captain Mayne Reid.

Part XVI: Front—4 pp., undated, printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—Inset slip of yellow paper announcing the serialization in “All the Year Round” of Half a Million of Money, by Amelia B. Edwards. 6 pp., of which the last four on pink paper.

Part XVII: Front—4 pp., undated and printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—Nil.

Part XVIII: Front—4 pp., undated and printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—Nil.

Part XIX: Front—4 pp., undated and printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—8 pp., unnumbered, of which the first four on pale blue paper.

Part XX: Front—4 pp., undated and printed on buff paper as wrapper. Back—Nil. [Note—This part contains half-title, title, contents and list of illustrations (in all 8 pp.) to Volume II.]

1865

MISS MACKENZIE. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1865. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 312.

Vol. II. pp. vi + 313 + (3). Advertisement of works by the same author occupies p. (315).

Maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in March, 1865.

(ii) A binding of dark green cloth is more frequently seen than that of maroon, but it is fairly certain that the latter is really the first issue. I have come to this conclusion after a study of other publications, for binding which the two types of cloth used for Miss Mackenzie were employed. Both are patterned cloths, but differently patterned. That used in maroon for Miss Mackenzie was also used—differently coloured, of course—for Trollope's Tales of All Countries (1861); Ainsworth's Constable of the Tower (1861); Mrs. Gaskell's Round the Sofa (1859) and Right at Last (1860); Charles Allston Collins' Cruise Upon Wheels (1862); and Reade's Love me Little, Love me Long (1859). The pattern of cloth, on the other hand, used in dark green for Miss Mackenzie reappears on Trollope's Belton Estate (1866); Ainsworth's John Law (1864); and Wilkie Collins' My Miscellanies (1863). I think these facts provide sufficiently conclusive evidence that the maroon cloth is of an earlier pattern than the dark green. Publishers were probably inclined, then as now, to use one type of cloth more than another at certain given dates (possibly they tended to adopt novelties as produced by their binders). This is independently suggested by the fact that in the year 1863 alone an identical pattern of cloth was used and by various publishers for Ainsworth's Cardinal Pole, for Mrs. Gaskell's A Dark Night's Work, for George Eliot's Romola, and for Mrs. Oliphant's Perpetual Curate.

1865

HUNTING SKETCHES. By Anthony Trollope. Reprinted from the “Pall Mall Gazette.” London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1865. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. iv + 115 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated May, 1865, bound in at end. No half-title. Red cloth gilt, blocked in blind. Green-black end-papers.

Contents: The Man who Hunts and Doesn't Like It—The Man who Hunts and Does Like It—The Lady who Rides to Hounds—The Hunting Farmer—The Man who Hunts and Never Jumps—The Hunting Parson—The Master of Hounds—How to Ride to Hounds.

Note—This book was published in May, 1865.

1866

THE BELTON ESTATE. By Anthony Trollope, author of Can you Forgive Her?, Orley Farm, Framley Parsonage etc. etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1866. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 284.

Vol. II. pp. iv + 308.

Vol. III. pp. iv + 276.

Publishers' catalogue, 24 pp., dated December 1, 1865, bound in at end. No half-titles. Scarlet embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in January, 1866. The story appeared serially in the “Fortnightly Review.”

1866

TRAVELLING SKETCHES. By Anthony Trollope. Reprinted from the “Pall Mall Gazette.” London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1866. I vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. iv + 112. Publishers' catalogue, 24 pp., dated February 1, 1866, bound in at end. No half-title. Red cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Green-black end-papers. Uniform with Hunting Sketches.

Contents: The Family that Goes Abroad Because it's the Thing to Do—The Man who Travels Alone—The Unprotected Female Tourist—The United Englishmen who Travel for Fun—The Art Tourist—The Tourist in Search of Knowledge—The Alpine Club Man—Tourists who Don't Like their Travels.

Note—This book was published in February, 1866.

1866

CLERGYMEN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. By Anthony Trollope. Reprinted from the “Pall Mall Gazette.” London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1866. I vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. (iv) + 130 + (2). Publishers' catalogue, 24 pp., dated March 30, 1866, bound in at end. No half-title. Red cloth, gilt. Green-black end-papers. Uniform with Hunting Sketches and Travelling Sketches.

Contents: The Modern English Archbishop—English Bishops, Old and New—The Normal Dean of the Present Day—The Archdeacon—The Parson of the Parish—The Town Incumbent—The College Fellow who has Taken Orders—The Curate in a Populous Parish—The Irish Beneficed Clergyman—The Clergyman who Subscribes for Colenso.

Note—This book was published in April, 1866.

1867

NINA BALATKA: The Story of a Maiden of Prague. Wm. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, MDCCCLXVII. 2 vols. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾).

Vol. I. pp. (vi) + 228 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (229) (230).

Vol. II. pp. 215 + (I). Publishers' advertisements, 8 pp., undated, bound in at end.

The words: “Originally published in 'Blackwood's Magazine'” occupy verso of half-title in each volume. Red-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Chocolate end-papers.

Note—This book was published on February 1, 1867.

1867

THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET. By Anthony Trollope. With 32 illustrations by George H. Thomas. London: Smith Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXVII. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8⅝).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 384.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 384.

No half-titles. Each volume contains sixteen illustrations printed separately, and line drawings in the text at the beginnings of several of the chapters. Violet-blue cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.

This story originally appeared in thirty-two sixpenny demy 8vo parts dated December 1 (1866) to July 6 (1867), bound in white wrappers with a design in scarlet and dark blue, and containing the illustrations afterwards included in the two-volume edition. Each part contains one illustration.

Notes—(i) Vol. I. of the novel in book form was published on March 16, and Vol. II. on July 6, 1867.

(ii) The words “With 32 illustrations by George H. Thomas” occur only on the title-page of Vol. II.

THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET: Part Issue.

The following advertisement pages, etc., should be found in a complete set. Advertisements at the front of each part are printed on lilac paper, except where otherwise stated. All wrappers, except front covers, are printed with advertisements.

Part I: Front—4 pp., unnumbered, on grey paper; 8 pp., numbered 1-8. Back—10 pp., of which the first is printed in colours and the last four on yellow paper (or green).

Part II: Front—8 pp., numbered 9-16. Back—4 pp., of which the first is printed in colours and the last two on blue paper (or pink).

Part III: Front—8 pp., numbered 17-24. Back—Inset slip (4 pp.) of Chapman and Hall publications.

Part IV: Front—4 pp., unnumbered, on grey (or lilac) paper; 4 pp., numbered 25-28. Back—Nil.

Part V: Front—4 pp., numbered 29-32. Back—2 pp., of which the second is printed in colours.

Part VI: Front—4 pp., numbered 33-36. Back—Inset slip (4 pp.) on yellow paper.

Part VII: Front—4 pp., numbered 37-40. Back—Nil.

Part VIII: Front—Inset slip (4 pp.) of Chapman and Hall publications (as at back of Part III). 4 pp., numbered 41-44. Back—Nil.

Part IX: Front—4 pp., numbered 45-48. Back—Nil.

Part X: Front—4 pp., numbered 49-52. Back—4 pp., unnumbered.

Part XI: Front—Inset slip (4 pp.) of Chapman and Hall publications (as in Parts III. and VIII.); 4 pp., numbered 53-56. Back—Nil.

Part XII: Front—4 pp., numbered 57-60. Back—2 pp., unnumbered, of which the second printed in colours.

Part XIII: Front—4 pp., numbered 61-64. Back—Nil.

Part XIV: Front—4 pp., numbered 65-68. Back—Nil.

Part XV: Front—4 pp., numbered 69-72. Back—Nil.

Part XVI: Front—4 pp., numbered 73-76; inset slip of lilac paper announcing the appearance of Vol. I. of The Last Chronicle of Barset at ten shillings. Back—Nil. [Note—This part contains title-page, contents and list of illustrations (in all 4 pp.) to Vol. I.]

Part XVII: Front—4 pp., numbered 77-80. Back—Nil.

Part XVIII: Front—4 pp., numbered 81-84; inset slip of lilac paper announcing the appearance of Vol. I. of The Last Chronicle of Barset at ten shillings. Back—2 pp., unnumbered, of which the second printed in colours.

Part XIX: Front—4 pp., numbered 85-88. Back—Nil.

Part XX: Front—4 pp., numbered 89-92. Back—Nil.

Part XXI: Front—4 pp., numbered 93-96. Back—Nil.

Part XXII: Front—4 pp., numbered 97-100. Back—Nil.

Part XXIII: Front—4 pp., numbered 101-104. Back—Nil.

Part XXIV: Front—4 pp., numbered 105-108. Back—Nil.

Part XXV: Front—4 pp., numbered 109-112. Back—Nil.

Part XXVI: Front—4 pp., numbered 113-116. Back—Inset slip (4 pp.) advertising the “Charles Dickens Edition” of Dickens' works.

Part XXVII: Front—4 pp., numbered 117-120. Back—Nil.

Part XXVIII: Front—4 pp., numbered 121-124. Back—Nil.

Part XXIX: Front—4 pp., numbered 125-128. Back—Nil.

Part XXX: Front—4 pp., numbered 129-132. Back—Nil.

Part XXXI: Front—4 pp., numbered 133-136. Back—Nil.

Part XXXII: Front—4 pp., numbered 137-140; inset slip of lilac paper announcing the completion of The Last Chronicle of Barset in 2 volumes at 20s. Back—Nil. [Note—This part contains title-page, contents and list of illustrations (in all 4 pp.) to Vol. II.]

1867

THE CLAVERINGS. By Anthony Trollope. With 16 illustrations by M. Ellen Edwards. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXVII. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 313 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (315) and (316).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 309 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (311) and (312).

No half-titles. Each volume contains eight illustrations printed separately. Bright green cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale chocolate end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published on April 20, 1867. The story appeared serially in the “Cornhill.”

(ii) There are two varieties of binding to this book. It is an open question whether the simpler design with no black on the sides is earlier or later than that which is more elaborate.

1867

LOTTA SCHMIDT: AND OTHER STORIES. By Anthony Trollope. Alexander Strahan, Publisher, 56 Ludgate Hill, London. 1867. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾). Pp. (iv) + 403 + (1). Dark red cloth, gilt. Green-black end-papers.

There is no list of contents. Titles are as follow: Lotta Schmidt—The Adventures of Fred Pickering—The Two Generals—Father Giles of Ballymoy—Malachi's Cove—The Widow's Mite—The Last Austrian who Left Venice—Miss Ophelia Gledd—The Journey to Panama.

