Acquisitions (62): A Baker's Dozen of Omnibuses

1930s Vintage Library

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1930s Bookshelves

A Baker's Dozen of Omnibuses

[Classified during the fourth Auckland COVID-19 lockdown:
August 18-December 3, 2021]:

H. de Vere Stacpoole: The Blue Lagoon Omnibus (1930)


The Golden Age of the Omnibus Edition

Look at that ridiculous list of omnibuses on the dustjacket above - all of them available from the same publisher, Hutchinson!

Joseph Conrad and H. G. Wells, yes - I have them in my listings below. But as for the rest ... I've read Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood, I think (as well as seeing the Errol Flynn movie), but I wouldn't really know what to say about Gilbert Frankau, Talbot Mundy, Eden Philpotts, or H. A Vachell. And yet they must have been sufficiently famous in their day to merit this kind of star treatment.

There's no doubt that the thirties were the great age of the omnibus edition. I suppose that the need to keep on selling books in the midst of the misery of the Great Depression must have encouraged publishers to adopt this thrifty way of providing the maximum bang-for-your-buck.

The list that I've provided below is purely personal. It consists solely of books I happen to have to hand at home. I think there are enough of them here for you to see the clear outlines of the trend, though:

• There are the standout successes in the field - John Buchan, Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse.
• Then there are the more prestige assemblages of the works of classic authors - Lewis Carroll, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy.
• Then, a few rungs further down the ladder, there are the 'guilty pleasures' collections of popular contemporary authors.

All three categories are, now, of considerable interest: the last group in particular, funnily enough.

I guess that I've always appreciated the compactness and solidity of these books: my particular favourites are short story collections such as the Sherlock Holmes Short Stories omnibus (1928) or The Stories of H. G. Wells (1927). One thing's for certain, though: the idea of paying once for each series of books rather than individually for every title was clearly a winner at the time, and that has continued to be the case ever since.

The first ten (or first 100) Penguin Books have long been a collectors' fetish. I'd say that a complementary collection for the post-WWI era would be a set of the numerous omnibuses listed on dustjackets such as the one above!

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

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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 12-volume sets
[Acquired: Paeroa, Monday, September 2, 2019]:

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.

Books I own are marked in bold:

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F. Anstey: Humour & Fantasy (1931)


1. F. Anstey. Humour & Fantasy

['Vice Versa', 1882; 'The Tinted Venus', 1885; 'A Fallen Idol', 1886; 'The Talking Horse and Other Tales', 1892; 'Salted Almonds', 1906; 'The Brass Bottle', 1900]. London: John Murray, 1931. [1180 pp.]


It it weren't for Vice Versa - once described by C. S. Lewis as the only truthful school story in existence - I think it's fairly safe to say that few would now remember anything much about F. Anstey.

Which is a shame, really. Some of his other fantasies (The Brass Bottle, for instance) are almost equally amusing. It's pointless to pretend that they haven't dated somewhat, but then, what does that matter? Why else would one read the work of such late-Victorian, early-Edwardian humourists, whether it be Three Men in a Boat (1889) or The Diary of a Nobody (1892)?

But Vice Versa keeps on going from strength to strength, whether you call it that or Freaky Friday instead!

This book is a good example of the classic thirties omnibus edition: over 1000 pages in length, with a gaudy dust jacket (generally discarded quite early in the piece, unfortunately), and an implicit promise of cheaply-priced riches within.



Thomas Anstey Guthrie ['F. Anstey'] (1856-1934)




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John Buchan: The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay (1930)


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.]


John Buchan is undoubtedly one of the three kings of the omnibus edition. Here's a chronological list of those I'm aware of (the ones I have copies of are marked in bold):

The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay. London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1930:

1. The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
2. Greenmantle (1916)
3. Mr Standfast (1918)
4. The Three Hostages (1924)

The Adventures of Sir Edward Leithen. London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1935:

1. The Power-House (1916)
2. John Macnab (1925)
3. The Dancing Floor (1926)
4. The Gap in the Curtain (1932)

Four Tales. 1936. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons Ltd., 1936:

1. The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
2. The Power-House (1916)
3. The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales (1902)
4. The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies (1912)

The Adventures of Dickson McCunn. London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1937:

1. Huntingtower (1922)
2. Castle Gay (1930)
3. The House of the Four Winds (1935)

A Five-Fold Salute to Adventure. London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1939:

1. The Blanket of the Dark (1931)
2. Witch Wood (1927)
3. Salute to Adventurers (1915)
4. Midwinter (1923)
5. The Free Fishers (1934)

They're all 1,000 pages (or so) in length. All of them appeared during the 1930s.

