Sunday

Acquisitions (29): A Baker's Dozen of 12-volume sets



Tim Bowling: The Book Collector (2008)

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The Library of Holland House (1940)


A Baker's Dozen of 12-volume sets:
The Brontë Sisters (et al.) (1895-96)
[Acquired: Paeroa, Monday, September 2, 2019]:

This is the first in a series of 'sets' of books chosen by me according to fairly arbitrarily selected criteria. They date, respectively, from 2019, 2020, and 2021.

  1. Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. The Works. Illustrations by A. S. Greig. Ornaments by T. C. Tilney. 9 vols of 12. 1893. London: J. M. Dent, 1895-96.
  2. George Gordon, Lord Byron. Byron's Letters and Journals: The Complete and Unexpurgated Text of All the Letters Available in Manuscript and the Full Printed Version of All Others. Ed. Leslie A. Marchand. 12 vols. London: John Murray, 1973-1982.
  3. Giacomo Casanova di Seingalt. The Memoirs: Translated into English by Arthur Machen. Privately Printed for Subscribers Only. 1894. Limited Edition of 1,000 numbered sets. + The Twelfth Volume of the Memoirs of Giacomo Casanova; Containing Chapters VII. and VIII. Never Before Printed; Discovered and Translated by Mr. Arthur Symons; and Complete with an Index and Maps by Mr. Thomas Wright. 12 vols. London: The Casanova Society, 1922-1923.
  4. Daniel Defoe. The Shakespeare Head Edition of the Novels and Selected Writings. [The Shortest Way with the Dissenters and other pamphlets (1702); A Plan of the English Commerce (1728); The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, 3 vols (1719); A Journal of the Plague Year (1722); The Fortunate Mistress, 2 vols (1724); Captain Singleton (1720);Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720); Moll Flanders, 2 vols (1722); Colonel Jack, 2 vols (1722)]. 1927-28. 14 vols. [The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, 3 vols (1719); A Journal of the Plague Year (1722); The Fortunate Mistress, 2 vols (1724)]. 6 vols of 12. Oxford: Basil Blackwell / Stratford-upon-Avon: The Shakespeare Head Press / London: William Clowes & Sons Limited, 1974.
  5. Diodorus Siculus. The Library of History. 12 vols. Loeb Classics. London: William Heinemann / Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935-67.
  6. Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Novels. Trans. Constance Garnett. 12 vols. 1912. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1912-1920.
  7. Henry James. The Complete Tales. Ed. Leon Edel. 12 vols. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962-1964.
  8. Andrew Lang. The Fairy Books. Illustrated by H. J. Ford. 12 vols. 1889-1910.
  9. Enno Littmann. Die Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten: Vollständige deutsche Ausgabe in zwölf Teilbänden zum ersten mal nach dem arabischen Urtext der Calcuttaer Ausgabe aus dem Jahre 1839 übertragen von Enno Littmann. 1921-28. 2nd ed. 1953. 6 vols in 12. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1976.
  10. Edward Powys Mathers. The Anthology of Eastern Love. Engravings by Hester Sainsbury. 12 vols in 4. London: John Rodker, 1927-30.
  11. Alexander Pope. The Poems: Twickenham Edition. Ed. John Butt et al. 12 vols. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. / New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940-69.
  12. Arthur Ransome. The Swallows and Amazons Series. 12 vols. London: Jonathan Cape, 1930-47.
  13. William Makepeace Thackeray. The Works. 12 vols. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1881-1882.

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A Baker's Dozen of 6-volume Sets
[Classified during the first COVID-19 lockdown:
Auckland, March 25-May 14, 2020]:

  1. Joseph Addison. The Works. Ed. Richard Hurd. Rev. Henry Bohn. 6 vols. Bohn’s Standard Library. London: George Bell and Sons, 1901-06.
  2. Jane Austen. The Works: The Text Based on Collation of the Early Editions. With Notes, Indexes and Illustrations from Contemporary Sources. The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen. Ed. R. W. Chapman. 5 vols. 1923. 6 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948-1954. London: Oxford University Press, 1975.
  3. Richard Barber. Legends. ['Legends of King Arthur', 1998; 'British Myths and Legends', 2000]. Illustrated by Roman Pisarev & John Vernon Lord. 6 vols. London: The Folio Society, 2001 & 2002.
  4. William Blake. The Illuminated Books. 6 vols. London: The William Blake Trust & The Tate Gallery / Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991-95.
  5. Sir Thomas Browne. The Works. Ed. Geoffrey Keynes. 6 vols. London: Faber & Gwyer / New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1928-31.
  6. Emily Dickinson. Poems / Letters. ['The Poems of Emily Dickinson', 1955; 'The Letters of Emily Dickinson', 1958]. Ed. Thomas H. Johnson et al. 6 vols. Cambridge, Mass & London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998 & 1979.
  7. F. Scott Fitgerald. The Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald. 6 vols. London: The Bodley Head, 1958-63.
  8. Edward Gibbon. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Ed. Oliphant Smeaton. 6 vols. Everyman’s Library. 1910. London: J. M. Dent / New York: E. P. Dutton, 1928.
  9. Henry James. The Novels. Ed. William T. Stafford, Daniel Mark Fogel, Myra Jehlen, Leo Bersani & Ross Posnock. 6 vols. The Library of America. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1983-2011.
  10. Polybius. The Histories. Trans. W. R. Paton. Introduction by Col. H. J. Edwards. 6 vols. 1922, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1927. Loeb Classics. London: William Heinemann / Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967, 1968, 1972.
  11. Rainer Maria Rilke. Sämtliche Werke. Ed. Rilke Archive, with Ruth Sieber-Rilke & Ernst Zinn. 6 vols. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1955-1966.
  12. William Robertson. The Works: To Which is Prefaced an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author. Ed. Dugald Stewart. 6 vols. London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, et al., 1851.
  13. Virginia Woolf. The Letters. Ed. Nigel Nicolson, with Joanne Trautmann. 6 vols. London: The Hogarth Press, 1975-80.

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A Baker's Dozen of Omnibuses
[Classified during the fourth Auckland COVID-19 lockdown:
August 18-December 3, 2021]:

  1. F. Anstey. Humour & Fantasy ['Vice Versa', 1882; 'The Tinted Venus', 1885; 'A Fallen Idol', 1886; 'The Talking Horse', 1892; 'Salted Almonds', 1906; 'The Brass Bottle', 1900]. London: John Murray, 1931. [1180 pp.]
  2. John Buchan. The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay ['The Thirty-Nine Steps', 1915; 'Greenmantle', 1916; 'Mr Standfast', 1919; 'The Three Hostages', 1924]. 1930. London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1953. [1214 pp.]
  3. Lewis Carroll. The Complete Works. ['Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland', 1865; 'Phantasmagoria', 1869; 'Through the Looking Glass', 1871; 'The Hunting of the Snark', 1876; 'Sylvie and Bruno', 1889; 'Sylvie and Bruno Concluded', 1893; All the Early and Late Verse, Short Stories, Essays, Games, Puzzles, Problems, Acrostics, and Miscellaneous Writings]. Illustrated by John Tenniel. Introduction by Alexander Woollcott. 1939. Modern Library Giant. New York: The Modern Library, n.d. [1310 pp.]
  4. Joseph Conrad. The Complete Short Stories ['To-morrow' (1902); 'Amy Foster' (1901); 'Karain: A Memory' (1897); 'The Idiots' (1896); 'An Outpost of Progress' (1896); 'The Return' (1897); 'The Lagoon' (1896); 'Youth: A Narrative' (1898); 'Heart of Darkness' (1898-99); 'The End of the Tether' (1902); 'Gaspar Ruiz' (1904-5); 'The Informer' (1906); 'The Brute' (1906); 'An Anarchist' (1905); 'The Duel' (1908); 'Il Conde' (1908); 'A Smile of Fortune' (1910); 'The Secret Sharer' (1909); 'Freya of the Seven Isles' (1910-11); 'The Planter of Malata' (1914); 'The Partner' (1911); 'The Inn of the Two Witches' (1913); 'Because of the Dollars' (1914); 'The Warrior's Soul' (1915-16); 'Prince Roman' (1910); 'The Tale' (1916); 'The Black Mate' (1886)]. London: Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers), Ltd., 1933. [1007 pp.]
  5. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Conan Doyle Stories [Tales of the Ring & the Camp; Tales of Pirates & Blue Water; Tales of Terror & Mystery; Tales of Twilight & the Unseen; Tales of Adventure & Medical Life; Tales of Long Ago]. 1929. London: John Murray, 1951. [1216 pp.]
  6. Kenneth Grahame. The Kenneth Grahame Book ['The Golden Age', 1895; 'Dream Days', 1898; 'The Wind in the Willows', 1908]. 1932. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1933. [412 pp.]
  7. Thomas Hardy. The Short Stories ['Wessex Tales', 1888; 'Life's Little Ironies', 1894; 'A Group of Noble Dames', 1891; 'A Changed Man and Other Tales', 1913]. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1928. [1084 pp.]
  8. E. W. Hornung. The Collected Raffles ['The Amateur Cracksman', 1899; 'The Black Mask' (1901); 'A Thief in the Night', 1905]. Introduction by Jeremy Lewis. Classic Thrillers. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1985. [448 pp.]
  9. M. R. James. The Ghost Stories of M. R. James. ['Ghost Stories of an Antiquary', 1904; 'More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary', 1911; 'A Thin Ghost and Others', 1919; 'A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories'; 1925]. 1931. London: Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd., [1975]. [656 pp.]
  10. H. G. Wells. The Short Stories of H. G. Wells. 1927. London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1952. [1038 pp.]
  11. Oscar Wilde. The Works. ['The Picture of Dorian Gray', 1890; 'Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories', 1891; 'A House of Pomegranates', 1891; 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales', 1888; 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 1892; 'A Woman of No Importance', 1893; 'An Ideal Husband', 1895; 'The Importance of Being Earnest', 1895; Poems; 'Intentions', 1891]. With Fifteen Original Drawings by Donia Nachshen. 1931. London: Collins, n.d. [1247 pp.]
  12. P. G. Wodehouse. Week-End Wodehouse. Introduction by Hilaire Belloc. Decorations by Kerr. 1939. London: Pimlico / Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1992. [512 pp.]
  13. P. C. Wren. Stories of the Foreign Legion: A P. C. Wren Omnibus ['Stepsons of France', 1917; 'Good Gestes: Stories of Beau Geste, His Brothers, and Certain of Their Comrades in the French Foreign Legion', 1929; 'Flawed Blades: Tales from the Foreign Legion', 1933; 'Port o' Missing Men: Strange Tales of the Stranger Regiment', 1934]. 1947. London: John Murray, 1953. [655 pp.]



  1. The Works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. Illustrations by A. S. Greig. Ornaments by T. C. Tilney. 12 vols. 1893. London: J. M. Dent, 1895-96.
    1. Jane Eyre, by Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë). Vol. 1 of 2. Introduction by F. J. S. (1896)
    2. Jane Eyre. Vol. 2 of 2 (1896)
    3. Shirley, by Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë). Vol. 1 of 2. Introduction by F. J. S. (1896)
    4. Shirley. Vol. 2 of 2 (1896)
    5. [Villette, by Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë). Vol. 1 of 2.]
    6. [Villette. Vol. 2 of 2.]
    7. The Professor, by Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë). Introduction by F. J. S. 1893 (1895)
    8. Poems of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. With Cottage Poems by Patrick Brontë, Introduction by F. J. S. (1896)
    9. [Wuthering Heights, by Ellis Bell (Emily Brontë). Vol. 1 of 2. Introduction by F. J. S.]
    10. Wuthering Heights. Vol. 2 of 2. Agnes Grey, by Acton Bell (Anne Brontë). Introduction by F. J. S. (1896)
    11. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Acton Bell (Anne Brontë). Vol. 1 of 2. Introduction by F. J. S. (1893)
    12. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Acton Bell (Anne Brontë). Vol. 2 of 2 (1893)

    Recently I've been occupied with covering a number of my more decrepit (and more valuable) books in mylar plastic, which has had the added side-benefit of giving me a new appreciation of them.

    This - admittedly incomplete - set of the works of the Brontë sisters is missing Villette and the first half of Wuthering Heights (the volumes in question are in square brackets). Since I already have them in other editions, that's no great loss, however.

    The period details of the individual volumes are quite beautiful, and the little selection of poems is worth the price of the whole set in itself, I think.