Note—This book was published in August, 1867. The original sheets were reissued in 1870, without indication of there having been an earlier edition. The reissue is cr. 8vo in size, pp. (vi) + 425 + (1), bears the imprint “Strahan and Co.,” and is bound in pale maroon cloth. Later still copies, taken over in sheets by Chapman and Hall and also dated 1870, were issued in bright green cloth, with chocolate end-papers, printed with Chapman and Hall advertisements.

1868

LINDA TRESSEL. By the author of Nina Balatka. Wm. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. MDCCCLXVIII. 2 vols. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾).

Vol. I. pp. 216.

Vol. II. pp. 215 + (1).

The words: “Originally published in 'Blackwood's Magazine'” occupy verso of half-title in each volume. Red-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Chocolate end-papers. Uniform with Nina Balatka.

Note—This book was published in May, 1868.

1869

PHINEAS FINN, THE IRISH MEMBER. By Anthony Trollope. With 20 illustrations by J. E. Millais, R.A. London: Virtue and Co., 26 Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row. 1869. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾).

Vol. I. pp. vi + (ii) + 320.

Vol. II. pp. vi + (ii) + 328.

No half-titles. Ten illustrations in each volume printed separately. Bright green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers. It may be noted that the author's name is not given on the spine of this book.

Note—This book was published in March, 1869. The same novel still in two volumes and at the same price (25s. net) was advertised in May, 1869, by Strahan and Co., who were at the time closely identified with Virtue and Co. Copies with a Strahan imprint, if such exist, are not of the first issue. The story appeared serially in “St. Paul's Magazine.”

1869

HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT. By Anthony Trollope. With 64 illustrations by Marcus Stone. Strahan and Co., Publishers, 56 Ludgate Hill, London. 1869. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8⅝).

Vol. I. pp. ix + (iii) + 384.

Vol. II. pp. ix + (iii) + 384.

Each volume contains sixteen illustrations printed separately and sixteen line drawings in the text. Green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

This story first appeared in thirty-two demy 8vo sixpenny weekly parts, dated October 17 (1868) to May 22 (1869), bound in green-grey paper wrappers, printed in red and black. Each part contains a full-page line-engraved illustration by Marcus Stone, printed separately, and one small drawing in the text. Each part, as well as the title-page, etc., included in Part XXXII. bears the imprint of Virtue and Co., but the novel, when issued in book form, appeared over the imprint of Strahan and Co.

Notes—(i) Four weeks after the appearance of Part I. (early in November, 1869) a parallel series of two-shilling monthly parts was inaugurated, of which the first, containing the first four weekly parts, was immediately issued, and the remainder at regular intervals. The earliest part issue was therefore the weekly one. Margaret Lavington in her Trollope bibliography, states that the first four parts were wrappered in one. This observation was probably made from an examination of a made-up set of parts composed, as to the first four, of the second issue and, as to the remainder, of the first (see above).

(ii) The story appeared in two-volume form in May, 1869.

HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT: Part Issue.

The following advertisement pages, etc., should be found in a complete set. Advertisements at the front of each part are printed on greenish blue paper except where otherwise stated. All wrappers except front covers are printed with advertisements.

Part I: Front—6 pp. Back—4 pp.

Parts II to XXIX: Front—4 pp. Back—Nil.

Part XXX: Front—Inset slip of orange paper announcing the serialization in “S. Paul's” of The Three Brothers, by Mrs. Oliphant. Back—Nil.

Part XXXI: Front— Nil. Back—Nil.

Part XXXII: Front—Nil. Back— Nil. [Note— This part contains half-title, titles, contents and lists of illustrations (in all 24 pp.) to both volumes of the novel.]

1869

[*]DID HE STEAL IT? A Comedy in three Acts. By Anthony Trollope. Printed for private circulation. 1869.

Note—This is a dramatization of an episode in The Last Chronicle of Barset, which Trollope prepared by special request, only to have the play rejected by the commissioning manager.

1870

THE VICAR OF BULLHAMPTON. By Anthony Trollope. With 30 illustrations by H. Woods. London: Bradbury, Evans and Co., Bouverie Street. 1870. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾). Pp. xvi + 481 + (11). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (483) to (492). Brown cloth, blocked in gold and black. Grey end-papers.

This story originally appeared in 11/12 demy 8vo monthly parts, dated July 18, 1869, to May 18, 1870. Parts I. to X. cost one shilling, and the last double part (XI./XII.) half-a-crown. The parts are bound in blue-grey paper wrappers, with a design in red and black, and contain the illustrations afterwards included in the one-volume edition. Parts I. to X. each contain two full-page illustrations; Part XI./XII. contains four, of which one is a picture title-page.

Note—The novel was published in volume form in April, 1870.

THE VICAR OF BULLHAMPTON: Part Issue.

The following advertisement pages, etc., should be found in a complete set. The advertisements at the front of Parts I. to III. are headed “The Vicar of Bullhampton Advertiser.” All wrappers, except front covers, are printed with advertisements.

Part I: Front—12 pp., dated July, 1869. Back—4 pp., printed in colours and unnumbered.

Part II: Front—4 pp., dated August, 1869. Back—Nil.

Part III: Front—4 pp., dated September, 1869. Back—Nil.

Parts IV to X inclusive contain no advertisement pages.

Part XI (double number): Front (or back)—10 pp., publishers' advertisements, unnumbered and undated. [Note—This part contains half-title, title, preface, contents, list of illustrations and frontispiece to the complete novel. This preliminary matter is paged (i)-xvi, despite the fact that frontispiece and title-page (4 pp.) are printed separately.]

1870

AN EDITOR'S TALES. By Anthony Trollope. Strahan and Co., Publishers, 56 Ludgate Hill, London. 1870. 1 vol. Sq. Ex. Cr. 8vo (5⅛ × 7¾). Pp. (viii) + 375 + (1). Publishers' advertisement occupies p. (376). Brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Chocolate end-papers.

Contents: The Turkish Bath—Mary Gresley—Josephine de Montmorenci—The Panjandrum—The Spotted Dog—Mrs. Brumby.

Note—This book was published in July, 1870. The stories had appeared in “St. Paul's Magazine.”

1870

THE STRUGGLES OF BROWN, JONES AND ROBINSON: BY ONE OF THE FIRM. Edited by Anthony Trollope, author of Framley Parsonage, The Last Chronicle of Barset etc. etc. Reprinted from the “Cornhill Magazine.” With four illustrations. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 15 Waterloo Place. 1870. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½). Pp. iv + 254 + (2). Advertisements of works by the same author occupy pp. (255) and (256). No half-title. Frontispiece and illustrated title-page, in line engraving and printed separately, precede the printed title. Brown cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in November, 1870. The story had appeared serially in the “Cornhill” in the years 1861 and 1862. Its unpopularity as a serial accounts for the delay in its book publication.

1870

THE COMMENTARIES OF CÆSAR. By Anthony Trollope. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. MDCCCLXX. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. (x) [paged as vi] + 182. Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (i) to (iv), and a list of volumes in the Series “Ancient Classics for English Readers” occupies p. (vi), facing title-page. Brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Chocolate end-papers.

1871

SIR HARRY HOTSPUR OF HUMBLETHWAITE. By Anthony Trollope, author of Framley Parsonage etc. London: Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, 13 Great Marlborough Street. 1871. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. vii + (1) + 323 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., undated but paged, bound in at end. Scarlet cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Black end-papers.

Note—Although dated 1871, this book was actually published in November, 1870. The story appeared serially in “Macmillan's Magazine.”

1871

RALPH THE HEIR. By Anthony Trollope, author of Framley Parsonage, Sir Harry Hotspur etc., etc. London: Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, 13 Great Marlborough Street. 1871. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜).

Vol I. pp. (iv) + 342. Advertisement of Sir Harry Hotspur occupies p. (ii) facing title.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 338.

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 347 + (1).

Publishers' advertisements, 16 pp., printed on text paper and paged, bound in at end. Brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Blue-black end-papers.

This story originally appeared in parts, which were issued as supplements to “St. Paul's Magazine.” The instalments were paged continuously, but separately from the rest of the magazine.

Parts I. to XI. were enclosed in fawn paper wrappers printed in black and red and dated January, 1870, to November, 1870. Parts XII. to XVIII. were not wrappered at all, but merely stitched in at the end of the numbers of the magazine with their own pagination. The series contained eleven full-page line-engraved illustrations by F. A. Fraser, the last of which appeared in Part XI.

Apart from that printed on the back wrappers of Parts I. to XI., no advertisement material was included with the part issue. Title-page and contents (4 pp.) for the one-volume edition were supplied with the eighteenth and last instalment.

Although the real first book edition of the novel (published in April, 1870) was in three volumes cr. 8vo. as described above, the type and illustrations of the “St. Paul's” issue were used in a one-volume demy 8vo (5⅝ × 7⅞) edition (pp. iv + 434—no half-title or list of illustrations) issued by Strahan and Co. in 1871, after the story's serial completion. This one-volume edition is bound in green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind, and has dark yellow or terra-cotta end-papers.

Note—The three-volume edition was published on April 6, 1871. I have failed to establish the exact publishing date of the one-volume edition, but it was in June or July of the same year. Oddly enough the later issue is rarer than the earlier, for the sheets were quickly taken over by Routledge and issued in a different binding in 1872.

1872

THE GOLDEN LION OF GRANPERE. By Anthony Trollope, author of Ralph the Heir, Can you Forgive Her? etc. London: Tinsley Bros., 18 Catherine Street, Strand. 1872. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (5⅛ × 7¾). Pp. (iv) + 353 + (9). Publishers' advertisements, paged 1 to 6 and dated May, 1872, occupy pp. 355 to 363. Red-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pale yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in May, 1872. The story appeared serially in “Good Words.” It had been written in 1867 for “Blackwood's,” but had proved unacceptable.

(ii) Copies are sometimes found in dark brown cloth, lettered and blocked less heavily and with lighter boards. These are probably later in issue.

1873

THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1873. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7¼).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 354.

Vol. II. pp. viii + 363 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. viii + 354.

Brown salmon cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Yellow end-papers.

Note—Although dated 1873, this book was actually published in December, 1872. The story appeared serially in the “Fortnightly Review.”

1873

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1873. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8½).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) [paged as vi] + 533 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 516.

Vol. I. contains a coloured map as frontispiece printed on text paper, and two folding coloured maps mounted on linen at end. Vol. II. contains folding coloured map mounted on linen facing p. 1; four folding coloured maps mounted on linen at end. Orange brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Dark green end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in March, 1873.

(ii) The text was later split up and issued in four small volumes, each dealing with a definite province or provinces of Australia and New Zealand. These little books have no importance as “editions,” for they contain no matter not include in the original two-volume issue.