By far the most successful must be the Richard Hannay volume. It's the one you see most often in second-hand shops, and the first two novels (at least) are extremely entertaining. Some have lamented the fact that it appeared before the publication of the last in the series, The Island of Sheep (1936). Others would see that as not much of a loss.



John Buchan (1875-1940)




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Lewis Carroll: The Complete Works (1939)


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.]


This is the first, but by no means the most comprehensive, attempt at a single-volume collected works of Lewis Carroll. Taken as such, it's quite impressive. It's a pity about that Complete Works misnomer, though.

It's important to stress, however, that several alternative approaches to his oeuvre have appeared since 1939:

1. The Works of Lewis Carroll. Ed. Roger Lancelyn Green. Illustrations by John Tenniel. Spring Books. London: Paul Hamlyn Ltd., 1965.
2. The Illustrated Lewis Carroll. ['Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland', 1865; 'Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There', 1871; 'The Hunting of the Snark', 1876; A Carroll Selection; Appendix: The "Alice Verses" and their Originals]. Ed. Roy Gasson. 1978. Poole, Dorset: New Orchard Editions Ltd., n.d.
3. The Complete Illustrated Works of Lewis Carroll. ['Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland', 1865; 'Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There', 1871; 'The Hunting of the Snark', 1876; 'Rhyme? and Reason?', 1883; 'A Tangled Tale', 1885; 'Alice’s Adventures Underground', 1886; 'Sylvie and Bruno', 1889; 'Sylvie and Bruno Concluded', 1893; 'Three Sunsets and Other Poems', 1898]. Ed. Edward Giuliano. Illustrated by John Tenniel, Lewis Carroll, Arthur B. Frost, Henry Holiday, Harry Furniss, & E. Gertrude Thomson. Avenel Books. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1982.
Of these, Roger Lancelyn Green's is undoubtedly the most capacious, but for logic and ease of use, Edward Giuliano's is perhaps superior. The truth of the matter is that the road of the Carroll collector is beset by pitfalls, partial reprints, revised editions, and oddly themed compilations. That doesn't make it any the less beguiling, however:


Oh, see you not yon narrow road
So thick beset with thorn and briars
That is the path of righteousness
Though after it but few enquire.

And see you not that broad, broad road
That lies across that lily leven
That is the path of wickedness
Though some call it the road to Heaven.

And see you not that bonnie road
That winds about the fernie brae
That is the road to fair Elfland
Where thou and I this night maun gae.


Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ['Lewis Carroll'] (1832-1898)




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Joseph Conrad: The Complete Short Stories (1935)


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.]


Not to keep you in suspense, there's one interesting feature about this very attractive reprint of the short stories of Joseph Conrad. It consists of the omission of one particular story.

And which one is that? Give up? It's 'Falk' (1901), first published in the third of his collections of short fiction, Typhoon and Other Stories (1903).

1. Tales of Unrest [The Idiots; The Lagoon; An Outpost of Progress; The Return; Karain: A Memory]. 1898. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
2. Youth; Heart of Darkness; The End of the Tether: Three Stories. 1902. Joseph Conrad’s Works: Collected Edition. 1946. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1961.
3. Typhoon and Other Stories [Typhoon; Amy Foster; Falk; Tomorrow]. 1903. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.
4. A Set of Six [Gaspar Ruiz; The Informer; The Brute; An Anarchist; The Duel; Il Conde]. 1908. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1927.
5. ’Twixt Land and Sea: Three Tales [A Smile of Fortune; The Secret Sharer; Freya of the Seven Isles]. 1912. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
6. Within the Tides [The Planter of Malata; The Partner; The Inn of the Two Witches; Because of the Dollars]. 1915. Penguin Modern Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
7. Tales of Hearsay [The Warrior's Soul; Prince Roman; The Tale; The Black Mate]. 1925 & 1926. Joseph Conrad’s Works: Collected Edition. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1955.
And why this particular story? I presume that it must be because it involves a mention of cannibalism, and that was considered just a bit too risqué for readers in 1933 (though not, it appears, thirty years earlier, in 1903).