    The Brontë Sisters: Collected Works (1893-96)



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    Leslie A. Marchand, ed.: Byron's Letters and Journals (1973-1994)


  2. George Gordon, Lord Byron. Byron's Letters and Journals: The Complete and Unexpurgated Text of All the Letters Available in Manuscript and the Full Printed Version of All Others. Ed. Leslie A. Marchand. 12 vols. London: John Murray, 1973-1982.
    1. ‘In my hot youth’: 1798-1810 (1973)
    2. ‘Famous in my time’: 1810-1812 (1973)
    3. ‘Alas! the love of Women!’: 1813-1814 (1974)
    4. ‘Wedlock’s the devil’: 1814-1815 (1975)
    5. ‘So late into the night’: 1816-1817 (1976)
    6. ‘The flesh is frail’: 1818-1819 (1976)
    7. ‘Between two worlds’: 1820 (1977)
    8. ‘Born for opposition’: 1821 (1978)
    9. ‘In the wind’s eye’: 1821-1822 (1979)
    10. ‘A heart for every fate’: 1822-1823 (1980)
    11. ‘For freedom’s battle’: 1823-1824 (1981)
    12. ‘The Trouble of an Index’: Anthology of Memorable Passages and Index to the Eleven Volumes (1982)

    Ever since that supreme iconoclast John Murray burnt the manuscript copy of Byron's Memoirs which had been bequeathed to him, his descendants have been trying to make up for it with ever more elaborate editions of the poet's other works.

    The supreme exhibit would have to be this twelve-volume edition of his letters and journals. There is actually a thirteenth volume, ‘What comes uppermost’: Supplementary Materials (1994), containing a few odds and ends which have turned up since, but that has so far eluded me.

    There's something very beautiful about these books, I think - certainly the UK edition. The US one, pictured below, is a little more quotidian. There's certainly no doubt that Byron knew how to write a good letter!

    Leslie Marchand, ed.: Byron's Letters and Journals (1973-1994)



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    Arthur Machen, trans.: The Memoirs of Giacomo Casanova di Seingalt (1922)


  3. The Memoirs of Giacomo Casanova di Seingalt. Translated into English by Arthur Machen. Privately Printed for Subscribers Only. 1894. Limited Edition of 1,000 numbered sets. + The Twelfth Volume of the Memoirs of Giacomo Casanova; Containing Chapters VII. and VIII. Never Before Printed; Discovered and Translated by Mr. Arthur Symons; and Complete with an Index and Maps by Mr. Thomas Wright. 12 vols. London: The Casanova Society, 1922-1923.

    4. There are, admittedly, better translations of Casanova's Memoirs than this one made from a bowdlerised text by Arthur Machen.

    The new, unexpurgated text first printed in full in the 1960s brought about a complete reconsideration of the man and his book, but the Machen edition perhaps best presents the popular conception of one of the greatest tricksters of the eighteenth century. It may have been superseded textually, but it can never really be replaced as a piece of literary history.

    Machen is better known as a writer of weird fiction - and as the creator of the First World War legend of the Angels of Mons - but he had to pay the bills somehow as a young man in London, and this is one of the ways he found to do just that.


    Arthur Machen, trans.: The Memoirs of Giacomo Casanova di Seingalt (1922)




  4. The Shakespeare Head Edition of the Novels and Selected Writings of Daniel Defoe. 1927-28. Oxford: Basil Blackwell / Stratford-upon-Avon: The Shakespeare Head Press / London: William Clowes & Sons Limited, 1974.
    1. Set I - The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. Vol. I (1719)
    2. The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. Vol. II (1719)
    3. The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Vol. III (1719)
    4. A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
    5. The Fortunate Mistress. Vol. I (1724)
    6. The Fortunate Mistress. Vol. II (1724)
    7. [Set II - Captain Singleton (1720)]
    8. [Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720)]
    9. [Moll Flanders. Vol. I (1722)]
    10. [Moll Flanders. Vol. II (1722)]
    11. [Colonel Jack. Vol. I (1722)]
    12. [Colonel Jack. Vol. I (1722)]

    I only have half the volumes - one of the two boxsets - which go to make up this very handsome set of Daniel Defoe's principal works.

    I have all the remaining books in different editions, though, so I don't feel too deprived.

