Acquisitions (83): Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy: The Wessex Novels (1991)

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Reginald G. Eves: Thomas Hardy (1924)


Thomas Hardy: The Wessex Novels (1991)
[Bookmark, Devonport - 4/1/2023]:

Novels of Thomas Hardy. 6 vols. London: The Folio Society, 1991.

1. Under the Greenwood Tree, or The Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. 1872. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by Angela Thirlwell (1989)
2. Far from the Madding Crowd. 1874. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by Bel Mooney (1985)
3. The Return of the Native. 1878. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by R. M. (1971)
4. The Trumpet-Major: John Loveday, A Soldier in the War with Buonaparte and Robert His Brother, A Tale. 1880. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by Paul I. Webb (1990)
5. The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Story of a Man of Character. 1886. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by R. M. (1968)
6. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Faithfully Presented. 1891. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by Elspeth Sandys (1988)

Richard Little Purdy: Thomas Hardy: A Bibliographical Study (1954)

Happy Days with Hardy

There was a time - in the late 1970s/early 1980s, probably, judging by the dates of most of the books by him I own - when I was quite obsessed with that great gloom-merchant Thomas Hardy. I read all of his novels and stories, then the whole of his Collected Poems. My passion for his work has cooled somewhat since then, but I still get the yen to go back to it from time to time.

I was poking around Bookmarks, a second-hand bookshop in Devonport, sometime just before Christmas, when I ran across the bound Folio Society edition of six of his principal novels pictured above. I don't need it, I told myself. I have all his novels already. Most, admittedly, in scruffy old paperbacks, but still perfectly serviceable copies.

As the New Year came in, however, I found my thoughts turning again and again to that pretty set of Hardy books down by the seaside in Devonport. I kept on hoping that somebody else had bought it, thus removing temptation from my path. But, when I returned, sure enough, there it was.

And so, despite all my resolutions to stop buying so many books, I succumbed to its charms. In the meantime I'd ascertained that the Folio Society has actually published all 18 of Hardy's novels and short story collections in (fairly) uniform editions, with the same cover design and woodcuts by Peter Reddick. Here they are, in fact:

Thomas Hardy: Complete Fiction (1991-94)

Beautiful though they are, these are by no means the most desirable editions of Hardy. Richard Purdy's annotated bibliography, which I bought some years ago - described on its first appearance as a "virtually flawless book" - gives some idea of the full complexity of his publishing history, including all the mass-market, limited and gift editions. It's enough to make your head swim.

The Book Collector reviewer went on to say:

While providing in full and with scrupulous exactitude all requisite bibliographical data [Purdy's book] also supplements the hitherto printed accounts of Hardy’s life, gives the publishing history of his novels, short stories and poems, and serves in general as a companion to the whole of his works.

In particular, when it comes to both the prose and the poetry, the Oxford English Texts editions take some beating. For sheer scrupulous attention to detail, you can't really get past their five-volume Poetical Works:

Thomas Hardy: Complete Poetical Works (1982-95)

The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy. Ed. Samuel Hynes. 5 vols. Oxford English Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982-1995.

1. Wessex Poems; Poems of the Past and Present; Time's Laughingstocks (1983)
2. Satires of Circumstance; Moments of Vision; Late Lyrics and Earlier (1984)
3. Human Shows; Winter Words; Uncollected Poems (1985)
4. The Dynasts, Parts First & Second (1995)
5. The Dynasts, Part Third; The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall; The Play of 'Saint George'; 'O Jan, O Jan, O Jan' (1995)

Or, for that matter, the multi-volume Collected Letters:

Thomas Hardy: Collected Letters (vols. 1-4, 1977-84)

The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy. Ed. Richard Little Purdy, Michael Millgate & Keith Wilson. 8 vols. Oxford English Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977-2012.