That's only a guess, mind you. It may have been sheer inadvertence. It does seem a rather considered choice of a story to leave out, however. Needless to say, more recent compilations of Conrad's stories have not perpetuated this act of censorship (if that's what it was):


The Complete Short Fiction of Joseph Conrad. Ed. Samuel Hynes. 4 vols. New York: The Ecco Press, 1991-1992.

1. The Stories I [The Idiots (1896); The Lagoon (1896); An Outpost of Progress (1896); Karain: A Memory (1897); The Return (1897); Youth: A Narrative (1898); Amy Foster (1901); To-morrow (1902); Gaspar Ruiz: A Romantic Tale (1904-5)] (1991)
2. The Stories II [An Anarchist: A Desperate Tale (1905); The Informer: An Ironic Tale (1906); The Brute: An Indignant Tale (1906); The Black Mate (1886); Il Conde: A Pathetic Tale (1908); The Secret Sharer: An Episode from the Coast (1909); Prince Roman (1910); The Partner (1911); The Inn of the Two Witches: A Find (1913); Because of the Dollars (1914); The Warrior's Soul (1915-16); The Tale (1916); Appendix: The Sisters (1895)] (1992)
3. The Tales I [Heart of Darkness (1898-99); Typhoon (1899-1901]; The End of the Tether (1902)] (1992)
4. The Tales II [Falk: A Reminiscence (1901); The Duel (1908); A Smile of Fortune (1910); Freya of the Seven Isles: A Story of Shallow Waters (1910-11); The Planter of Malata (1914)] (1992)


George Charles Beresford: Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski ['Joseph Conrad'] (1857-1924)




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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Conan Doyle Stories (1929)


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.]


Conan Doyle is ahead even of John Buchan in the omnibus stakes. Here are all seven of his best, in chronological order:


The Complete Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. London: John Murray, 1928:

1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
3. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
4. His Last Bow (1917)
5. The The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Long Stories. London: John Murray, 1929:

1. A Study in Scarlet (1887)
2. The Sign of Four (1890)
3. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
4. The Valley of Fear (1915)

The Conan Doyle Stories. London: John Murray, 1929.

1. Tales of the Ring & the Camp
2. Tales of Pirates & Blue Water
3. Tales of Terror & Mystery
4. Tales of Twilight & the Unseen
5. Tales of Adventure & Medical Life
6. Tales of Long Ago

The Conan Doyle Historical Romances. Vol. 1 of 2. London: John Murray, 1931.

1. The White Company (1891)
2. Sir Nigel (1906)
3. Micah Clarke (1888)
4. The Refugees (1893)

The Conan Doyle Historical Romances. Vol. 2 of 2. London: John Murray, 1932.

1. Rodney Stone (1896)
2. Uncle Bernac (1897)
3. The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896)
4. The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard (1903)

The Complete Professor Challenger Stories. London: John Murray, 1952.

1. The Lost World (1912)
2. The Poison Belt (1913)
3. The Land of Mist (1926)
4. The Disintegration Machine (1928)
5. When the World Screamed (1929)

The Complete Napoleonic Stories. London: John Murray, 1956.

1. Uncle Bernac (1897)
2. The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896)
3. The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard (1903)
4. The Great Shadow (1892)

You'll note that the last two didn't appear till the 1950s, and that the second of them is largely a rehash of the second volume of the Conan Doyle Historical Romances. After that, a number of facsimile editions of the original publications of both Sherlock Holmes and the other stories started to appear:

1. The Original Illustrated 'Strand' Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Facsimile Edition. 1989. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd., 1990.
2. The Original Illustrated Arthur Conan Doyle. Castle Books. Secausus, New Jersey: Book Sales, Inc., 1980.
There were also some even more useful supplementary volumes - mostly edited by the late, lamented Richard Lancelyn Green - in the 1980s:

1. The Unknown Conan Doyle: Uncollected Stories. Ed. John Michael Gibson and Richard Lancelyn Green. 1982. London: Secker & Warburg, 1983.
2. The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes. Ed. Richard Lancelyn Green. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
3. The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: After Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ed. Richard Lancelyn Green. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985.
Don't even get me started on the subject of annotated editions of Holmes, or annotated editions in general, though. I fear I've had far too much to say on that subject already.



Henry L. Gates: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)




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Kenneth Grahame: The Kenneth Grahame Book (1932)


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.]