    It's certainly a pleasure to read his great novels in this form. Once again I've marked with square brackets the ones I don't own.



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    Bronwyn Lloyd: Hard-to-Find Bookshop (2018)


  5. Diodorus Siculus. The Library of History. 12 vols. Loeb Classics. London: William Heinemann / Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1967, 1976, 1977, 1989.
    1. Books I-II: 1-34, Trans. C. H. Oldfather (1936)
    2. Books II: 35-end, III, IV: 1-58, Trans. C. H. Oldfather (1935)
    3. Books IV: 59-VIII, Trans. C. H. Oldfather (1939)
    4. Books IX-XII: 40, Trans. C. H. Oldfather (1946)
    5. Books XII: 41-XIII, Trans. C. H. Oldfather (1950)
    6. Books XIV-XV:19, Trans. C. H. Oldfather (1954)
    7. Books XV: 20-XVI: 65, Trans. Charles L. Sherman (1952)
    8. Books XVI: 66-95, XVII, Trans. C. Bradford Welles (1963)
    9. Books XVIII-XIX: 1-65, Trans. Russel M. Geer (1947)
    10. Books XIX: 66-110, XX, Trans. Russel M. Geer (1954)
    11. Books XXI-XXXII, Trans. Francis R. Walton (1967)
    12. Books XXXIII-XL / Index, Trans. Francis R. Walton & Russel M. Geer (1967)

    This is an impressive attempt at a universal history, composed by an ancient Greek historian sometime during the 1st century BCE.

    Its principal value, admittedly, is as a repository of fragments of many other ancient historians whose works have not come down to us. It aspired to record events from the Trojan War up to the beginning of Caesar's Gallic War in BCE 60.

    Only a little less than half of it survives, unfortunately.


    Diodorus Siculus: Library of History (1933)



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    Constance Garnett, trans.: The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky (1912-20)


  6. The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Trans. Constance Garnett. 12 vols. 1912. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1912-1920.
    1. The Brothers Karamazov. 1881. 1912 (1955)
    2. The Idiot. 1869. 1913 (1946)
    3. The Possessed. 1872. 1914 (1946)
    4. Crime and Punishment. 1866. 1914 (1964)
    5. The House of the Dead. 1862. 1915 (1950)
    6. The Insulted and Injured. 1861 (1915)
    7. A Raw Youth. 1875. 1916 (1979)
    8. The Eternal Husband, and Other Stories: The Double / A Gentle Spirit. 1870, 1846 & 1876. 1917 (1950)
    9. The Gambler, and Other Stories: Poor People / The Landlady. 1867, 1846 & 1847. 1914 (1950)
    10. White Nights, and Other Stories: Notes from Underground / A Faint Heart / A Christmas Tree and a Wedding / Polzunkov / A Little Hero / Mr. Prokhartchin. 1848, 1864, 1848, 1848, 1848, 1849 & 1846. 1918 (1950)
    11. An Honest Thief, and Other Stories: Uncle’s Dream / A Novel in Nine Letters / An Unpleasant Predicament / Another Man’s Wife / The Heavenly Christmas Tree / The Peasant Marey / The Crocodile / Bobok / The Dream of a Ridiculous Man. 1848, 1859, 1847, 1862, 1848, 1876, 1876, 1865, 1873 & 1877. 1919 (1950)
    12. The Friend of the Family, and Other Stories: Nyetochka Nyezvanov. 1859 & 1849. 1920 (1949)

    The controversy continues to rage over the merits of Constance Garnett's translations of the great Russian novelists. For those of us brought up on her clear, mellifluous prose, however, it's hard to really embrace any substitutes.

    Anton Chekhov (17 vols), Fyodor Dostoevsky (12 vols), Nikolai Gogol (6 vols) and Ivan Turgenev (18 vols) are the authors she translated in full, as well as the major works of Leo Tolstoy.

    I've managed to collect most of them over time, but the prize of my collection is definitely this epoch-making collection of Dostoevsky's Novels and Stories.