1. 1840–1892. Ed. Richard Little Purdy & Michael Millgate (1977)
2. 1893–1901. Ed. Richard Little Purdy & Michael Millgate (1980)
3. 1902–1908. Ed. Richard Little Purdy & Michael Millgate (1982)
4. 1909–1913. Ed. Richard Little Purdy & Michael Millgate (1984)
5. 1914–1919. Ed. Richard Little Purdy & Michael Millgate (1985)
6. 1920–1925. Ed. Richard Little Purdy & Michael Millgate (1987)
7. 1926–1927: with Addenda, Corrigenda, and General Index. Ed. Richard Little Purdy & Michael Millgate (1988)
8. Further Letters: 1861–1927. Ed. Michael Millgate & Keith Wilson (2012)

The only downside is that they're so prohibitively expensive to buy.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles. 1891. Ed. Juliet Grindle & Simon Gatrell. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.

As for the novels, the only one I actually own in the Oxford series is Tess of the d'Urbervilles. But so far as I can see from the Oxford Scholarly Editions website, they haven't yet published any others - with the sole exception of The Woodlanders:

The Woodlanders. 1887. Ed. Dale Kramer. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.

For normal, non-specialist purposes, though, I can certainly recommend Macmillan's New Wessex edition (issued in a hurry in the mid-1970s to take advantage of Hardy's copyrights before they expired):

Thomas Hardy: The New Wessex Edition (1975)

Or, alternatively, there are the Penguin English Library / Penguin Classics editions of most of his major works (published from 1978 onwards once they were out of copyright):

Thomas Hardy: Boxset of Novels (1978-83)

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Thomas Hardy: The Short Stories (1928)

I've already written elsewhere about this omnibus edition of Hardy's short stories, which collects the four collections published during his lifetime:

Wessex Tales (1888)
A Group of Noble Dames (1891)
Life's Little Ironies (1894)
A Changed Man and Other Tales (1913)

All of these are still readily available in modern reprints. The three-part New Wessex edition of his short stories (now collected in a single commodious paperback) does, however, include a supplementary volume of overlooked and uncollected material:

Thomas Hardy: Wessex Tales / A Group of Noble Dames (1977)

Thomas Hardy: Time's Litte Ironies / A Changed Man and Other Tales (1977)

Thomas Hardy: Old Mrs Chundle and Other Stories / The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall (1977)

The very few items left over from this may be found in Pamela Dalziel's exhaustively annotated Oxford edition of The Excluded and Collaborative Stories:

Thomas Hardy: The Excluded and Collaborative Stories (1992)

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Thomas Hardy: The Collected Poems (1965)

All of which brings us to the somewhat more vexed topic of Hardy's poetry. Certainly it's an acquired taste. Like Herman Melville's, Hardy's verse seems at times to avoid not simply poetic euphony but most of the other conventions of English syntax. Consider this, for example:

Without, Not Within Her

It was what you bore with you, Woman,
Not inly were,
That throned you from all else human,
However fair!

It was that strange freshness you carried
Into a soul
Whereon no thought of yours tarried
Two moments at all.

And out from his spirit flew death,
And bale, and ban,
Like the corn-chaff under the breath
Of the winnowing-fan.

I've always been a bit puzzled by that line "not inly were" ...

On the other hand, it's no accident that Auden and other thirties poets saw Hardy as their guiding poetic star. Clumsy though he was at times, there was a titanic power to his best poems which seemed inseparable from their lack of superficial polish. They were felt in a way most contemporary English poetry was not. Take some of his war verses, for instance:

In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’

I
Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.

II
Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.

III
Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War’s annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.

Perhaps best of all, though, are those amazing love poems of 1912-13, a long collective lament occasioned by the death of his estranged first wife.

At Castle Boterel

As I drive to the junction of lane and highway,
And the drizzle bedrenches the waggonette,
I look behind at the fading byway,
And see on its slope, now glistening wet,
Distinctly yet

Myself and a girlish form benighted
In dry March weather. We climb the road
Beside a chaise. We had just alighted
To ease the sturdy pony’s load
When he sighed and slowed.

What we did as we climbed, and what we talked of
Matters not much, nor to what it led, ―
Something that life will not be balked of
Without rude reason till hope is dead,
And feeling fled.

It filled but a minute. But was there ever
A time of such quality, since or before,
In that hill’s story ? To one mind never,
Though it has been climbed, foot-swift, foot-sore,
By thousands more.

Primaeval rocks form the road’s steep border,
And much have they faced there, first and last,
Of the transitory in Earth’s long order;
But what they record in colour and cast
Is — that we two passed.