1874

PHINEAS REDUX. By Anthony Trollope, author of Phineas Finn. With illustrations engraved on wood. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1874. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8⅛).

Vol. I. pp. vi + (ii) + 339 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. vi + (ii) + 329 + (3).

Each volume contains twelve illustrations printed separately. Blue cloth, gilt, blocked in black and gold. Yellow end-papers.

Note—Although dated 1874, this book was actually published in December, 1873. The story appeared serially in “The Graphic.”

1874

LADY ANNA. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1874. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7¼).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 317 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. viii + 314.

Red-brown cloth, blocked in black and gold. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in May, 1874. The story appeared serially in the “Fortnightly Review.”

1874

HARRY HEATHCOTE OF GANGOIL: A Tale of Australian Bush Life. By Anthony Trollope. London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Low and Searle, Crown Buildings, 188 Fleet Street. 1874. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. (iv) + 313 + (3). Publishers' catalogue, 48 pp., dated October, 1873, bound in at end. No half-title. Bright blue cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Cream end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in October, 1874. The story appeared serially in “The Graphic.”

(ii) The sheets of this edition were, in the year of publication, cut down and issued in a volume measuring 4½ × 6¾, together with six full-page line-engraved illustrations, printed separately. This later issue is bound in green or in violet cloth, blocked in gold and black, and contains at the end a 40 pp. publishers' catalogue dated October, 1874.

1875

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW. By Anthony Trollope. With forty illustrations. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1875. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8½).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 320.

Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 319 + (1).

Each volume contains twenty illustrations printed separately. Bright green cloth, blocked in gold and black. Dark brown end-papers.

This story originally appeared in twenty one-shilling demy 8vo parts, dated February, 1874, to September, 1875, bound in greenish-blue wrappers printed in black and containing the illustrations afterwards included in the two-volume edition. Each part contains two full-page illustrations.

Note—The novel appeared in book form in July, 1875.

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: Part Issue.

The following advertisement pages, etc., should be found in a complete set. The advertisements at the front of each number are headed: “The Way We Live Now Advertiser.” All wrappers, except front covers, are printed with advertisements.

Part I: Front—8 pp. Back—16 pp., paged in fours, of which the last eight publishers' lists.

Parts II to VIII: Front—4 pp. Back—Nil.

Part IX: Front—4 pp. Back—4 pp.

Parts X to XV: Front—4 pp. Back—Nil.

Part XVI: Front—4 pp. Back—Publishers' catalogue, 20 pp., dated April 10, 1875.

Parts XVII to XIX: Front—4 pp. Back—Nil.

Part XX: Front—4 pp. Back—Nil. [Note—This part contains half-titles, titles, contents and lists of illustrations (in all 16 pp.) to both volumes of the novel.]

1876

THE PRIME MINISTER. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1876. 4 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) [paged as vi] + 337 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. iv + 342.

Vol. III. pp. (iv) [paged as vi] + 346.

Vol. IV. pp. (iv) [paged as vi] + 347 + (1).

No half-titles. Red-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Cream end-papers.

This story originally appeared in eight cr. 8vo five-shilling parts, dated 1876 (no title-pages in Parts I., III., V., and VII.), bound in grey paper wrappers, printed in black. Part I. appeared in November, 1875, and subsequent numbers at intervals of one month.

Notes—(i) The novel was published in volume form in May, 1876.

(ii) Sets of the parts are sometimes met with, bound separately in red-brown cloth and lettered on spine only with the title of the book and the number of the part. I cannot establish the relative dates of the regular four-volume cloth issue and of the eight clothbound parts.

THE PRIME MINISTER: Part Issue.

Apart from that printed on the wrappers, no advertisement material was included with the parts of this novel, save that at front of Part VI was inserted a 4 pp. leaflet (4 × 6⅜) of Chapman and Hall's Popular Two Shilling novels. Note should, however, be taken of the incidence of preliminary matter.

Part I: (iv) + 1-162. The preliminary matter consists of: Section half-title, reading: PART I., Vol. I. Verso blank. Title, reading: The Prime Minister. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly. 1876. Verso blank. No list of contents.

Part II: (ii) + 163-337 + (1). Preliminary matter: Section half-title: PART II., Vol. I. Verso blank.

Part III: (vi) [paged as iv] + 1-170. Preliminary matter consists of: Section half-title, reading: PART III., Vol. II. Verso blank. Title, as in Part I. Verso blank. Contents of Vol. II. (2 pp.).

Part IV: (iv) + 171-342. Preliminary matter: 2 pp. blank. Section half-title: PART IV., Vol. II. Verso blank.

Part V: vi + 1-174. Preliminary matter consists of: Section half-title, reading: PART V., Vol. III. Verso blank. Title, as in Parts I. and III. Verso blank. Contents of Vol. III. (2 pp.).

Part VI: (iv) + 175-346. Preliminary matter: 2 pp. blank. Section half-title: PART VI. Verso blank.

Part VII: vi + 1-168. Preliminary matter consists of: Section half-title reading: PART VII., Vol. IV. Verso blank. Title, as in Parts I., III., and V. Verso blank. Contents of Vol. IV. (2 pp.).

Part VIII: (ii) + 169-347 + (1). Preliminary matter. Section half-title: PART VIII. Verso blank.

It is evident, from a comparison between the foregoing details and the collation of the four-volume edition previously described, that the publishers were compelled, to complete the latter, to print a contents list to Vol. 1. and to add the words “In four volumes, Vol. 1.,” etc., to the title-pages. It will be seen that they had so mismanaged the pagination of the preliminary matter during part issue, that only one of the four final volumes was correctly paged throughout.

1877

THE AMERICAN SENATOR. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1877. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 293 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. viii + 293 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. viii + 284.

Yellow-ochre cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in July, 1877. The story appeared serially in the “Temple Bar Magazine.”

(ii) There is a remainder binding for this book, but the blocking is lighter and the sheets are cut to a smaller size.

1878

SOUTH AFRICA. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1878. 2 vols. Sq. Ex. Cr. 8vo (5¼ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (1) + 352.

Vol. II. pp. vii + (1) + 352.

Folding map in colours faces p. 1 of Vol. I. Red cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Black end-papers.

Note—This book was published in March, 1878.

1878

IS HE POPENJOY?: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1878. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 301 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (303) and (304).

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 297 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (299) and (300).

Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 319 + (1).

Red-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in April, 1878. The story appeared serially in “All the Year Round.”

1878

HOW THE 'MASTIFFS' WENT TO ICELAND. By Anthony Trollope. With illustrations by Mrs. Hugh Blackburn. London: Virtue and Co. Limited. 1878. 1 vol. Demy 4to (8⅝ × 11⅛). Pp. (vi) + 46. Bright blue cloth, blocked in gold. Dark grey end-papers. Coloured map as frontispiece in lithography; fourteen pencil drawings in lithography, and two silver print photographs, mounted, throughout the text. All illustrations printed separately.

1879

AN EYE FOR AN EYE. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1879. 2 vols. Small Cr. 8vo (4⅝ × 7⅛).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) [paged as vi] + 215 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated December, 1878, printed on text paper, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. (viii) [paged as vi] + 288.

Greenish-ochre cloth, blocked in gold and black. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in January, 1879. It was, however, written in 1871.

1879

THACKERAY. By Anthony Trollope. London: Macmillan and Co. 1879. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. vi + (ii) + 210 + (2). List of volumes in the “English Men of Letters” Series occupies pp. (211) and (212). A volume in the “English Men of Letters” Series edited by John Morley. Buff cloth, paper label. White end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in May, 1879.

(ii) The first issue was bound as described above. Later issues of the first edition sheets were bound in scarlet or in yellow-ochre cloth, blocked in black with the Series design, and had black end-papers. These later copies were slightly cut, the pages measuring 4⅞ × 7⅛.

1879

JOHN CALDIGATE. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall. 193 Piccadilly. 1879. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 290.

Vol. II. pp. vi + 296.

Vol. III. pp. vi + 302 + (2).

Grey cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in June, 1879. The story appeared serially in “Blackwood's Magazine.”

(ii) There are two varieties in the lettering and blocking of the volumes of this novel. In one the words “Vol. I.,” “Vol. II.,” “Vol. III.” on the spines of the volumes are in thicker roman capitals than in the other. There are also slight differences of decorative blocking. Which style is the earlier I do not know.

1879

COUSIN HENRY: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1879. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅝ × 7⅛).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 219 + (5). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (221) to (223).

Vol. II. pp. viii + 222 + (2).

Light blue cloth, blocked uniform with “An Eye for An Eye” in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in November, 1879.

1880

THE DUKE'S CHILDREN: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall, Limited 193 Piccadilly. 1880. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 320.

Vol. II. pp. viii + 327 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. viii + 312.

Publishers' catalogue, 24 pp., undated but paged, bound in at end. Dark blue-green cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pink-cream end-papers.

Note—This book was published in May, 1880.

1880

THE LIFE OF CICERO. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall Limited 193 Piccadilly. 1880. 2 vols. Sq. Ex. Cr. 8vo (5⅛ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 419 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 424 + (1).

Dark red cloth, gilt. Black end-papers.

1881

DOCTOR WORTLE'S SCHOOL: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chapman and Hall Limited, 193 Piccadilly. 1881. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¼).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) [paged as vi] + 237 + (3).

Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 246 + (2).

Publishers' catalogue, 28 pp., dated November, 1880, printed on text paper, bound in at end. Grey cloth, blocked in gold and black. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This novel was published in February, 1881.

1881

AYALA'S ANGEL. By Anthony Trollope, author of Doctor Thorne, The Prime Minister, Orley Farm etc. etc. London: Chapman and Hall (Limited) 11 Henrietta Street Covent Garden. 1881. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 280.

Vol. II. pp. iv + 272.

Vol. III. pp. iv + 277 + (3).

No half-titles. Orange cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Blue-black end-papers.

Note—This novel was published in June, 1881.

1882

WHY FRAU FROHMANN RAISED HER PRICES: AND OTHER STORIES. By Anthony Trollope, author of Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington etc. etc. London: William Isbister Limited 56 Ludgate Hill. 1882. 1 vol. Large Cr. 8vo (5¼ × 7¾). Pp. vi + (ii) + 416. Pale olive-green cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Dark chocolate end-papers.

Contents: Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices—The Lady of Launay—Christmas at Thompson Hall—The Telegraph Girl—Alice Dugdale.

Notes—(i) Copies of this book were also issued in two volumes, but with the same pagination and composed of the same sheets as the more usual one-volume issue. A new edition, with a frontispiece, was issued in November, 1882.

