Acquisitions (71): Oxford Books of Verse

Christopher Ricks, ed.: The Oxford Book of English Verse (1999)

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Christopher Ricks (1933- )


Christopher Ricks: The Oxford Book of English Verse (1999)
[Xanadu Books, Tauranga - 26/11/2019]:

Ricks, Christopher, ed. The Oxford Book of English Verse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Xanadu Books (Papamoa, NZ)

Sir Christopher Ricks has been described (by W. H. Auden) as “the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding” and by a pseudonymous former student as “the kind of professor you would have if you went to Hogwarts”.

- Leo Robson: 'Christopher Ricks: “Criticism is being good at noticing things".'
(The New Statesman, 13 July 2021)

I'm not sure that he'd be terribly flattered by the "Hogwarts" reference, but certainly Christopher Ricks is quite a considerable figure: witness the fact that I've written about him twice already on this blog - once about his editing of the Penguin English Poets series, and again about his wonderful Longmans edition of Tennyson - which shows, at the very least, the importance he holds for me.

I've never met him, but one of the Professors I knew at Edinburgh, Aidan Day (whom I'm very sorry to see died a couple of years ago at the early age of 66), was a student and subsequently colleague and collaborator with him on the 31-volume Tennyson archive. He shared Ricks's interest in Bob Dylan, and in fact wrote a rather po-faced book entitled Jokerman: Reading the Lyrics of Bob Dylan (1988), which actually earned him a coveted spot as Private Eye's "Pseud of the week."

Aidan Day was a very nice man - a little humourless, but friendly and hospitable to errant Doctoral students. The fact that Ricks is still teaching in his late 80s implies that he, too, values such interaction with his students. For the most part, though, it's on the page that we're forced to judge him.

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch: The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250-1918 (1900 / 1939)

I picked up a copy of his 1999 revisionist Oxford Book of English Verse at that immense print warehouse Xanadu Books, located in an industrial estate just outside of Tauranga. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's original anthology had already been updated once, by Helen Gardner's New Oxford Book of English Verse in 1972.

Helen Gardner, ed. The New Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250-1950 (1972)

Ricks had something even more radical in mind, however - though it's doubtful that his version of the national canon has reached nearly as many people as Q's - or even Helen Gardner's, for that matter.

There is something fascinating about such anthology wars: who's been left out, who's been put in - what's been underrepresented in the past and therefore needs reemphasis, what's been done to death and therefore needs cutting back ... the subject is as open-ended (and potentially inexhaustible) as speculative theology.

Thinking about it has inspired me to make a list of all the Oxford Books of various types I myself own. I've arranged these under a number of headings: chronological, national, and thematic verse, on the one hand, and prose, on the other, for want of a better system of classification. I think the sheer number of them I've collected shows just how fascinating I find the form.

I guess it shows, also, how assiduously the editors at Oxford University Press have pursued it, ever since the surely unexpected breakaway success of the old man's initial effort:

Henry Lamb: Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944)

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Celia & Kenneth Sisam, ed. The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse (1150-1500) (1970)

Oxford Books of Verse
(& Prose)

Categories:

1. Chronological
2. National
3. Thematic
4. Prose

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Philip Larkin, ed. The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse (1970)


Chronological



1. Sisam, Celia & Kenneth Sisam, ed. The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse (1150-1500). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.


2. Sisam, Kenneth, ed. Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose. 1921 / Tolkien, J. R. R. A Middle English Vocabulary. 1922. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962.


3. Robbins, Rossell Hope, ed. Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Centuries. 1952. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.


4. Chambers, E. K., ed. The Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse. 1932. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950.


5. Grierson, H. J. C. & G. Bullough, ed. The Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse. 1934. London: Oxford University Press, 1976.


6. Nichol Smith, David, ed. The Oxford Book of Eighteenth Century Verse. 1926. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.


7. Milford, H. S., ed. The Oxford Book of Regency Verse, 1798-1837. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928.


8. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, ed. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913.


9. Hayward, John, ed. The Oxford Book of Nineteenth Century Verse. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.


10. Yeats, W. B., ed. The Oxford Book of Modern Verse: 1892-1935. 1936. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1947.


11. Yeats, W. B., ed. The Oxford Book of Modern Verse: 1892-1935. 1936. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966.


12. Larkin, Philip, ed. The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse. 1973. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974.


13. Larkin, Philip, ed. The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse. 1973. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985.



Archibald Stodart-Walker, ed.: The Moxford Book of English Verse (2013)


National



14. Palgrave, Francis Turner, ed. The Golden Treasure of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language. 1861. With Additional Poems to the Present Day: Annotated Edition. 1914. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege / Oxford University Press, 1953.


15. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, ed. The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900. 1900. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912.