And to me, though Time’s unflinching rigour,
In mindless rote, has ruled from sight
The substance now, one phantom figure
Remains on the slope, as when that night
Saw us alight.

I look and see it there, shrinking, shrinking,
I look back at it amid the rain
For the very last time; for my sand is sinking,
And I shall traverse old love’s domain
Never again.

Thomas Hardy: Wessex Poems (1898)

In any case, whether or not Hardy was greater as a poet or a novelist, his Collected Poems has become one of the classic volumes of English poetry. It includes all eight of his published collections:

Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898)
Poems of the Past and the Present (1901)
Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses (1909)
Satires of Circumstance (1914)
Moments of Vision (1917)
Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses (1922)
Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925)
Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres (1928)

Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems (1976 / 2001)

When it comes to the Complete Poems, the situation is a little more complex. The New Wessex edition featured James Gibson's revised text of the eight books plus the songs from The Dynasts and a few residual verses such as "Domicilium".

Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems: Variorum Edition (1979)

A few years later Gibson's publishers agreed to put out the variorum edition of all the variants in the different printings of Hardy's poems which he'd been working on for many years past. He mentions in the introduction to this having been refused permission to check some manuscript sources:

because, not appreciating the monopolistic conditions which prevail in some fields of American scholarship, I omitted when I began my research to reserve for myself access to manuscripts whose whereabouts were well known and required no intensive research. [p.xx]

Decoded, this seems to imply that sole rights in consulting these manuscripts had been reserved in advance by some other (unnamed) scholar.

Internal evidence suggests that this may have been Professor Samuel Hynes, whose Oxford English Texts edition must have already been in progress at this point. Gibson calculates that the exclusions involved some fifteen of the 115 surviving manuscripts, and quotes the names of two of their owners - Frederick B. Adams and Richard L. Purdy - both of whom figure in Hynes's Acknowledgements. It does seem a bit unsporting of Hynes to have denied access in this way, but of course it could have been his publishers rather than himself who demanded it.

Behaviour of this sort is, unfortunately, not unprecedented in the history of other Oxford Scholarly Editions, witness the even more blatantly monopolistic behaviour of John Clare's Oxford editor Eric Robinson, as I've discussed in some detail here.

Samuel Hynes, ed.: The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy (1982-1995)

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Michael Millgate, ed.: The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy (1984)

It's when we get to the biographies, though, that the situation becomes really complicated.

It appears that late in life Hardy conceived a particular horror of having lies and distortions about him available in print. In particular, he'd read an unathorised attempt at a 'life and works' by an American author, and had been appalled by it. He therefore came up with a plan to mitigate such intrusions on his privacy.

He gathered his old letters and journals together, sorted them more or less chronologically, and asked his wife Florence to use these materials to write a sample chapter or two of an "authorised" life and letters. She was, after all, a fairly accomplished writer of occasional journalism, and would have the advantage of having her subject ready to hand.

It didn't work. Hardy was distinctly unimpressed by her efforts. Rather than abandoning the whole scheme, though, he decided to write the whole book himself - in the third person - except for the last couple of chapters, of course (unlike Moses, he didn't quite feel up to providing an account of his own death), and to arrange for it to be published under her name after his death.

This would have the dual advantage of forestalling other biographers as well as putting his own view of matters squarely in the spotlight. And so it went. Florence Hardy was not particularly keen on attaching her name to a book she hadn't written, but for the sake of peace she agreed to do it. She did revolt a bit in the latter stages of the scheme, however: abridging some of his interminable accounts of important honours he'd won and famous people he'd met in the second volume of the work.

Florence Emily Hardy: The Early Life of Thomas Hardy / The Later Years of Thomas Hardy (1928-30)

They got away with it surprisingly easily. There were rumours that he might have had a hand in it, of course, but that was hardly surprising. It wasn't really until Michael Millgate's 1984 edition of what must be referred to as Hardy's autobiography without Florence's various emendations and changes that the full extent of the old man's efforts became apparent.

But what, exactly, did he have to hide? Certainly he'd been less than kind at times to his first wife, Emma - he wrote a whole series of repentant poems about her shortly after her death (also shortly after marrying his second wife, Florence, which must have been great for domestic relations). Perhaps there were other things. No doubt we'll never know.