While a pretty enough book, this is in some ways a rather frustrating volume. The 'Prefatory Note' (by the publisher, not the author, who had recently died) reads as follows:


It would have been possible to include in this collection Kenneth Grahame's book of essays, Pagan Papers, which appeared in the National Observer under W. E. Henley's editorship and won for him many warm admirers; and also his fantasy, The Headswoman; but on careful consideration it was decided that these two works were in a key so different from The Golden Age, Dream Days, and The Wind in the Willows that their presence here would be a mistake.

That's all very well. But it means that the assiduous collector is forced to hunt down one of the rare-as-hen's-teeth remaining copies of these two books in order to own the whole of Kenneth Grahame's work, so the omission seems to me an even more glaring 'mistake'.

Still, I'm not the one who had to sell the book, and perhaps they were right in judging that the inclusion of a collection of luke-warm essays from the 1890s and a rather macabre fantasy would not have assisted them in reaching a target audience of children and their doting parents.



John Singer Sargent: Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)




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Thomas Hardy: The Short Stories (1928)


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.]


Apparently the main point of interest for collectors is the varying states of the dustjacket.

[In the first impression, t]he un-cropped portrait of the author (after E.O. Hoppes) is framed and is facing left. [In] the equally scarce second impression, published in March 1928, the same month as the first, ... the portrait of Hardy is now facing to the right, unframed and has been cropped. . ... The first impression is ... uncommon in the wrapper. Collectible.

I'm sorry to report that my own copy appears to be of the second impression, with the portrait unframed and cropped - not that such matters make much difference to me, I'm relieved to say.

There are a few extra stories which escaped the net of Hardy's various collections, and are therefore not included here. For a serviceable set of these, readers were forced to wait for the advent of The New Wessex Edition in the 1970s:

Old Mrs Chundle and Other Stories, with The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall. Ed. F. B. Pinion. The New Wessex Edition of the Stories of Thomas Hardy, vol. 3. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1977.

For the most part, though, the volume above remains very useful.



William Strang: Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)




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E. W. Hornung: Raffles (1918)


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.]


This one is interesting because, even though the notion of collecting all the 'Raffles' short stories into one volume is such an obvious one - when it was finally done in the 1980s, Graham Greene, who based his 1975 play The Return of A. J. Raffles on Hornung's stories, called it "a splendid idea" - there doesn't appear to have been an omnibus of that type back in the era when such things were in vogue.

There was a book called Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (London: Eveleigh Nash, 1906), which included "stories taken from The Amateur Cracksman and The Black Mask," but no bona fide collected edition that I can find a mention of before the one listed above, which dates from 1985.

I'd love to know more, though, so if any of you have any more information on the subject, I'm all ears.



Ernest William Hornung (1866-1921)




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M. R. James: Collected Ghost Stories (1931)


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.]


Once again, I've had a great deal to say on the subject of M. R. James already, and don't feel any need to rehash that here. I guess the main reason for including his classic ghost story collection in this list comes down to one remark in his preface:

In accordance with a fashion which has recently become common, I am issuing my four volumes of ghost stories under one cover, and appending to them some matter of the same kind.

'A fashion which has recently become common' - quite so. He adds that 'a preface is demanded by my publishers, and it may as well be devoted to answering questions which I have been asked', and concludes by saying:

Since we are nothing if not bibliographical nowadays, I add a paragraph or two setting forth the facts about the several collections and their contents.

That pretty much puts it in a nutshell. The omnibus fashion was certainly already strongly in vogue by 1931, when his collection first came out - and the prefaces did tend to be fairly short and sweet - sometimes, in fact (as in the case of Kenneth Grahame above), written by the publisher instead of the author.



Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936)




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H. G. Wells: Short Stories (1960)


10. H. G. Wells. The Short Stories of H. G. Wells

['The Time Machine and Other Stories', 1895; 'The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents', 1895; 'The Plattner Story and Others', 1897; 'Tales of Space and Time, 1899; 'Twelve Stories and a Dream', 1903]. 1927. London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1952. [1038 pp.]


Recently I rewrote my Advanced Fiction Writing course at Massey to include a new module called Utopia / Dystopia.

The main text we looked at was H. G. Wells's classic story "The Country of the Blind", though this was supplemented by a number of more contemporary writers, such as Ursula Le Guin and Tina Shaw.

Doing the background reading for this revision reminded me of just how cogent and clear Wells' writing is. And this single volume of collected short stories is really the summit of his art. It's hard to think of any other writer who could match it with an equally varied, innovative and elegant set of stories.