(ii) In 1885, under the title Thompson Hall, the third story in this volume was issued separately by Messrs. Sampson Low. In some quarters the little book is regarded as a first edition and highly valued accordingly, but in truth it is not bibliographically an item of any importance, being a textual reprint of Christmas at Thompson Hall, under a slightly different title and with the addition of a few second-rate illustrations. For the benefit of those interested, the description and collation of the book is as follows:

THOMPSON HALL. By Anthony Trollope, author of The Prime Minister, Orley Farm etc. etc. With illustrations. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington. Crown Buildings, 188 Fleet Street. 1885. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7). Pp. 127 + (1). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (iv) and (128). Eight line-engraved illustrations printed on text paper. Grey paper boards, printed in dark blue and brown. White end-papers.

1882

LORD PALMERSTON (English Political Leaders). By Anthony Trollope. London: Wm. Isbister Limited 56 Ludgate Hill, 1882. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¼). Pp. (iv) + 220. No half-title. Smooth red-brown cloth, lettered in black. Black end-papers.

Note—This book was reissued the following year with title-page dated 1883 but without any indication of there having been a previous edition. The later issue is bound in grained cloth of the same colour as that originally used and has white end-papers.

1882

KEPT IN THE DARK: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope. With a frontispiece by J. E. Millais R.A. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1882. 2 vols. Short Cr. 8vo (5 × 7).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 253 + (3).

Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 239 + (1).

Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated July, 1882, bound in at end. Grey-green cloth, gilt, blocked in black and red-brown. Blue and white decorated end-papers. Line-engraved frontispiece to Vol. I. printed separately.

Note—This book was published in October, 1882.

1882

MARION FAY: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope, author of Framley Parsonage, Orley Farm, The Way We Live Now etc. etc. London: Chapman and Hall Limited, 11 Henrietta Street. 1882. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 303 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. viii + 282 + (2).

Vol. III. pp. viii + 271 + (1).

Yellow-ochre cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Dark brown or yellow end-papers.

1882

THE FIXED PERIOD: A Novel. By Anthony Trollope. Wm. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, MDCCCLXXXII. 2 vols. Small Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7).

Vol. I. pp. (vi) + 200.

Vol. II. pp. (vi) + 203 + (1).

The words “Originally published in 'Blackwood's Magazine'” occupy verso of half-title in each volume. Dark red cloth, gilt. Dark green end-papers.

1883

MR. SCARBOROUGH'S FAMILY. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1883. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¼).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 308. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated March, 1883, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 326 + (2).

Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 325 + (3).

Greenish-blue cloth, gilt, blocked in red-brown. White end-papers.

Note—This novel was published in May, 1883. The story appeared serially in “All the Year Round.”

1883

THE LANDLEAGUERS. By Anthony Trollope. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly. 1883. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¼).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (iii) + 280. Note by Henry M. Trollope occupies p. (ix).

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 296.

Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 291 + (1).

Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated October, 1883, bound in at end. Dark green cloth, gilt, blocked in yellow. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in October, 1883.

1883

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. By Anthony Trollope. Wm. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. MDCCCLXXXIII. 2 vols. Sq. Ex. Cr. 8vo (5⅛ × 7⅝).

Vol. I. pp. xi + (iii) + 259 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. vi + 227 + (5). Publishers' advertisements paged 1 to 4 occupy pp. (229) to (232).

Publishers' catalogue, 24 pp., undated but paged and printed on text paper, bound in at end. Portrait in photogravure as frontispiece to Vol. I. Dark red cloth, gilt, blocked and lettered on side in black. Dark green end-papers.

Note—This book was published in November, 1883.

1884

AN OLD MAN'S LOVE. By Anthony Trollope. Wm. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. MDCCCLXXXIV. 2 vols. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 226.

Vol. II. pp. (vi) + 219 + (1).

Publishers' advertisements, 4 pp., numbered 1-4, and printed on text paper, bound in at end. Red cloth, gilt, uniform with The Fixed Period. Dark brown end-papers.

II.—BOOKS PARTIALLY WRITTEN BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE

1861

THE VICTORIA REGIA: A Volume of Original Contributions in Poetry and Prose. Edited by Adelaide A. Procter. London: Printed and Published by Emily Faithfull and Co., Victoria Press (for the Employment of Women), Great Coram Street, W.C. 1861. 1 vol. Royal 8vo (6¼ × 9⅜). Pp. x + 349 + (1). No half-title. Red-brown embossed cloth, all edges gilt, blocked in gold and blind. Red chocolate end-papers.

1863

A WELCOME: Original Contributions in Poetry and Prose. London: Emily Faithfull, Printer and Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty, Princes Street, Hanover Square, and 183A Farringdon Street. 1863. 1 vol. Imp. 16mo (5½ × 7¾). Pp. vi + (ii) + 291 + (1). Green cloth, full gilt, blocked in gold. Pale pink end-papers. A story by Anthony Trollope entitled Miss Ophelia Gledd occupies pp. 239 to 283. This is the first appearance of a story later included in Lotta Schmidt and other Stories.

NOTE.--Pp. 187 to 214 are occupied by a story by Anthony Trollope entitled The Journey to Panama. This is the first appearance in book form of a tale afterwards published in Lotta Schmidt and other Stories.

1868

BRITISH SPORTS AND PASTIMES 1868. Edited by Anthony Trollope. London: Virtue and Co., 26 Ivy Lane. New York: Virtue and Yorston. 1868. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. (vi) + 322. Bright green embossed cloth, gilt, with title printed both on spine and side. Pale yellow end-papers.

Contents: On Horse-Racing—On Hunting—On Shooting—On Fishing—On Yachting—On Rowing—On Alpine Climbing—On Cricket. Trollope was responsible for the preface (pp. 1-7) and the Essay “On Hunting” (pp. 70-129).

Notes—(i) This book was published in November, 1868. The contents had appeared in “St. Paul's Magazine.”

(ii) The sheets of the first edition were later issued without change of date in a slightly different green binding, without the title in gold on the side, and bearing as imprint on spine, Daldy, Isbister and Co. The reissue was cut down to cr. 8vo, and the end-papers were chocolate instead of yellow.

(iii) A still later issue of the book in its reduced format was bound in bright blue cloth, blocked in gold and black. This binding bears no imprint on spine, and was probably carried out by W. H. Smith and Son for a balance of edition purchased by them. George Eliot's novel Felix Holt was treated in this way by Smiths some twelve years after publication, and the binding is very similar to that now under consideration.

NOTE

It is stated by Margaret Lavington in her appendix to Escott's book that Trollope “printed but never published” several of his lectures. I have been unable to trace any privately printed lectures, but feel sure that Trollope's first bibliographer would not speak of them as she does without certain knowledge of their existence. The titles mentioned are:

The Civil Service as a Profession,

The War in America,

English Prose Fiction as a National Amusement,

The Higher Education of Women.

No dates or other details are given.

From the same source I borrow a statement that a study of Thackeray by Trollope, originally printed in the “Cornhill,” was republished as part of Theodore Taylor's book Thackeray: The Humourist and Man of Letters, which was issued in 1864. It is noticeable that Margaret Lavington speaks of the publisher of this book as Appleton of New York. A book of the same title by the same author was issued in the same year by Hotten of Piccadilly, and it is a fair presumption that the volumes are identical, but, although I have been carefully through the volume issued by Hotten, I cannot identify any section as contributed by Trollope.

FREDERICK MARRYAT
1792-1849

FREDERICK MARRYAT

The reputation of Captain Marryat has suffered at the hands of time somewhat differently from that of many of his contemporaries. Superficially he has fared better than they, for, if little read except by boys, he is at least acknowledged as a classic, and there are few adult novel readers who could not from their own childhood gather sufficient memories to characterize in summary some of his best known books.

Nevertheless, it is arguable that the forgotten author is happier than he who is accepted but unread. A revival of interest in the books of a man not already docketed and filed in the appreciation of his age may develop a new perspective. The body of his work may be exhumed and permanently lodged in its proper niche of the catacombs of literature. More hardly shall this befall such a one as Marryat, who is “placed” already as a writer of sea stories for boys and as an instructor in adventure for young people.

Who shall deny that he is all of this? His fame as a novelist of naval escapade, of risk and makeshift among pirates and barbarians, is fame deserved. The difficulty for one concerned to reappraise his work lies in the fact that there is more to him than is here implied. He is the only writer in the tradition of Fielding and Smollett who can claim consideration on the same plane as these famous authors. That he is overtopped by Tom Jones no one will dispute, but that he ranks with and not after Smollett is a contention that permits of argument.

The first result of an attempt to classify the books of Captain Marryat is a realization that two of his finest works are—the one wholly, the other mainly—unconcerned with ships or seafarers. Japhet in Search of a Father (1836) is a picturesque tale of vagabondage and social escapade. The Pacha of Many Tales (1835) is an adaptation of “The Arabian Nights,” a series of narratives held together by a framework of Oriental despotism.

Japhet is partnered by two later novels—Joseph Rushbrook; or, The Poacher (1841) and Valerie (1849). All three are land as opposed to sea novels, and the first two show the fertile invention of the author, his power of describing rogues and fashionable grotesques. But whereas Japhet is the best book Marryat ever wrote, The Poacher is a little weary, for it dates from the last period of the writer's life, when ill-health and money troubles were pressing hardly on a man already exhausted by a reckless youth; while Valerie, the autobiography of a French girl cast on her own resources in Paris and in London, had better have been left, as Marryat left it, a fragment cut short by sickness and by death.

The Pacha of Many Tales stands quite alone and stands proudly. Marryat's humour is in this book congenial to the modern reader, while of fantastic happening few works of fiction can show so rich a store. It is hard to understand why this admirable parody of the “Thousand and One Nights” is to-day so little read. Perhaps some enterprising publisher will extract the story of Huckaback and issue it, grotesquely illustrated. It should find its market.

The sea stories proper need little comment. They are eleven in number:

The Naval Officer; or, Frank Mildmay (1829),

The King's Own (1830),

Newton Forster; or, The Merchant Service (1832),

Peter Simple (1834),

Jacob Faithful (1834),

Mr. Midshipman Easy (1836),

The Pirate. The Three Cutters (1836),

Poor Jack (1840),

Percival Keene (1842),

The Privateer's-Man (1846).