Robert Gittings: Young Thomas Hardy / Thomas Hardy's Later Years (1975-78)

There are three major modern biographies, written in the post reliance-on-the-autobiography period. The first, very readable account, in two parts, is by Robert Gittings (1911-1992), the biographer of Keats. With his wife Jo Manton, he also wrote The Second Mrs. Hardy, a biography of Florence Dugdale, the young school-teacher who watched over Hardy's legacy for so many years.

Robert Gittings & Jo Manton: The Second Mrs. Hardy (1979)

The second major biography is by Professor Michael Millgate (1929- ). It first appeared in 1982, but has more recently been reissued as Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited. It's a more standard Academic biography than Gittings', but his status as one of the principal authorities on the subject makes it probably the most useful one to consult.

Michael Millgate: Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited (2004)

There's now another one by Claire Tomalin (1933- ), biographer of Charles Dickens and his mistress Nelly Ternan, amongst many other subjects. I haven't yet read it, but I imagine it will provide a rather different slant on Hardy's relations with his two wives, in particular.

Claire Tomalin: Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man (2006)

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Bertram Windle: The Wessex of Thomas Hardy's Novels & Poems (1902)

As far as Hardy himself was concerned, the best kind of commentary on his work was purely fact-based and geographical. It wasn't that authors hadn't created their own private towns and regions before: Trollope's fictional Barsetshire, for instance - or George Eliot's Middlemarch. Hardy's Wessex, though, took the game considerably further than that.

All the major towns and regions in his version of England's West Country acquired new names: "Casterbridge" for Dorchester, for instance; "Christminster" for Oxford; "Wintoncester" for Winchester ... You get the general idea. This enabled him to think of Dorset and its environs as "a merely realistic dream country", as he put it in his late, 1895 preface to Far from the Madding Crowd.

Hermann Lea (1869-1952)

Hardy's 1898 meeting with photographer Hermann Lea was therefore a most fortuitous one. Lea, in close consultation with the author, undertook to record and photograph all the settings of the various novels - thus setting off a tourist boom which has lasted to this day.

Hermann Lea: Thomas Hardy's Wessex (1898)

Who, for instance, can contemplate Stonehenge without thinking of Tess's last night sleeping on the altar stone? Or cross Egdon Heath without thinking of the opening pages of The Return of the Native? Well, lots of people, probably - but such powerful visualisations remain a potent influence on such avatars as Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County or Gabriel García Márquez's Macondo.

Thomas Hardy's Wessex (1929)

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William Strang: Thomas Hardy (1893)

Thomas Hardy
(1840-1928)

Books I own are marked in bold:

Thomas Hardy: Desperate Remedies (1874)


Novels:


1. The Poor Man and the Lady. [unpublished / ms. lost] (1867)
2. Desperate Remedies: A Novel. [Novels of Ingenuity] (1871)
   • Desperate Remedies: A Novel. 1871. Introduction by C. J. P. Beatty. The New Wessex Edition. 1975. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1977.
3. Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. [Novels of Character and Environment] (1872)
   • Under the Greenwood Tree, or The Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. 1872. Introduction by Cecil Day Lewis. 1958. Collins Classics. London: William Collins Sons & co. Ltd., 1970.
   • Under the Greenwood Tree, or The Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. 1872. Introduction by Geoffrey Grigson. 1974. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1978.
   • Under the Greenwood Tree, or The Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. 1872. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by Angela Thirlwell. 1989. London: The Folio Society, 1991.
4. A Pair of Blue Eyes: A Novel. [Romances and Fantasies] (1873)
   • A Pair of Blue Eyes. 1873. Introduction by Ronald Blythe. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1975.
5. Far from the Madding Crowd. [Novels of Character and Environment] (1874)
   • Far from the Madding Crowd. 1874. Introduction by John Bayley. Notes by Christine Winfield. 1974. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1978.
   • Far from the Madding Crowd. 1874. Ed. Ronald Blythe. 1978. Penguin English Library. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
   • Far from the Madding Crowd. 1874. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by Bel Mooney. 1985. London: The Folio Society, 1991.
6. The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters. [Novels of Ingenuity] (1876)
   • The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters. 1876. Introduction by Robert Gittings. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1975.
7. The Return of the Native. [Novels of Character and Environment] (1878)
   • The Return of the Native. 1878. Introduction by Derwent May. 1974. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1978.
   • The Return of the Native. 1878. Ed. George Woodcock. 1978. Penguin English Library. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
   • The Return of the Native. 1878. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by R. M. 1971. London: The Folio Society, 1991.
8. The Trumpet-Major. [Romances and Fantasies] (1880)
   • The Trumpet-Major: John Loveday, A Soldier in the War with Buonaparte and Robert His Brother, First Mate in the Merchant Service. A Tale. 1880. Ed. Ray Evans. The Macmillan Students’ Hardy. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1975.
   • The Trumpet-Major: John Loveday, A Soldier in the War with Buonaparte and Robert His Brother, A Tale. 1880. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by Paul I. Webb. 1990. London: The Folio Society, 1991.
9. A Laodicean: A Story of To-day. [Novels of Ingenuity] (1881)
   • A Laodicean: A Story of To-day. 1881. Introduction by Barbara Hardy. Notes by Ernest Hardy. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1975.
10. Two on a Tower: A Romance. [Romances and Fantasies] (1882)
    • Two on a Tower. 1882. Introduction by F. B. Pinion. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1975.
11. The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. [Novels of Character and Environment] (1886)
    • The Mayor of Casterbridge. 1886. Introduction by Ian Gregor. Notes by Bryn Caless. 1974. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1978.
    • The Mayor of Casterbridge. 1886. Ed. Martin Seymour-Smith. 1978. Penguin English Library. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
    • The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Story of a Man of Character. 1886. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by R. M. 1968. London: The Folio Society, 1991.
12. The Woodlanders. [Novels of Character and Environment] (1887)
    • The Woodlanders. 1887. Pocket Papermacs. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd. / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1969.
    • The Woodlanders. 1887. Ed. James Gibson. Introduction by Ian Gregor. 1981. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.
13. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented. [Novels of Character and Environment] (1891)
    • Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman. 1891. Introduction by P. N. Furbank. 1974. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1978.
    • Tess of the d'Urbervilles. 1891. Ed. David Skilton. Introduction by A. Alvarez. 1978. Penguin English Library. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
    • Tess of the d'Urbervilles. 1891. Ed. Juliet Grindle & Simon Gatrell. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.
    • Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Faithfully Presented. 1891. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. Introduction by Elspeth Sandys. 1988. London: The Folio Society, 1991.
14. The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament. [Romances and Fantasies] (1892 / 1897)
    • The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament. 1897. Introduction by J. Hillis Miller. Notes by Edward Mendelson. The New Wessex Edition. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1975.
    • The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved & The Well-Beloved. 1892 & 1897. Ed. Patricia Ingham. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1997.
15. Jude the Obscure. [Novels of Character and Environment] (1895)
    • Jude the Obscure. 1895. Ed. T. R. Wightman. The Macmillan Students’ Hardy. London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1975.
    • Jude the Obscure. 1895. Ed. C. H. Sisson. 1978. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.



Thomas Hardy: Wessex Tales (1888)


Collections:


16. Wessex Tales. [Novels of Character and Environment] (1888) [WT]
17. A Group of Noble Dames. [Romances and Fantasies] (1891) [GND]
18. Life's Little Ironies. [Novels of Character and Environment] (1894) [LLI]
19. A Changed Man and Other Tales (1913) [CM]
20. The Short Stories (1928)
    • The Short Stories: Wessex Tales; Life's Little Ironies; A Group of Noble Dames; A Changed Man and Other Tales. 1888, 1894, 1891, 1913. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1928.
21. Personal Writings: Prefaces, Literary Opinions, Reminiscences (1966) [PW]
    • Personal Writings: Prefaces, Literary Opinions, Reminiscences. Ed. Harold Orel. 1966. London: Macmillan, 1967.
    • Thomas Hardy’s Personal Writings: Prefaces, Literary Opinions, Reminiscences. Ed. Harold Orel. 1966. Lawrence: The University of Kansas Press, 1969.
22. Old Mrs Chundle and Other Stories (1977) [OMC]
    • 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.
23. The Distracted Preacher and Other Tales (1979)
    • The Distracted Preacher and Other Tales. Ed. Susan Hill. Penguin English Library. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979.
24. Collected Short Stories (1988)
    • Collected Short Stories. The New Wessex Edition of the Stories of Thomas Hardy. Ed. F. B. Pinion. 1977. Introduction by Desmond Hawkins. 1988. The Papermac Hardy. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1994.
25. The Excluded and Collaborative Stories. Ed. Pamela Dalziel. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. [EC]