16. Stodart-Walker, A., ed. The Moxford Book of English Verse: 1340-1913. London: Everleigh Nash, 1913.


17. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, ed. The Oxford Book of English Verse. 1900. New Edition 1250-1918. 1939. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1948.


18. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, ed. The Oxford Book of English Verse. 1900. New Edition. 1250-1918. 1939. London: Book Club Associates, 1968.


19. Gardner, Helen, ed. The New Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1950. 1972. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.


20. Ricks, Christopher, ed. The Oxford Book of English Verse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.


21. Lucas, St. John, ed. The Oxford Book of French Verse, xiiith Century-xxth Century. 1907. Oxford: Clarendon Press / London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1946.


22. Higham, T. F., & C. M. Bowra, ed. The Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938.


23. MacQueen, John & Tom Scott, ed. The Oxford Book of Scottish Verse. 1966. London: Oxford University Press, 1981.


24. Poole, Adrian, & Jeremy Maule, ed. The Oxford Book of Classical Verse. 1995. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.



Kingsley Amis, ed.: The New Oxford Book of Light Verse (1978)


Thematic



25. Amis, Kingsley, ed. The New Oxford Book of Light Verse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.


26. Auden, W. H., ed. The Oxford Book of Light Verse. 1938. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.


27. Dearmer, Percy, R. Vaughan Williams & Martin Shaw, ed. The Oxford Book of Carols. 1928. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege / Oxford University Press, 1950.


28. Dixon, W. MacNeile & H. J. C. Grierson, ed. The English Parnassus: An Anthology Chiefly of Longer Poems. 1909. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1943.


29. Hall, Donald, ed. The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America. 1985. Oxford Paperbacks. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.


30. Kavanagh, P. J., & James Michie, ed. The Oxford Book of Short Poems. Book Club Associates by arrangement with Oxford University Press. London: Guild Publishers, 1985.


31. Kinsley, James, ed. The Oxford Book of Ballads. 1969. Oxford Paperbacks. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.


32. Nicholson, D. H. S. & A. H. E. Lee, ed. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse (XIII-XX Centuries). 1917. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927.


33. Opie, Iona & Peter, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. 1951. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.


34. Opie, Iona & Peter, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. 1951. Rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.


35. Opie, Iona & Peter, ed. The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book. Illustrations by Joan Hassall. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955.


36. Opie, Iona & Peter, ed. The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse. 1973. London: Book Club Associates, 1978.


37. Opie, Iona & Peter, ed. The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse. 1983. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.


38. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur, ed. The Oxford Book of Ballads. 1910. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1930.


39. Stallworthy, Jon, ed. The Oxford Book of War Poetry. 1984. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.


40. Tomlinson, Charles, ed. The Oxford Book of Verse in English Translation. 1980. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.


41. Woods, Frederick, ed. The Oxford Book of English Traditional Verse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.



James Sutherland, ed.: The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (1975)


Prose



42. Sutherland, James, ed. The Oxford Book of English Talk. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953.


43. Sutherland, James, ed. The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes. 1975. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.


44. Hastings, Max, ed. The Oxford Book of Military Anecdotes. Book Club Associates by arrangement with Oxford University Press. London: Guild Publishing, 1985.


45. Cox, Michael, & R. A. Gilbert, ed. The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories. 1986. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.


46. Muir, Frank, ed. The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, From William Caxton to P. G. Wodehouse: A Conducted Tour. 1990. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.


47. Baldick, Chris, ed. The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales. 1992. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.


48. Gross, John, ed. The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

John Gross, ed.: The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (2006)

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• category - English Poetry (pre-1900): Nineteenth Century

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Acquisitions (63): Penguin English Poets

Bronwyn Lloyd: Penguin English Poets (2022)

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Christopher Ricks


John Keats: The Complete Poems (2006)
[Finally Books: Hospice Bookshop, Birkenhead - 6/1/2022]:

John Keats: The Complete Poems (2006)

John Keats. The Complete Poems. Ed. John Barnard. 1973. Third Edition. Penguin Classics. 1988. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2006.

John Keats: The Complete Poems (1973)


Penguin English Poets

I did think twice before adding yet another copy of Keats's Complete Poems to my collection. But the contrast between this third, revised edition, and the second edition I also own, and the first edition I used to own (before discarding it as redundant in one of my periodic book purges) intrigued me greatly.

Bronwyn Lloyd: Penguin English Poets (2022)

The first edition appeared early in the history of the Penguin English Poets: an attempt at a uniform series of major English-language poets published under the general editorship of Professor Christopher Ricks in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The third edition of Barnard's Keats appeared in 1988, after the original white-covered series had been entirely subsumed into the Penguin Classics, with their uniform black bindings. In a sense, then, the fortunes of Keats can be seen as paradigmatic of the progress of the enterprise as a whole.