The first of these titles is pure autobiography and, as the author himself admitted, lacks most of the essentials of fiction. The story is of the slightest and most perfunctory, the book being little more than an account of Marryat's own early adventures at sea. David Hannay, in his excellent little Life of Marryat, remarks acutely on the peculiar meanness of the hero's character—a meanness that makes an even more repellant appearance in the last but one of the sea stories—Percival Keene. Seeing that Marryat was writing of himself and that the events in the life of Frank Mildmay must have been easily recognizable by naval contemporaries, it is remarkable that he should present his central figure so unsympathetically, unless he failed to realize the young man's shortcomings. Perhaps in part he saw his mistake, for in the five novels that followed The Naval Officer he offers the reader more respectable but more colourless heroes. When the time came for writing Percival Keene, either he had forgotten the warnings of twelve years before or else he was tired of erecting dummy humanity to placate the idealism of his readers.

The constructional weakness of The Naval Officer Marryat took pains to correct in his succeeding books. Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful and the rest may depend for their vitality and attraction on the excitements encountered by their heroes while voyaging the seas or fighting in the wars. Certainly the by-plots are unimportant and conventional. But the author was careful in them all to give to the course of the heroes' adventures a real prominence and coherence, so that we read with an anxiety to know what happens next and are not, as in The Naval Officer, continually brought up by naval “shop” or invited to feel indignant sympathy with the members of a noble but scurvily treated service.

The Pirate and The Privateer's-Man are exciting tales of ocean brigandage, the latter having in addition an antiquarian interest, for the first portion of the story is based on the actual life-record of an old time sea-rover. Poor Jack, although told in the first person and comprising scenes on shipboard and adventurous happenings at sea of a kind to suggest comparison with Mr. Midshipman Easy, has an historical interest apart from its value as fiction, because it is an account of Greenwich Hospital, in those days a retreat for wounded seamen.

Two groups remain among the stories of Frederick Marryat. Snarleyow (1837) and The Phantom Ship (1839) stand definitely apart from the rest of the novels. Both tell of Dutch seafaring in the old days and both introduce a strong element of the weird and the mysterious. That Marryat should in these books have come under the influence of the “terror” motive in fiction is surprising and interesting. After reading Japhet or Mr. Midshipman Easy one would declare that nothing was farther from the talent of their author than an excursion into the “horrid.” And yet both Snarleyow and The Phantom Ship are excellent books, which rank high among Marryat's novels for liveliness and for characterization and, in addition, merit notice for their fearsomeness. Of their value as historical documents I am unqualified to speak, but it may be presumed that before writing them the author studied the lives and methods of seventeenth and eighteenth century Dutch mariners, for both books are circumstantially staged and show no desire to shirk description of contemporary fact.

Of the stories written definitely for children the best known (and rightly) is Masterman Ready (1841-1842). It was followed by The Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet (1843); The Settlers in Canada (1844); The Mission; or, Scenes in Africa (1845); The Children of the New Forest (1847); and The Little Savage (1848-1849).

Monsieur Violet is an improbable and tedious tale of Red Indians and Mormons. The rest—with the exception of The Children of the New Forest, which is a story of Cavaliers and Roundheads—tell in one form or another the eternal tale of young adventurers in wild countries.

Marryat loved children and knew how to tell stories that they could like and understand. This to-day is undisputed. But that he is equally a novelist for the critical sorely needs reaffirmation. His juvenile public has been more faithful to him than that of maturer years, and one can only hope that time will restore him to the affection of the adult. Masterman Ready is as fresh to-day as when, eighty years ago, it first appeared; but the freshness is due as much to Marryat as to his youthful admirers, and that same freshness is no less present in the best of his other books than it is in this children's classic. Let the modern novel reader have no fear. In taking up Japhet, or Peter Simple, or A Pacha of Many Tales, he will take up a fine book and good literature, and not merely a poker with which to rake among the ashes of his own vanished childhood.

BIOGRAPHY

Two books have appeared dealing with the life and work of Frederick Marryat:

LIFE AND LETTERS OF CAPTAIN MARRYAT. By Florence Marryat. 2 vols. London: Bentley, 1872.

Like so many loyal and affectionate biographers, Mrs. Ross Church is too casual a user of dates and too summary an adherent to chronology to allow to her book great reference value.

LIFE OF FREDERICK MARRYAT. By David Hannay. London: Walter Scott. 1889.

This is an admirable little book so far as the main text is concerned. Its bibliography, however, although valuable for the list given of biographical and critical articles devoted to Marryat, as well as for facts regarding subsequent editions of Marryat's works, is very unreliable as an authority on first editions.

I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPES
FICTION, ESSAYS, NAVAL TECHNICAL BOOKS

1817

A CODE OF SIGNALS FOR THE USE OF VESSELS EMPLOYED IN THE MERCHANT SERVICE. By Captain Marryat, R.N. Dedicated to the Committee of the Association of Shipowners of the Port of London. London: J. M. Richardson, 23 Cornhill. 1817. 1 vol. Royal 8vo (6⅛ × 9¾). No pagination, the book consisting wholly of tabulated code. Frontispiece, folding plate, and one full-page plate in colours. Paper boards, paper label on side only, printed in black. White end-papers.

Note—I have only been able to consult the sixth edition of this book as issued revised in 1837 and a seventh edition, further revised, as issued in 1840; but that it appeared originally in the same form and over the same imprint is proved by the retention in the later edition of the author's original prefatory letter, dedicating his work to the Association of Shipowners.

1822

SUGGESTION FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF IMPRESSMENT IN THE NAVAL SERVICE. By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Quotation.) London: Printed by W. Hughes, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. Published by J. M. Richardson, Cornhill and sold by all booksellers. 1822. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8¾). Pp. (iv) + 64. The half-title serves as front wrapper and bears the words “Price 2/6d.” No back wrapper, p. 64 being the outside back page of the pamphlet.

1829

THE NAVAL OFFICER: Or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay. (Quotation from Don Juan.) London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. 1829. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 297 + (3). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (299) (300).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 310 + (2). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (311) (312).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 270 + (2).

Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published on March 14, 1829.

1830

THE KING'S OWN. By the author of The Naval Officer. (Quotation from Shakespeare's Pericles.) London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1830. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 324. Note of erratum occupies verso of half-title.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 325 + (1). Note of errata occupies verso of half-title.

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 327 + (5). Note of errata occupies verso of half-title. Publishers' advertisements, paged (1), 2, 3, (4), occupy pp. (329) to (332).

Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published on April 15, 1830.

1832

NEWTON FORSTER: Or The Merchant Service. By the author of The King's Own. “Honesty is the best policy.” London: James Cochrane and Co., 11 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall. 1832. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 270 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (271) (272).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 295 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 260. Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (253) to (260).

Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—Although dated 1832, this book was actually published in December, 1831.

1834

PETER SIMPLE. By the author of Newton Forster, The King's Own etc. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. 1834. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 328. No half-title.

Vol. II. pp. viii + 343 + (1). Half-title to this volume.

Vol. III. pp. viii + 380 + (4). Publishers' advertisements dated November, 1833, occupy pp. (381) to (384). No half-title. Inserted in Vol. III. should be a list of errata.

Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Notes—(i) Although dated 1834, this book was actually published in December, 1833. The story ran serially in the “Metropolitan Magazine” from June, 1832, to December, 1833. Marryat edited this magazine from 1832 to 1836.

(ii) An edition of the book, illustrated by R. W. Buss, was published by Saunders and Otley, in 1837, in three volumes. Extra cr. 8vo. Dark green embossed cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.

1834

JACOB FAITHFUL. By the author of Peter Simple, The King's Own etc. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. 1834. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 304. Advertisement of Peter Simple occupies p. (ii). No half-title.

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 301 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (303) (304). No half-title.

Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 307 + (1). No half-title.

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in November or December, 1834. The story ran serially in the “Metropolitan Magazine” from September, 1833, to December, 1834.

(ii) An edition of the book, illustrated by R. W. Buss, was published by Saunders and Otley in 1837 in three volumes. Ex. cr. 8vo. Maroon embossed cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.

(iii) It was the intention of the publishers to bring out an illustrated edition of all Marryat's novels, one novel to appear each month, beginning on April 1, 1837; but only Jacob Faithful and Peter Simple were issued, and the series was abandoned, doubtless because in that year Marryat quarrelled with Saunders and Otley and found a different publisher.

1835

THE PACHA OF MANY TALES. By the author of Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful etc. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. 1835. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 308 + (4). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (309) to (312). Advertisement of books by the same author occupies p. (ii) facing title.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 300.

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 312.

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in May, 1835. The stories appeared intermittently in the “Metropolitan Magazine” between June, 1831, and May, 1835.

1836

THE PIRATE, AND THE THREE CUTTERS. By Captain Marryat, R.N. Illustrated with twenty splendid engravings from drawings by Clarkson Stanfield Esq., R.A. London: Published for the Proprietor by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman. 1836. Large Med. 8vo (5⅞ × 9⅛). Pp. (viii) + 315 + (1). The book contains twenty full-page illustrations in steel engraving, of which two—an engraved portrait frontispiece and picture title-page—precede printed title. Cream paper boards, gilt, lettered on spine in gold The Pirate by Capt^n. Marryat. Yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) Although dated 1836, this book was actually published in December, 1835.

(ii) Copies are more frequently met with in maroon cloth, blocked in gold and lettered on spine Marryats Pirate and the Three Cutters. This cloth binding (of which two styles at least are extant) is probably not so early in date as the paper-board binding described above. Definite information is impossible to obtain, but the evidence of similar illustrated books of the period (e.g., Lytton's Pilgrims of the Rhine) supports the theory here laid down.

(iii) A large paper edition, imperial 8vo (11 × 7½), was issued simultaneously, with plates printed on India paper and bound in green paper boards, half dark-green figured cloth, cream paper label, the last being lettered in gold: The Pirate by Capt^n. Marryat. White end-papers. Copies of the large paper edition also exist in maroon cloth, blocked in gold and blind and lettered on the spine: Marryats Pirate and the Three Cutters. As with the ordinary edition, these full cloth copies are of later issue than those in boards.

(iv) In all Longman's first editions the plates bear the following legend: 'Published Dec^r. 1, 1835 for the proprietor by Longman and Co., Paternoster Row.' The book was, however, never issued with a printed title of that year. That the actual plates were published prior to the Longman book edition is proved by the fact that I have myself a set, both before and after “letters,” bearing the legend: 'London. Published Oct^r. 1835 for the proprietor by Charles Tilt, 86 Fleet Street.' In every other respect, even down to the page references, the wording on these early dated plates is identical with that used for Longman's book edition.