    Constance Garnett, trans.: The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky (1916-28)



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    Leon Edel, ed.: The Complete Tales of Henry James (1962-1964)


  7. The Complete Tales of Henry James. Ed. Leon Edel. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962-1964.
    1. 1864-1868 (1962)
    2. 1868-1872 (1962)
    3. 1873-1875 (1962)
    4. 1876-1882 (1962)
    5. 1883-1884 (1963)
    6. 1884-1888 (1963)
    7. 1888-1891 (1963)
    8. 1891-1892 (1963)
    9. 1892-1898 (1964)
    10. 1898-1899 (1964)
    11. 1900-1903 (1964)
    12. 1903-1910 (1964)

    There have been (so far as I know) three attempts to date to compile a complete edition of Henry James's short stories. The one above, by Leon Edel, is by far the most handsome and the easiest to read.

    The second, by Maqbool Aziz, petered out after the third volume of a projected eight, having spanned the years 1864 to 1878 in more than ten years of ceaseless endeavour (1973-1984). This is the most informative textually of the three editions.

    The third is the library of America edition, in five volumes, which - in accordance with the editorial policy of that series - contains minimal textual information. It is, however, the only one still in print.

    Take your pick! Aziz is indispensible for serious students, Edel great for the casual reader, but the set from the Library of America is probably going to be the one that ends up dominating the field for the foreseeable future. I like all three.


    Leon Edel, ed.: The Complete Tales of Henry James (1962-1964)



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    Andrew Lang, ed.: The 12 Fairy Books (1889-1910)


  8. The Fairy Books. Ed. Andrew Lang. Illustrated by H. J. Ford. 12 vols. 1889-1910.
    1. The Blue Fairy Book. 1889. New York: Dover, 1965.
    2. The Red Fairy Book. 1890. New York: Dover, 1966.
    3. The Green Fairy Book. 1892. New York: Dover, 1965.
    4. The Yellow Fairy Book. 1894. New York: Dover, 1966.
    5. The Pink Fairy Book. 1897. New York: Dover, 1967.
    6. The Grey Fairy Book. 1900. New York: Dover, 1967.
    7. The Violet Fairy Book. 1901. New York: Dover, 1966.
    8. The Crimson Fairy Book. 1903. New York: Dover, 1965.
    9. The Brown Fairy Book. 1904. New York: Dover, 1965.
    10. The Orange Fairy Book. 1906. New York: Dover, 1968.
    11. The Olive Fairy Book. 1907. New York: Dover, 1995.
    12. The Lilac Fairy Book. 1910. London: Longmans, Green & co., 1914.

    This is one of the great classic collections of fairy and folk-tales. It got a bit of a drubbing in J. R. R. Tolkien's essay 'On Fairy Stories', and certainly there are aspects of it which sound a bit mealy-mouthed now - but it remains a rich and delightful introduction to the field as a whole.

    There have been various attempts to 'update' it for a new generation (attempts which now look a bit dated themselves), but Andrew Lang continues to be a name to conjure with in children's literature - rather to the detriment of the immense body of work he produced as an anthropologist and an historian.

    I don't know that he'd mind, though. The fact of his immortality is presumably more important than what precisely it's for: not so much for his own original writing as for his immense erudition and collector's eye.


    Andrew Lang, ed.: Rainbow Fairy Books (Dover Books)



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    Enno Littmann, trans.: The 1001 Nights (1976)


  9. Enno Littmann. Die Erzählungen aus den Tausendundein Nächten: Vollständige deutsche Ausgabe in zwölf Teilbänden zum ersten mal nach dem arabischen Urtext der Calcuttaer Ausgabe aus dem Jahre 1839 übertragen von Enno Littmann. 1921-28. 2nd ed. 1953. 6 vols in 12. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1976.

    10. This is one of the very best translations of the 1001 Nights - for those with fluent German, that is.

    If all you want is an accurate and unexpurgated translation of the most complete Arabic text, the 4-volume Magnaghten, or Second Calcutta edition (1839-42), this is one of the few places you will find one. The Germans have Littmann (1921-28), the Italians Gabrieli (1948), the English - now - Lyons (2008), superseding Burton's majestic 16-vol extravaganza of 1885-88.

    There are, of course, many other textual and editorial approaches to the complex task of coming up with a satisfactory version of the Arabian Nights. This is the one that Jorge Luis Borges used most, however, and that's enough of a tribute for me.