There was another change around the end of the 1970s, when the white-covered poets suddenly grew in size by a centimetre or so. Any books issued after that (such as the two-volume Robert Browning Poems, John Skelton, Jonathan Swift & Tennyson's Idylls of the King) came out in the new, larger format, and so did all reissues of previously published texts. This may sound like a trivial point, but it does detract slightly from the aesthetics of one's set when they're all lined up for display!

In any case, details like these don't seem (so far) to have been covered by sites such as The Penguin Checklist Project, so I thought I might put on record some information from my own collection, as a supplement to my earlier posts on other significant Penguin poetry projects, such as the Penguin Modern Poets (1962-83), Penguin Modern European Poets (1958-84), and Penguin Poets in Translation (1996-2005):

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1972)

Penguin English Poets
General Editor: Christopher Ricks
[Alphabetical Listings (1971-1983)]:

Books I own are marked in bold:

1. Blake, William. The Complete Poems. Ed. Alicia Ostriker. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
2. Browning, Robert. The Poems. Ed. John Pettigrew & Thomas J. Collins. Penguin English Poets. 2 vols. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.
3. Browning, Robert. The Ring and The Book. Ed. Richard D. Altick. 1971. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.
4. Byron, Lord. Don Juan. Ed. T. G. Steffan, E. Steffan, & W. W. Pratt. 1973. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
5. Donne, John. The Complete English Poems. Ed. A. J. Smith. 1971. Rev. ed. 1973. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.
6. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Ed. J. A. Burrow. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.
7. Johnson, Samuel. The Complete English Poems. Ed. J. D. Fleeman. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
8. Jonson, Ben. The Complete Poems. Ed. George Parfitt. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
9. Keats, John. The Complete Poems. Ed. John Barnard. Penguin Classics. 1973. Second Edition. 1977. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.
10. Marlowe, Christopher. The Complete Poems and Translations. Ed. Stephen Orgel. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
11. Marvell, Andrew. The Complete Poems. Ed. Elizabeth Story Donno. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.
12. Skelton, John. The Complete English Poems. Ed. John Scattergood. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
13. Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. Ed. Thomas P. Roche, Jr. & C. Patrick O’Donnell, Jr. Penguin English Poets. 1978. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
14. Swift, Jonathan. The Complete Poems. Ed. Pat Rogers. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
15. Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. The Idylls of the King. Ed. J. M. Gray. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
16. Vaughan, Henry. The Complete Poems. Ed. Alan Rudrum. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
17. Whitman, Walt. The Complete Poems. Ed. Francis Murphy. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin Education, 1975.
18. Wordsworth, William. The Poems. Ed. John O. Hayden. Penguin English Poets. 2 vols. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
19. Wordsworth, William. The Prelude: A Parallel Text. Ed. J. C. Maxwell. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
20. Wyatt, Sir Thomas. The Complete Poems. Ed. R. A. Rebholz. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.

Andrew Marvell: The Complete Poems (1972)

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Robert Browning: The Ring and the Book (1971)

Penguin English Poets
General Editor: Christopher Ricks
[Chronological Listings (1971-1983)]:

1. 1971 - Robert Browning. The Ring and The Book. Ed. Richard D. Altick. 1971. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.
2. 1971 - John Donne. The Complete English Poems. Ed. A. J. Smith. 1971. Rev. ed. 1973. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.
3. 1971 - Samuel Johnson. The Complete English Poems. Ed. J. D. Fleeman. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
4. 1971 - Christopher Marlowe. The Complete Poems and Translations. Ed. Stephen Orgel. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
5. 1971 - William Wordsworth. The Prelude: A Parallel Text. Ed. J. C. Maxwell. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971.
6. 1972 - The Gawain Poet. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Ed. J. A. Burrow. Penguin English Poets. General Ed. Christopher Ricks. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.
7. 1972 - Andrew Marvell. The Complete Poems. Ed. Elizabeth Story Donno. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.
8. 1973 - Lord Byron. Don Juan. Ed. T. G. Steffan, E. Steffan, & W. W. Pratt. 1973. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
9. 1973 - John Keats. The Complete Poems. Ed. John Barnard. Penguin Classics. 1973. Second Edition. 1977. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.
10. 1975 - Ben Jonson. The Complete Poems. Ed. George Parfitt. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.
11. 1975 - Walt Whitman. The Complete Poems. Ed. Francis Murphy. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin Education, 1975.
12. 1976 - Henry Vaughan. The Complete Poems. Ed. Alan Rudrum. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
13. 1977 - William Blake. The Complete Poems. Ed. Alicia Ostriker. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
14. 1977 - William Wordsworth. The Poems. Ed. John O. Hayden. Penguin English Poets. 2 vols. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
15. 1978 - Edmund Spenser. The Faerie Queene. Ed. Thomas P. Roche, Jr. & C. Patrick O’Donnell, Jr. Penguin English Poets. 1978. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
16. 1978 - Sir Thomas Wyatt. The Complete Poems. Ed. R. A. Rebholz. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
17. 1981 - Robert Browning. The Poems. Ed. John Pettigrew & Thomas J. Collins. Penguin English Poets. 2 vols. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.
18. 1983 - John Skelton. The Complete English Poems. Ed. John Scattergood. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
19. 1983 - Jonathan Swift. The Complete Poems. Ed. Pat Rogers. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
20. 1983 - Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The Idylls of the King. Ed. J. M. Gray. Penguin English Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.