(v) A curious feature of this book's publishing history is its issue in parts, nine years after its appearance in book form. In 1845 there appeared over the imprint A. Fullarton and Co., 106 Newgate Street, London; 67 Abbey street, Dublin; Steads Place, Leith Walk, and 5 Nicholson Street, Edinburgh, fifteen shilling parts (6 × 9½), bound in buff paper wrappers printed in red-brown, and illustrated with steel engravings after Clarkson Stanfield. These engravings are twenty in number and identical with those in the first book edition, except that the Longmans imprint has been substituted on the plates by that of Fullarton, and the printer's name and the date of issue have been expunged. The distribution of plates among the fifteen parts is as follows: Parts I. IV. VI. VIII. X. contain two plates each; Parts II. III. V. VII. IX. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. and XV. contain one plate each. Publishers' advertisements occupy outside back wrappers. No date appears on the parts, but a title-page (with other preliminary matter) enclosed in Part XV. is dated MDCCCXLV.

The text of the book was clearly reset for this part issue, so there can be no question of a refurbishing of Longman sheets. It may be noted that, according to the wrappers, the plates were “engraved under the superintendence of Mr. Charles Heath.” (This person was responsible for the principal Books of Beauty, Keepsakes, and similar gift publications issued in large numbers toward Christmas time between 1840 and 1850 and distinguished by their beautiful steel engravings.)

There being no indication that the plates were re-engraved for the Fullarton edition, it may be presumed either that Heath superintended their original production in 1835 but had not at that time the “selling name” that by 1845 was his, or that Fullarton, anxious to give to their reissue something of novelty, paid Heath for a supervisory activity of a nominal kind in order to have the use of his name on their wrappers.

1836

JAPHET IN SEARCH OF A FATHER. By the author of Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, etc. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. 1836. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 304. Advertisement of other works by same author occupies verso of half-title.

Vol. II. pp. viii + 299 + (1). No half-title.

Vol. III. pp. viii + 319 + (5). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (321) to (324). No half-title.

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published early in January, 1836. The story ran serially in the “Metropolitan Magazine” from October, 1834, to January, 1836.

1836

STORIES OF THE SEA. By Captain Marryat, R.N. author of Peter Simple, Japhet in Search of a Father etc. New York: Published by Harper and Brothers, No. 82 Cliff Street. 1836. 1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7¼). Pp. (236) [paged as 232 + (2)]. No printed half-title, but 2 pp. blank precede title and form part of the book, although omitted from page reckoning. Advertisement to the American edition, dated January, 1836, occupies p. (3). Figured maroon cloth, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book is the American edition of The Pirate and the Three Cutters. It also contains Marryat's story Moonshine, which originally appeared in The Keepsake and was not published in book form in England until its inclusion in Olla Podrida in 1840.

1836

MR. MIDSHIPMAN EASY. By the author of Japhet in Search of a Father, Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful etc. Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. 1836. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 291 +(1). Advertisement of author's previous works occupies verso of half-title.

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 306 + (2). Publishers' advertisement occupies verso of half-title, and 2 pp. publishers' advertisements, dated July, 1836, occupy pp. (307) (308).

Vol. III. pp. viii + 314 + (2). Publishers' advertisement occupies verso of half-title and pp. (315) (316).

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in September, 1836. One instalment was printed in the “Metropolitan Magazine” in July, 1836, but serialization was never completed.

1836

THE DIARY OF A BLASÉ. By the author of Jacob Faithful, Peter Simple etc. Philadelphia: E. L. Carey and A. Hart. 1836. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. 197 + (1). Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—I cannot establish the month of publication of this book, but twenty-eight chapters of a work entitled The Diary of a Blasé appeared serially in the “Metropolitan Magazine” to July, 1836, at which point the narrative was left incomplete. It made no separate appearance in book form in England, being included under the title Diary on the Continent in Olla Podrida (see below—1840).

1837

SNARLEYOW or The Dog Fiend. By the author of Peter Simple, Frank Mildmay etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13 Great Marlborough Street. 1837. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅞).

Vol I. pp. viii + 307 + (5). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (309) to (312).

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 299 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. viii + 307 + (1).

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in June, 1837. The story ran serially in the “Metropolitan Magazine” from February, 1836, to July, 1837. Marryat changed his publisher with this novel, because Saunders and Otley refused to pay an advance on royalties.

1839

THE PHANTOM SHIP. By Capt. Marryat, R.N. Author of Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, Frank Mildmay etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1839. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 300.

Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 289 + (1). No half-title.

Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 266. No half-title.

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in April, 1839. The story appeared serially in the “New Monthly Magazine” during 1837.

1839

A DIARY IN AMERICA: With Remarks on its Institutions. By Captain Marryat, C.B. Author of Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, Frank Mildmay etc. London: Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster Row. 1839. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 321 + (3).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 319 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 311 + (1). Note of errata to Vol. I. occupies p. (312) of Vol. III.

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. Also full green grained cloth, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in October, 1839.

1839

A DIARY IN AMERICA etc. Part Second. By Capt. Marryat, C.B. Printed for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster Row. 1839. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 304.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 293 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 362.

Vol. II. contains two folding maps, which precede p. 1. Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in December, 1839.

1840

POOR JACK. By Captain Marryat, C.B. With illustrations by Clarkson Stanfield, R.A. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster Row. 1840. 1 vol. Large Med. 8vo (5⅞ × ¼). Pp. x + 384. Because the volume is composed of bound-up parts, the half-title is p. 1 of the story itself and does not precede frontispiece. The book contains forty-seven wood engravings after Clarkson Stanfield, of which thirty-six printed separately and eleven in the text. Dark green cloth, blocked in gold. Yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published on December 1, 1840.

(ii) Poor Jack first appeared in twelve monthly shilling parts (5⅞ × 9), bound in buff paper wrappers, printed in black. The first was published at the beginning of January, and the last at the beginning of December, 1840. Each part (subject to the variations stated below) contained three full-page wood engravings after Clarkson Stanfield, printed separately. Eleven small engravings appear throughout the text.

Included in Part XII. were title-page and preliminary matter (x pp.).

Parts I. to III. were undated; Part IV. was dated April 1; and each succeeding part was dated similarly with the month of its appearance.

Part I. should contain at front or back publishers' catalogue, 8 pp., dated January 1, 1840, and entitled “Poor Jack's Advertising Sheet.” Also at back an illustrated advertisement of Paul Periwinkle.

Part II. should contain at front publishers' 4 pp. list, dated February, 1840, and a prospectus (8 pp., enclosed in buff wrappers) of McCulloch's Geographical, Statistical and Historical Dictionary.

Parts III. to XI. contained (so far as I can discover) no advertising matter apart from that printed on the wrappers themselves.

Part XII. should contain 2 pp. publishers' advertisements both at front and back, printed on the buff wrapper paper.

Notes on the Plates.

(i) No plates were issued with Part IX., but six instead of three with Part X. A slip should be found inserted in Part IX. calling attention to the arrangement. My own set shows a similar happening in the case of Parts VII. and VIII., but there is no sign of a slip having figured in the former to explain the absence of illustration.

(ii) In two cases there are variations in underline between part and book issue: (a) One of the plates included in Part XI. is entitled “The Euphrosyne in the Downs,” but this legend is omitted altogether in some copies of the book. (b) Included in Part XII. is a plate entitled “The Prize at Sheerness.” This underline reads in most copies of the book “The Prize in The Medway.” Collectors anxious to possess the actual first issue of the book—i.e., that bound up from actual parts—should examine these two points in copies they consider purchasing.

1840

OLLA PODRIDA. By the author of Peter Simple etc. etc. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster Row. 1840. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. vi + (ii) + 310.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 362 + (2).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 332.

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers. Also issued in ribbed maroon cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.

There is no contents list to Volume I. The complete contents are: Diary on the Continent—The Monk of Seville (a play)—S.W. and by W. ¾ W.—Ill-Will (a charade)—The Sky-Blue Domino—Modern Town Houses—The Way to be Happy—How to Write a Fashionable Novel—How to Write a Book of Travels—How to Write a Romance—The Legend of the Bell Rock—Moonshine.

Note—This book was published on December 1, 1840. Of the contents the “Diary on the Continent” appeared serially in the “Metropolitan Magazine” (see above, Diary of a Blasé, 1836), and the shorter pieces partly in the same journal, partly in the “New Monthly,” and one (“Moonshine”) in The Keepsake (see above, Stories of the Sea, 1836).

1841/2

MASTERMAN READY or The Wreck of the Pacific. Written for Young People. By Captain Marryat. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster Row. 1841 (Vol. I.), 1842 (Vols. II. and III.). 3 vols. in all. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 287 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., dated February, 1841, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 269 + (3). Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp. (maybe two catalogues each of 16 pp.), dated April, 1842, bound in at end or, in some cases, after first front end-paper.

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 225 + (3). Publishers' catalogue, 30 pp., dated October, 1842, bound in at end.

Each volume contains frontispiece (that to Vol. III. is a map) and several text illustrations, wood engraved and printed on text paper. Dark green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) Vol. I. was published in May, 1841; Vol. II. in April, 1842; and Vol. III. in December, 1842.

(ii) Because the book was first planned to occupy one volume only, there is no indication on Vol. I. of its being the first of a series. Vols. II. and III., however, are so described on title-page and on binding.

(iii) Vol. I. was catalogued on its publication as bound in “boards.” This indicates that copies were first issued with paper label and in half cloth, but I have never seen one so bound.

1841

JOSEPH RUSHBROOK: Or The Poacher. By the author of Peter Simple. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Co., Paternoster Row. 1841. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 275 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. viii + 293 + (3).

Vol. III. pp. viii + 269 + (7). Advertisements of works by the same author occupy pp. (270) to (276).

Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in June, 1841. The story appeared serially in “The Era.”

1842

PERCIVAL KEENE. By Captain Marryat, author of Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful etc. etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1842. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 293 + (3).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 279 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 315 + (1).

Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in August, 1842.

1843

NARRATIVE OF THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF MONSIEUR VIOLET IN CALIFORNIA, SONORA AND WESTERN TEXAS. Written by Captain Marryat, C.B. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster Row. 1843. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 312.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 318 + (2).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 299 + (1).

Folding map faces title-page of Vol. I. Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in October, 1843.

1844

THE SETTLERS IN CANADA: Written for Young People. By Captain Marryat. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster Row. 1844. 2 vols. Fcap. 8vo (4⅛ × 6¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 356. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., undated or dated September, 1844, or earlier, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 374 + (2).

Each volume contains frontispiece in wood engraving printed on text paper. Grey-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published on September 7, 1844. It is possible that the earliest issue contained an undated catalogue, but this can only be established by comparison between a larger number of copies of the book than I have contrived to examine, and a careful investigation of the books listed in any such undated catalogue.

(ii) I have seen an announcement of this book as in “boards,” but have never met with copies so bound.

1845

THE MISSION: Or Scenes in Africa. Written for Young People. By Captain Marryat. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. Paternoster Row. 1845. 2 vols. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾).