    Enno Littmann, trans.: The 1001 Nights (1921-1928)



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    Edward Powys Mathers, trans.: The Anthology of Eastern Love (1927-1929)


  10. Edward Powys Mathers. The Anthology of Eastern Love. Engravings by Hester Sainsbury. 12 vols in 4. London: John Rodker, 1927-30.
    1. Vol. I - The Lessons of a Bawd: English Version of the Kuttanimatam of Dāmodaragupta (1927)
    2. The Harlot’s Breviary: English Version of the Samayamātrikā of Kshemendra (1927)
    3. The Book of Women & Education of Wives: English Versions of the Zenan-Nameh of Fazil-Bey & Ta’dīb ul-Nisvān (1927)
    4. Vol. II - The Young Wives’ Tale & Tales of Fez: English Versions of the Kissat al-‘Arā’is Al-Sabīya of Amor ben Amar & Tales of Fez from the Arabic (1927)
    5. The Loves of Rādhā and Krishna & Amores: English Versions from the Bengali of Chandīdāsa & from the Sanskrit of Amaru and Mayūra (1928)
    6. Love Stories and Gallant Tales from the Chinese: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1928)
    7. Vol. III - Comrade Loves of the Samurai by Saīkaku Ihara & Songs of the Geishas: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1928)
    8. Ninety Short Tales of Love and Women from the Arabic: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1928)
    9. The Loves of Dāsīn and Musag-ag-Amāstān from the Tamashek & Camel-boy Rhythms from the Arabic: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1929)
    10. Vol. IV - Love Tales of Cambodia & Songs of the Love Nights of Lao: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1929)
    11. Anthology of Eastern Love I: English Versions by E. Powys Mathers (1929)
    12. Anthology of Eastern Love II: English Versions & Terminal Essays by E. Powys Mathers (1930)

    This must be one of the weirdest compilations of all time. Edward Powys Mathers (1892-1939) was a translator and poet, probably best known for his beautiful version of Mardrus's charming (but deeply inaccurate) fin-de-siècle French translation of the Arabian Nights.

    He had a reputation for seeking out the 'naughty' in literature, and this would have to be the ultimate example of it. Anyone looking for straight pornography in his work, however, would look in vain. He was a stylist rather after the model of Pierre Louÿs, but limited by the far more repressive milieu of England after the fall of Oscar Wilde.

    The sheer physical beauty of the book, with its handmade paper and hand-coloured engravings, perhaps overwhelms the intrinsic interest of at least some of the contents, but it's hard to imagine it ever losing its value as a item of curiosa.


    Edward Powys Mathers, trans.: The Anthology of Eastern Love (1927-1929)



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    Alexander Pope: Twickenham Edition (1973-1994)


  11. The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope. Ed. John Butt. 12 vols. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. / New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940-69.
    1. Volume I: Pastoral Poetry and An Essay on Criticism. Ed. E. Audra & Aubrey Williams (1961)
    2. Volume II: The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems. Ed. Geoffrey Tillotson (1940)
    3. Volume III (i): An Essay on Man. Ed. Maynard Mack (1950)
    4. Volume III (ii): Epistles to Several Persons (Moral Essays). Ed. F. W. Bateson (1951)
    5. Volume IV: Imitations of Horace with An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot and the Epilogue to the Satires. Ed. John Butt (1939)
    6. Volume V: The Dunciad. Ed. James Sutherland (1943)
    7. Volume VI: Minor Poems. Ed. Norman Ault & John Butt (1957)
    8. Volume VII: The Iliad of Homer (i). Ed. Maynard Mack (1967)
    9. Volume VIII: The Iliad of Homer (ii). Ed. Maynard Mack (1967)
    10. Volume IX: The Odyssey of Homer (i). Ed. Maynard Mack (1967)
    11. Volume X: The Odyssey of Homer (i). Ed. Maynard Mack (1967)
    12. [Volume XI: Index (1969)]

    This is by far the most handsome edition of the poetical works of Alexander Pope, and probably the most textually accurate also.

    While scholarship, no doubt, moves on, and his work will continue to be interpreted and reinterpreted, the thirty years it took to complete the set (it was not originally the intention to include Pope's translations of Homer) was certainly not time wasted.

    I've marked in square brackets the one (index) volume I still don't own. As well as the Twickenham text of Pope's Homer translations I also have the very full Penguin Classics edition of his Iliad, as well as a Heritage Press edition of the Odyssey, so I feel pretty well served there!