Walt Whitman: The Complete Poems (1986)

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Thomas Wyatt: The Complete Poems (1978)

Penguin Classics: Penguin English Poets
General Editor: Christopher Ricks
[Alphabetical Listings (1985- )]:

Christopher Ricks appears to have kept up his connection with the series in its new form, overseeing a number of new editions which have appeared under the black-covered Penguin Classics imprint.

At a certain point in the early 2000s, the emphasis appears to have shifted from collected to selected editions. In some cases the same editor was responsible for both a 'complete' and 'selected' volume of the same author's work. In others a completely new edition was commissioned.

I've included below a number of such books which I either own or have been able to find details about online. I'll attempt to add to this over time, since I suspect that there are a great many which I haven't yet come across.

I should also add, parenthetically, that the rather anomalous inclusion of an American, Walt Whitman, among the 'Penguin English Poets' (though I suppose it would be easy enough to justify, given his immense influence on English-language poetry around the world), can be matched among these later books by an edition of the early work of Robert Frost.

William Barnes: Selected Poems (1994)


William Barnes. Selected Poems. Ed. Andrew Motion (1994)

William Blake: Selected Poems (2006)



William Blake. Selected Poems. Ed. G. E. Bentley (2006)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Complete Poems (1997)



Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Complete Poems. Ed. William Keech (1997)

John Clare: Selected Poems (1990)



John Clare. Selected Poems. Ed. Geoffrey Summerfield (1990)

John Donne: Selected Poems (2006)



John Donne. Selected Poems. Ed. Ilona Bell (2006)

John Donne: Collected Poetry (2013)



John Donne. Collected Poetry. Ed. Ilona Bell (2013)

Robert Frost: Early Poems (1998)



Robert Frost. Early Poems. Ed. Robert Faggen (1998)

Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems (2011)



Thomas Hardy. Selected Poems. Ed. Robert Mezey (2011)

George Herbert: The Complete English Poems (2004)



George Herbert. The Complete English Poems. Ed. John Tobin (2004)

George Herbert: The Complete Poetry (2015)



George Herbert. The Complete Poetry. Ed. John Drury. Trans. Victoria Moul (2015)

John Keats: Selected Poems (2000)



John Keats. Selected Poems. Ed. John Barnard (2000)

John Milton: Paradise Lost (1989)



John Milton. Paradise Lost. Ed. Christopher Ricks (1989)

John Milton: The Complete Poems (1998)



John Milton. The Complete Poems. Ed. John Leonard (1998)

John Milton: Selected Poems (2008)



John Milton. Selected Poems. Ed. John Leonard (2008)

Rochester: The Complete Works (1994)



Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of. The Complete Works. Ed. Frank H. Ellis (1994)

Rochester: Selected Works (2004)



Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of. Selected Works. Ed. Frank H. Ellis (2004)

Christina Rossetti: The Complete Poems (2001)



Christina Rosetti. The Complete Poems. Ed. Ed. R. W. Crump & Betty S. Flowers (2001)

Percy Bysshe Shelley: Selected Poems and Prose (2016)



Percy Bysshe Shelley. Selected Poems and Prose. Ed. Jack Donovan & Cian Duffy (2016)

Christopher Smart: Selected Poems (1990)



Christopher Smart. Selected Poems. Ed. K. Williamson & M. Walsh (1990)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Selected Poems (2008)



Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Selected Poems. Ed. Christopher Ricks. 1992. Rev. ed. (2008)

William Wordsworth: The Prelude: The Four Texts (1995)



William Wordsworth. The Prelude: The Four Texts (1798, 1799, 1805, 1850). Ed. Jonathan Wordsworth (1995)

William Wordsworth: Selected Poems (2004)



William Wordsworth. Selected Poems. Ed. Stephen Gill (2004)

Wordsworth & Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads (2006)



William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lyrical Ballads. Ed. Michael Schmidt (2006)

John Keegan, ed.: The Penguin Book of English Verse (2005)

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• category - English Poetry: (pre-1900) /

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