Vol. I. pp. (vi) + 328. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp. and undated, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 374 + (2).

Each volume contains frontispiece in wood engraving, printed on text paper. Vol. I. contains, following title and also on text paper, a map. Brown cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in June, 1845.

1846

THE PRIVATEER'S-MAN: One Hundred Years Ago. By Captain Marryat, R.N. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, Paternoster Row. 1846. 2 vols. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 379 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, dated July, 1846, or earlier, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 361 + (1).

Grey-green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.

Note—This book was published in July, 1846. The story appeared serially in the “New Monthly Magazine,” which periodical had just been purchased by W. Harrison Ainsworth.

[1847]

THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW FOREST. By Captain Marryat, R.N. London: H. Hurst, 27 King William Street, Charing Cross. 2 vols. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) [enclosing inset title-page printed in red and green] + 288 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) [enclosing inset title-page printed in red and green] + 298 + (4).

Vol. I. contains eight and Vol. II. four steel-engraved illustrations by Frank Marryat, printed separately.

Notes—(i) This book was the first story in The Juvenile Library. Vol. I. was published in July and Vol. II. in October, 1847. In all the copies I have been able to examine pp. (299) to (302) of Vol. II. are occupied by an announcement of this library and by reviews of The Children of the New Forest itself. Whether the book, on its actual first appearance, had these pages blank or otherwise occupied I do not know, but it is certainly curious to find press notices of a story in any but subsequent issues of that story. It should be noted that the pages in question are not inset, but form the last quarter of a 16 pp. sheet.

(ii) It is rumoured in some quarters that the book, as originally issued, was dated on the title-page. I have never seen a copy so dated.

1848/9

THE LITTLE SAVAGE. By Captain Marryat, R.N. In Two Parts. Part I. First edition. London: H. Hurst, 27 King William Street, Charing Cross. 1848. Part II. First edition. London: H. Hurst and Co., King William Street, Charing Cross. 1849. 2 vols. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾).

Part I. pp. (iv) [enclosing inset title-page printed in red and green] + 298 + (4). Advertisements and reviews paged 1-4 of The Juvenile Library and The Children of the New Forest occupy pp. (299) to (302).

Part II. pp. (iv.) [enclosing inset title-page printed in red and green] + 280 + (4). Advertisements and reviews of Part I. and of The Children of the New Forest paged 1-4 occupy pp. (281) to (284).

Each volume contains four line engravings printed separately. Grey-green cloth, blocked in gold. Uniform with The Children of the New Forest.

Notes—(i) Part I. was published in December, 1848, and Part II. in February, 1849.

(ii) The second edition of Part II. differs from the first in that there are preliminary pages (viii), of which p. (v) bears a note by the author's son referring to Captain Marryat's death. Frontispiece and title-page are, as previously, inset on different paper, and the latter printed in red and green.

(iii) Of Part II. only two chapters were written by Marryat.

1849

VALERIE: An Autobiography. By Captain Marryat, R.N. Author of Peter Simple, Frank Mildmay etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1849. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 312. Publisher's advertisements, 2 pp., printed on text paper bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 287 + (1). Advertisement of Frank Mildmay occupies p. (288).

Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. Also grey-green cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in June, 1849. The story—to the end of Vol. II., chap. iii.—appeared serially in the “New Monthly Magazine” during 1846 and 1847. Owing to illness, Marryat was unable to complete the book, which was finished by another hand.

II.—A BOOK ATTRIBUTED TO MARRYAT, ONE EDITED BY HIM AND OTHERS POSSIBLY WRITTEN WITH HIS HELP

1836

THE FLORAL TELEGRAPH: A New Mode of Communication by floral signals. With Plates. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. MDCCCXXXVI. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. xv + (i) + 307 + (11). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (309) to (318)—others face title-page. The book contains six hand-coloured plates, printed separately. Olive-green cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in December, 1836. It was reissued, probably in 1850, with a cancel title-page reading: “The Floral Telegraph or Affection's Signals” by the late Captain Marryatt [sic] R.N., author of Peter Simple etc. London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street. The pagination reads: xv + (i) + 324. Pp. xv + (i) + 189 + (1) are identical in the two editions, which are probably to this point composed of the same sheets. The second half of the book has, however, been reset, altered, and extended. The illustrations are the same as in the earlier edition, but they are much more coarsely reproduced and mechanically coloured. Olive-green cloth, similar to the first edition, but differently blocked in gold. Yellow end-papers.

(ii) It is a moot point whether or not Marryat was the author of this rather foolish little book. That he had, however, definite connection with it is suggested by the fact that on its first publication the “Metropolitan Magazine,” at that time closely identified with Marryat, devoted to it a three-quarter-page highly laudatory review, of which, after praising the introduction, the writer said: “Though no name is found on the title-page, it is evident that the work is from a practised and popular writer.” Further, if Marryat were not the author, it is difficult to understand the publishers' motive in reissuing it immediately after his death with his name on the title-page. If he deserves responsibility for the book, the manœuvre is comprehensible enough, especially on the part of a firm with whom he had severed relations in 1837, and thus deprived them of the profitable exploitation of his established reputation.

1836

RATTLIN THE REEFER. Edited by the author of Peter Simple. “All hands reef top-sails—Away, Aloft!” London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Successor to Henry Colburn. 1836. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. xii + (ii) + 301 + (3). Note by Marryat stating his connection with the work occupies p. (iv). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (303) (304).

Vol. II. pp. viii + 300. No half-title to this volume.

Vol. III. pp. viii + 344. No half-title to this volume.

Each volume contains three full-page etched illustrations by A. Hervieu, of which one is a frontispiece and the other two in the course of the text. A list of illustrations for the three volumes occupies p. (xiii) of Vol. I. The illustrations are dated 1836. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book, which was written by Edward Howard (see p. 100), was published on July 23, 1836. A second edition appeared on August 5 of the same year. A dramatic version by J. T. Haines (who also dramatized Jacob Faithful) was issued in February, 1893, as No. 2008 in French's Acting Editions of British Plays.

Two-thirds of the story appeared serially in the “Metropolitan Magazine” under the title, The Life of a Sub-Editor. Reviewing the book in its three-volume form, Marryat himself explained fully how and to what extent it had been transformed from a record of autobiographical fact to a frank experiment in fiction.

NOTE

The six items that follow are, like Rattlin the Reefer, the work of Lieut. the Hon. Edward Granville George Howard, who worked as sub-editor to Marryat on the “Metropolitan Magazine.” At one time the actual authorship of Howard's books was ascribed to Marryat himself. This is now proved to be a mistake. Indeed, apart from the note of recommendation to Rattlin the Reefer and Marryat's review of that book in his magazine, there is no printed evidence that he had any share whatever in the composition of any one of them. On the other hand, he and Howard were very intimate; the stories of the latter are clearly influenced by the work of his chief; and Marryat collectors have been in the habit of regarding Howard's books as desirable adjuncts to a Marryat collection. For which reasons, and because it is no less probable than improbable that Marryat, in conversation if not by actual pencraft, helped to give his sub-editor's books their final shape, I have thought well to include them in this bibliography.

1837

THE OLD COMMODORE. By the author of Rattlin the Reefer. “Nestroque!” London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1837. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅝).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 306.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 304.

Vol. III. pp. iv + 307 + (1).

Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published on September 16, 1837.

(ii) The above reckoning was made from a rebound copy from which clearly flyleaves were missing.

1838

OUTWARD BOUND: Or A Merchant's Adventures. By the author of Rattlin the Reefer, The Old Commodore etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1838. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 299 + (1). No half-title.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 308 + (2). Half-title to this volume. Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (309) (310).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 326. Half-title to this volume.

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published in March, 1838. The story appeared in part as a serial in the “Metropolitan Magazine” under the title Ardent Troughton.

1839

MEMOIRS OF ADMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH, K.C.B. ETC. By the author of Rattlin the Reefer etc. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1839. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 9).

Vol. I pp. vii + (i) + 400.

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 411 + (5). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (413) to (416). No half-titles.

Steel-engraved portrait frontispiece to each volume, printed separately. Pale blue ribbed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow end-papers.

1840

JACK ASHORE. By the Author of Rattlin the Reefer, Outward Bound etc. etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1840. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. xvi + 310.

Vol. II. pp. viii + 300.

Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 323 + (1).

Steel-engraved portrait frontispiece to Vol. I. printed separately. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

1842

SIR HENRY MORGAN: The Buccaneer. By the author of Rattlin the Reefer, Outward Bound, Jack Ashore etc. London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, Great Marlborough Street. 1842. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 295 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. vi + 307 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 315 + (1).

There is a portrait frontispiece to Vol. I., lithographed and printed separately. Paper boards, half cloth, paper label. White end-papers.

1859

TALES FROM BENTLEY. Vol. I. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1 vol. Pott 8vo (4 × 6¼). Pp. (iv) + 96. Buff paper wrappers printed in black. Also in boards. The Marine Coast, a story by the author of Rattlin the Reefer, occupies pp. 55 to 88.

Note—This first series of Tales from Bentley was published in September, 1859.

A NOTE ON MARRYAT AS ARTIST

It is well known that Captain Marryat was a painter as well as a writer. Collectors of his written work will perhaps also be interested to know of a published book containing in reproduction some of his drawings. In 1825 or 1826 there appeared the following work:

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BURMESE WAR. Both Series. With twenty-four plates after drawings by Captain Marryat, Thornton and Moore displaying the Operations of the British Forces. London: Published by Thomas Clay. (N.D.) The volume measures 20½ × 13¼, is bound in thick grey paper wrappers lettered in black as above, and contains five engravings of pictures painted by Stothard and D. Cox after drawings by Captain Marryat. The name Kingsbury and Co., 6 Leadenhall Street, appears at the foot of the engravings as their publisher, together with the date 1825.

BENJAMIN DISRAELI
1804-1881

BENJAMIN DISRAELI

It is easier to blame historians and political critics of the life and statesmanship of Disraeli for neglecting his novels, than it is oneself to judge these novels as literature, apart from the huge mass of incident, ambition, and achievement that went to make up the character of their extraordinary author. To attempt in a few pages an estimate of Disraeli as a man of letters were manifestly absurd, seeing that he was rarely that and nothing else. It were doubly absurd, even if possible, to treat in summary of the interactions of his political and literary genius when one of the finest biographies of modern times (and that in six volumes) has already covered every inch of the ground. The only purpose, therefore, which these unauthoritative notes may serve is that of indicating in a few words the development of Disraeli as a novelist and the respective content of his principal books.