    Alexander Pope: Twickenham Edition (1953-1964)



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    Arthur Ransome: Swallows and Amazons Books (1930-47)


  12. Arthur Ransome. The Swallows and Amazons Books. London: Jonathan Cape, 1930-47.
    1. Swallows and Amazons. Illustrated by the Author with help from Miss Nancy Blackett. 1930 (1958)
    2. Swallowdale. Illustrated by the Author. 1931 (1965)
    3. Peter Duck: Based on Information supplied by the Swallows and Amazons and Illustrated mainly by Themselves. 1932 (1955)
    4. Winter Holiday. With Many Illustrations. 1933 (1964)
    5. Coot Club. With Many Illustrations. 1934 (1958)
    6. Pigeon Post. Illustrated. 1936 (1956)
    7. We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea. Illustrated. 1937 (1958)
    8. Secret Water. Illustrated. 1939 (1964)
    9. The Big Six. Illustrated. 1940 (1956)
    10. Missee Lee (Based on information supplied by the Swallows and Amazons). With Many Illustrations. 1941 (1962)
    11. The Picts and the Martyrs: or, Not Welcome at All. Illustrated. 1943 (1956)
    12. Great Northern? Illustrated. 1947 (1955)

    There was a time when Arthur Ransome was the most popular children's writer in England. His books may have dated, but they're still surprisingly readable - and far less racist and disturbing than those of Enid Blyton or other contemporaries.

    It helped, I suppose, that he'd had such an interesting life - witnessing the Russian revolutions of 1917 at first hand, and eventually marrying Trotsky's personal secretary, Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina.

    This set of twelve books, collected by my father, should be supplemented with various writings and memoirs that have appeared since, but there's no denying that those intricate dust-jackets certainly look very fetching when placed in a row!


    Arthur Ransome: Swallows and Amazons Books (1930-47)




  13. The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray. 12 vols. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1881-1882.
    1. Vanity Fair (1882)
    2. The History of Pendennis (1882)
    3. The Newcomes (1882)
    4. The History of Henry Esmond, also The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon (1882)
    5. The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century (1882)
    6. The Adventures of Philip; to which is now prefixed A Shabby Genteel Story (1881)
    7. The Paris Sketch Book; The Irish Sketch Book; and Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1882)
    8. The Great Hoggarty Diamond; Memoirs of Mr. C. J. Yellowplush; and Burlesques (1882)
    9. The Book of Snobs; Sketches of Life and Character; &c. &c (1882)
    10. The Roundabout Papers; The Four Georges; and The English Humourists (1881)
    11. Catherine; Lovel the Widower; Denis Duval; Ballads, &c (1882)
    12. The Christmas Books of Mr M. A. Titmarsh (1881)

I suppose that most people think only of Vanity Fair if they think of Thackerary at all. There are points of interest in his other major novels: Pendennis, Henry Esmond, and its sequel The Virginians, however. And if you are going to read them, it makes sense to do so in a bona fide Victorian edition.

There may be some bits and pieces missing from this set from the 1880s, but it's one of the cases where a plastic cover can act like a new coat of paint (a little like Mr. Pooter painting the backs of his Shakespeare with red enamel in The Diary of a Nobody).

I'm very happy to have it, but I do have a more modern World's Classics edition of Vanity Fair as well, to keep me up to date with any subsequent developments in textual scholarship.

NB: There is a thirteen-volume version of this set which concludes with a volume of Miscellaneous Essays & Contributions to Punch, but that doesn't seem like a very urgent addition at present. If I do see it anywhere, though, I will probably buy it.



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So there you are. 13 x 12 should make 156 volumes in all, but given the fact that I'm missing three Brontës, five Popes, and six Defoes, I actually make the total 145. Or should that be 137, given that my edition of Powys Mathers is actually in four volumes, not 12?

There's no real theme behind this assemblage in any case, except to celebrate the fact that publishers continue to collect large editions under certain kabbalistic numbers. Twelve is certainly one of these, but then so are ten, and eight, and six, and five, and four, and three ...

I'm sure I could supply parallel instances of all of them, given enough time. But that's another story, as Kipling used to remind us.





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