Wells can do it all: slice-of-life social dramas, fantasy and ghost stories, as well as straight SF. If you haven't ever read the book above, all I can do is urge you to remedy that as fast as possible. It's no accident that his stories still continue to be adapted for films and TV after all these years.



Herbert George Wells (1866-1946)




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Oscar Wilde: The Works (1931)


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.]


The fact that there are now much more inclusive single-volume editions of Wilde on the market cannot detract from the charm of this early attempt to put him back in the public eye.

Oscar Wilde. Complete Works. 1948. Ed. J. B. Foreman. Introduction by Vyvyan Holland. 1966. London & Glasgow: Collins, 1971.

Wilde was as thoroughly shamed and erased as a public figure could be, due to his failed libel action against the Marquis of Queensberry, who had accused him of corrupting his son, Lord Alfred Douglas, by "posing as [a] somdomite [sic.]".

But as a writer, his works simply refused to die. For all the denunciations of his writings as decadent froth or pointless assemblages of epigrams, they continued to live in the public imagination, and it's impossible now to ignore his status as one of the truly titanic figures of the fin-de-siècle.

It's interesting to see that he, too, benefitted from the thirties craze for omnibus editions. This one lacks a number of the essays and poems, but otherwise gives a pretty good coverage of his genius.



Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854-1900)




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P. G. Wodehouse: Week-End Wodehouse (1939)


12. P. G. Wodehouse. Week-End Wodehouse

Introduction by Hilaire Belloc. Decorations by Kerr. 1939. London: Pimlico / Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1992. [512 pp.]

This trackless desert of print which we see before us, winding on and on into the purple distance, represents my first Omnibus Book: and I must confess that, as I contemplate it, I cannot overcome a slight feeling of chestiness, just the faint beginning of that offensive conceit against which we authors have to guard so carefully. I mean to say, it isn't everyone ... I mean to say, an Omnibus Book ... Well, dash it, you can't say that it doesn't mark an epoch in a fellow's career and put him just a bit above the common herd. P. G. Wodehouse, O.B. Not such a very distant step from P. G. Wodehouse, O.M.

So begins the introduction to Wodehouse's Jeeves omnibus in 1931, the first in a long line of such which would adorn his great career. One has to admit that he sums up there most succinctly the parameters of what might, in that most Freudian of ages, have been referred to as 'omnibus anxiety':

There is, of course, this to be said for the Omnibus Book in general and this one in particular. When you buy it, you have got something. The bulk of this volume makes it almost the ideal paperweight. The number of its pages assures its possessor of plenty of shaving paper on his vacation ...

A sudden thought comes to me at this point and causes me a little anxiety. Never having been mixed up in this Omnibus Book business before, I am ignorant of the rules of the game. And what is worrying me is this - Does the publication of an Omnibus Book impose a moral obligation on the author, a sort of gentleman's agreement that he will not write any more about the characters included in it? I hope not ...

Before we go any further, I must have it distinctly understood that the end is not yet.

When Wodehouse came to revisit this preface, written some "thirty-five years ago come Lammas Eve", for the reissue of what was now to be called The World of Jeeves (1967), he seemed a bit surprised at the lofty moral attitudes struck by him at the time, particularly the reference to "selling one's artistic soul for gold":

It is true that Jeeves has not yet appeared in a comic strip, but ... one tends to lose one's austerity, and today I should not object very strongly if someone wanted to do JEEVES ON ICE.

And certainly the long list of omnibuses assembled below gives substance to this assertion:

1. The World of Jeeves ['The Inimitable Jeeves', 1923; 'Carry On, Jeeves', 1929; 'Very Good, Jeeves', 1930]. 1931. London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1967.
2. The World of Mr Mulliner ['Meet Mr Mulliner', 1927; 'Mr Mulliner Speaking', 1929; 'Mulliner Nights', 1933]. 1935. London: Barrie & Jenkins Limited, 1972.
3. The Golf Omnibus ['The Clicking of Cuthbert', 1922; 'The Heart of a Goof', 1926]. London: Barrie & Jenkins Limited, 1973.
4. The World of Psmith ['Mike and Psmith', 1908; 'Psmith in the City', 1910; 'Psmith, Journalist', 1915; 'Leave It to Psmith', 1923]. London: Barrie & Jenkins Limited, 1974.
5. Wodehouse on Wodehouse [{with Guy Bolton} 'Bring on the Girls: The Improbable Story of Our Life in Musical Comedy', 1951; 'Performing Flea: A Self-Portrait in Letters. With an Introduction and Additional Notes by W. Townend', 1951; 'Over Seventy: An Autobiography With Digressions, 1956]. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980.
6. The Jeeves Omnibus 1 ['Thank You, Jeeves', 1934; 'The Code of the Woosters', 1938; 'The Inimitable Jeeves', 1923]. Hutchinson. London: Random House Group Ltd., 1989.
7. The Jeeves Omnibus 2 ['Right Ho, Jeeves', 1934; 'Joy in the Morning', 1946; 'Carry on, Jeeves', 1925]. Hutchinson. London: Random House Group Ltd., 1990.
8. The Jeeves Omnibus 3 ['The Mating Season', 1949; 'Ring for Jeeves', 1953; 'Very Good, Jeeves', 1930]. Hutchinson. London: Random House Group Ltd., 1991.
9. The Jeeves Omnibus 4 ['Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit', 1954; 'Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves', 1963; 'Jeeves in the Offing', 1960]. 1991. Hutchinson. London: Random House Group Ltd., 1992.
10. The Jeeves Omnibus 5 ['Much Obliged, Jeeves', 1971; 'Aunts Aren't Gentlemen', 1974; 'Extricating Young Gussie', 1915; 'Jeeves Makes An Omelette', 1959; 'Jeeves and the Greasy Bird', 1966]. Hutchinson. London: Random House Group Ltd., 1993.
11. The Clergy Omnibus. Hutchinson. London: Random House Group Ltd., 1992.



P. G. Wodehouse, ed. A Century of Humour (1935)


Furthermore, as well as all of the originals listed above, Wodehouse also found time in the 1930s to edit the 1024-page Century of Humour collection above for those omnibus-aficionados Hutchinson's of London.



Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975)




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P. C. Wren: Stories of the Foreign Legion (1947)


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.]

I suppose that it's a question of timing, above all. If you happen to have had the good fortune to chance on Beau Geste or one of Wren's other Foreign Legion novels at an impressionable age, they retain a strange charm, despite their obvious deficiencies as social history.

In any case, that's what happened to me. I had an abridged children's edition of Beau Geste, which I greatly enjoyed, but it was actually Beau Sabreur which really impressed me. The details of barracks life, the saucy love story - it had everything I required in a book at the time, and while I haven't reread it for many years, I suspect I would still find it just as entertaining now.

P. C. Wren: Foreign Legion Omnibus (1928)

P. C. Wren. Foreign Legion Omnibus. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1928.

1. Beau Geste (1924)
2. Beau Sabreur (1926)
3. Beau Ideal (1928)

Like E. W. Hornung, Wren came late to the field of the omnibus edition. His trilogy appeared in that format in the US in 1928, it seems, but the two collections of Foreign Legion stories did not appear till the late 1940s, after the war.

P. C. Wren: Dead Men's Boots: A Second Omnibus (1949)

P. C. Wren. Dead Men's Boots and Other Tales from the Foreign Legion: A Second P. C. Wren Omnibus. ['These tales were originally published in book form in "Stepsons of France" (1917), "Good Gestes" (1929), "Flawed Blades" (1933), and "Port o' Missing Men" (1934) and are here collected in one volume']. London: Gryphon Books Limited, 1949.

Would contemporary teenagers still find them entertaining, I wonder? Possibly not. They're not exactly enlightened in their implicit endorsement of colonial attitudes. But then they're not really recruiting tracts for the French Foreign Legion. On the contrary, they paint it as brutal, oppressive, and the last resort of the desperate. I guess that's why these books provided a myth which has fuelled movie thrillers for much of the past century.

Percival Christopher Wren (1875-1941)

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Aldous Huxley: Rotunda (1932)

Clearly there are many other examples I could have chosen: There's a thousand-plus page omnibus called Rotunda: A Selection from the Works of Aldous Huxley, which appeared in 1932, possibly as a companion volume to his Texts and Pretexts: An Anthology with Commentaries, published in the same year.

W. Somerset Maugham: The World Over (1951)

There are also later compilations such as Somerset Maugham's The World Over: The Collected Stories (1951). That came out in a set of two - or, retitled The Complete Short Stories, three - volumes, however. Including multi-volume collections seems to me to negate the spirit of the exercise, much though I'd like to count them in for their own sake.

1930s Bookcase

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• category - English Prose (post-1900): Alphabetical

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