Although his novels fall into distinct and different groups, they are all primarily satirical in character. From the moment of the anonymous but sensational appearance of Vivian Grey to that of the publication of Endymion which bore on each of its three volumes the name of the most distinguished statesman of the world, Disraeli held up alike to the follies and the ideals of his age the mirror of a keen and ruthless mind.

But if he gazed on his contemporaries more often from the angle of satire than from any other, he enclosed in their various frames the period portraits that are his books. As a very young man—unknown, ambitious, at once receptive and intensely sensitive—he used as material for fiction not only the incidents of his own life, but, even more, the thoughts and aspirations that filled his teeming brain. Vivian Grey (1826-7), Contarini Fleming (1833), and Alroy (1833) are mainly interesting as autobiography, and to the use of personal experience as material for novel-writing he returned in extreme old age when, looking back from the splendid eminence of his power, he described in the pages of Endymion the long road that he had travelled from obscurity to fame.

Vivian Grey appeared in five volumes, with an interval of a year between the issue of the first two and that of the last three. But for the brilliant publicity given to it by Colburn, the book would have attracted little or no attention. It is a showy, careless pastiche of the society of the day, a gallery of isolated portraits rather than a single composition, attractive to the fashionable public of the time for its thinly veiled presentment of well-known men and women. The reader is further unpleasantly aware that the author's interest in his book did not extend much beyond the first of the five volumes. Young men find it easier to start a book than to finish one, and Disraeli was clearly no exception to the rule.

Contarini Fleming and Alroy, written after an extended tour in the East, show, at its most luxuriant and ornate, the author's talent for heady, rhetorical prose. Like most of his race, Disraeli was more susceptible to magnificence and to decoration than to severe simplicity, and throughout his books was prone to an excessive use of epithet and metaphor. If these two early books show his love of ornament more shamelessly than those written at a maturer age, they can claim nevertheless to have received more careful and conscientious working, so that their embellishments, if too lavish, are at least scrupulously fashioned.

Between the publication of the last three volumes of Vivian Grey and that of the story of Contarini Fleming Disraeli published two works of fiction which, although in the matter of primary characteristic isolated from the rest of his work and from each other, contain elements that constantly reappear in the books of his later life.

The Voyage of Captain Popanilla (1828) is a satire on English political and social institutions cast in the form of an inverted Gulliver's Travels or Erewhon. Instead of an Englishman reaching an imaginary and fantastic land, where he finds conditions that correspond partly to the prejudices, partly to the ideals, of the author, the hero of Disraeli's satire is a being from a mythical world, who comes over the sea to an island that is, in all but name, England as Disraeli saw it. As an example of pertinacious and aggressive parody The Voyage of Captain Popanilla is witty and readable enough, but it fatigues, as do all pastiches of the kind, by its somewhat literal pursuit of contemporary activity. Disraeli should have limited his prospect of satire, for the individual beauties of any view are appreciated in proportion to the smallness of their number. Popanilla is overcrowded, and the reader's mind tires with the effort to solve the riddle that is contained in nearly every paragraph.

The Young Duke (1831) was written to make money. One may go farther and confess that the author, seeking frankly to profit by the contemporary popularity of the novel of fashionable life, wrote a tale of society into which he crammed all that he knew of character and incident likely to appeal to the mood of the moment. With such antecedents it is surprising that The Young Duke is not a worse book than it is. Inevitably it reads artificially, and the young writer had not the skill entirely to conceal the wilfulness with which the work was put together. On the other hand, the heroine deserves the attention of Disraeli students, for she is the direct forerunner of Sybil, and that part of The Young Duke which depends on her personality is not without a touch of the four great political novels upon which Disraeli's fame as a writer must rest.

It was four years after the publication of Alroy that Disraeli next appeared as a novelist. He then published, within six months of one another, two stories that stand markedly apart from the rest of his work, in that they are wholly without political significance. Even amid the extravagance of Contarini Fleming and The Young Duke occur passages that depend for their significance on political movements or political thought of the time. Vivian Grey, being a roman à clef of high society, and Popanilla being a direct satire of institutions, are naturally full of what was, even in those days, the author's ruling interest. But Henrietta Temple (1837) and Venetia (1837) are romances pure and simple. They may be said also to have no autobiographical significance, save in so far as the first part of the earlier book was written under the stimulus of a real love affair. It must be admitted that Henrietta Temple, once it gets beyond the boundary of Disraeli's own passionate experience, is a tame and careless book. The interval that passed between the writing of the earlier and that of the later portion seems to have extinguished his enthusiasm for the work. Colburn was clamouring for a novel, and Disraeli, as always hard pressed for money, raked out his incomplete manuscript, furbished it up, finished it off, and delivered it to the publisher. Venetia has not this fault of interrupted fashioning. It is, however, in one reader's opinion at any rate, a very tedious affair—rhetorical, unreal, and sluggish in movement; but this view is contrary to that held by many, who consider that the book's portraiture gives it value as commentary on the life of Byron and other famous people.

There follows, this time after an interval of seven years, the first of the four famous political novels that, whether or no they can be said to have introduced a new genre into English fiction, are undoubtedly the finest achievements of Disraeli's literary career. Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845), and Tancred (1847) are too well known to need description here. Because, however, their interdependence as parts of a general scheme in the mind of the author tends to become obscured by consideration of their respective quality, note may be taken of the fact that Coningsby is a novel of political views, Sybil one of social conditions and classes among the people, and Tancred one of religion as an influence in national life. Of the characters in Coningsby many reappear in Tancred, while Tadpole and Taper, whose names have become part of English political slang, pull their wires and cadge their jobs as assiduously in Sybil as in the story that preceded it. It would be interesting to work out a comparison between Disraeli and Trollope as political novelists. Probably one would come to the decision that those of Disraeli are the better political novels and those of Trollope the better novels of politics. In other words, Disraeli is the cleverer publicist, but Trollope the finer artist. Coningsby and its fellows depend very much on contemporary fact and personality for their full understanding and significance. Surely it is not hyperæsthetic to demand that literature be its own interpreter? In so far as a work of art requires outside knowledge for its proper appreciation, to that extent it falls short from what in art is highest and most perfect.

The appearance of Lothair in 1870 caused something of a scandal in serious political circles. The Briton is accustomed to take his statesmen seriously, but his novelists with frivolity and in the leisure hour. Wherefore he regarded it as unseemly that the name of an ex-Prime Minister and of a man whose political career was by no means run should figure on the title-pages of a three-volume novel. Curiosity conquered disapproval and, as on an hundred other occasions, a book condemned for its very existence was purchased and read in tens of thousands. Lothair is the work of a man who knew everybody and almost everything. The personal satire, the constructive and destructive fervour of Coningsby, Sybil, and Tancred have given place to a greater gravity and restraint, to an ironic vision more general and less individual. Taking as his subject the power of the Catholic Church, the rival power of revolutionary free thought and the indeterminate central position of the Church of England, Disraeli built up his fourth and most extensive picture of the England of his time. If we miss the idealist conviction that gives to some of the passages in Tancred the force of a splendid sermon, we gain a certainty and a dignity of thought which were inevitably lacking in the books of the earlier period. We also continue to enjoy the epigram, the vivid minor portraiture, the lightning grasp of fact and of every implication of fact, that give to the political novels of Disraeli their unique flavour and importance.

BIOGRAPHY

THE LIFE OF BENJAMIN DISRAELI, EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. By William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle. 6 vols. London: John Murray. 1912-1920.

I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPES
FICTION, POETRY, ESSAYS, LETTERS, ETC.

1825

AN ENQUIRY INTO THE PLANS, PROGRESS AND POLICY OF AMERICAN MINING COMPANIES. London: John Murray. MDCCCXXV. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¼ × 8½). Pp. 135 + (1) of which p. (6) is paged vi. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—These observations were made from a third enlarged edition published in the first year of issue, and it is likely that the first edition, although similar in format, etc., contains fewer pages.

1825

LAWYERS AND LEGISLATORS: Or Notes on the American Mining Companies. (Quotation from Hooker.) London: John Murray. MDCCCXXV. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¼ × 8½). Pp. (viii) + 99 + (1). No half-title. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

1825

THE PRESENT STATE OF MEXICO: As detailed in a Report presented to the General Congress by the Secretary of State for the Home Department and Foreign Affairs at the Opening of the Session in 1825. With Notes and a Memoir of Don Lucas Alaman. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. MDCCCXXV. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¼ × 8½). Pp. 130. Advertisement of Disraeli's two earlier pamphlets occupies verso of half-title, facing title-page. Pp. (6) to 55 are occupied by a Memoir of Don Lucas Alaman, written by Disraeli. Alaman's report begins on p. 57. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

1826/7

VIVIAN GREY. “Why then the world's mine oyster which I with sword will open.” London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. 1826 (Vols. I. and II.), 1827 (Vols. III. IV. and V.). 5 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅝).

Vol. I. pp. (vi) + 266 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 236 + (4). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (237) to (240).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 333 + (3). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (335) and (336).

Vol. IV. pp. (iv) + 362.

Vol. V. pp. (iv) + 324.

Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—Vols. I. and II. of this story were published on April 22, 1826; Vols. III. IV. and V. on February 23, 1827.

1828

THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN POPANILLA. By the author of Vivian Grey. “Travellers ne'er did lie though fools at home condemned 'em.” London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. 1828. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾). Pp. viii + 243 + (1). Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Note—This book was published on June 3, 1828.

1831

THE YOUNG DUKE: “A moral Tale, though gay.” By the author of Vivian Grey. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street. 1831. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (7⅞ × 4¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 300. No half-title.

Vol. II. pp. (vi) + 269 + (3). Text ends p. 269; note occupies p. (271).

Vol. III. pp. (vi) + 265 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (267) (268).

Paper boards (half cloth), paper label. White end-papers.

Note—The only copy of this book I have been able to consult in its original state contained at the end of Vol. I. a publishers' catalogue, 8 pp., dated April, 1832. Clearly it did not belong to the first issue, but what date should be found on a catalogue of the earliest issue, where in the three volumes such a catalogue should appear, or whether there should be a catalogue at all, I do not know.

1832

ENGLAND AND FRANCE: Or A Cure for the Ministerial Gallomania. (Quotation from speech by Duke of Wellington.) London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1832. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7¾). Pp. viii + (xii) + 268. Paper boards, paper label. White end-papers.

Notes—(i) This book was published in April, 1832.

(ii) The above observations were made from a rebound cut copy, and details of measurement are therefore conjectural.

1832

CONTARINI FLEMING: A Psychological Autobiography. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. MDCCCXXXII. 4 vols. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 288.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 247 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 194 + (2). Publisher's advertisements occupy pp. (195) (196).