Short Stories:


1. How I Built Myself a House (1865) [PW] [EC]
2. Destiny and a Blue Cloak (1874) [OMC] [EC]
3. The Thieves Who Couldn't Stop Sneezing (1877) [OMC] [EC]
4. An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress (1878) [OMC] [EC]
   • An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress. 1878. Ed. Terry Coleman. London: Hutchinson & Co (Publishers) Ltd., 1976.
5. The Duchess of Hamptonshire (1878) [GND]
6. The Distracted Preacher (1879) [WT]
7. Fellow-Townsmen (1880) [WT]
8. The Honourable Laura (1881) [GND]
9. What the Shepherd Saw (1881) [CM]
10. A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four (1882) [WT]
11. The Three Strangers (1883) [WT]
12. The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid (1883) [CM]
13. Interlopers at the Knap (1884) [WT]
14. A Mere Interlude (1885) [CM]
15. A Tryst at an Ancient Earthwork (1885) [CM]
16. Alicia's Diary (1887) [CM]
17. The Waiting Supper (1887–88) [CM]
18. The Withered Arm (1888) [WT]
19. A Tragedy of Two Ambitions (1888) [LLI]
20. The First Countess of Wessex (1889) [GND]
21. Anna, Lady Baxby (1890) [GND]
22. The Lady Icenway (1890) [GND]
23. Lady Mottisfont (1890) [GND]
24. The Lady Penelope (1890) [GND]
25. The Marchioness of Stonehenge (1890) [GND]
26. Squire Petrick's Lady (1890) [GND]
27. Barbara of the House of Grebe (1890) [GND]
28. The Melancholy Hussar of The German Legion (1890) [WT]
29. Absent-Mindedness in a Parish Choir (1891) [LLI]
30. The Winters and the Palmleys (1891) [LLI]
31. For Conscience' Sake (1891) [LLI]
32. Incident in the Life of Mr. George Crookhill (1891) [LLI]
33. The Doctor's Legend (1891) [OMC] [EC]
34. Andrey Satchel and the Parson and Clerk (1891) [LLI]
35. The History of the Hardcomes (1891) [LLI]
36. Netty Sargent's Copyhold (1891) [LLI]
37. On the Western Circuit (1891) [LLI]
38. A Few Crusted Characters: Introduction (1891) [LLI]
39. The Superstitious Man's Story (1891) [LLI]
40. Tony Kytes, the Arch-Deceiver (1891) [LLI]
41. To Please His Wife (1891) [LLI]
42. The Son's Veto (1891) [LLI]
43. Old Andrey's Experience as a Musician (1891) [LLI]
44. Our Exploits At West Poley (1892–93) [OMC] [EC]
    • Our Exploits at West Poley. 1892-93. Introduction by Richard L. Purdy. 1952. Illustrated by John Lawrence. 1978. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
45. Master John Horseleigh, Knight (1893) [CM]
46. The Fiddler of the Reels (1893) [LLI]
47. An Imaginative Woman (1894) [LLI]
48. The Spectre of the Real (1894) [EC]
49. A Committee-Man of 'The Terror' (1896) [CM]
50. The Duke's Reappearance (1896) [CM]
51. The Grave by the Handpost (1897) [CM]
52. A Changed Man (1900) [CM]
53. Enter a Dragoon (1900) [CM]
54. Blue Jimmy: The Horse Stealer (1911) [EC]
55. Old Mrs. Chundle (1929) [OMC] [EC]
56. The Unconquerable (1992) [EC]



Thomas Hardy: Wessex Poems (1899)


Poetry:


26. Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898)
27. Poems of the Past and the Present (1901)
28. Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses (1909)
29. Satires of Circumstance (1914)
30. Moments of Vision (1917)
31. Collected Poems (1919)
32. Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses (1922)
33. Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925)
34. Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres (1928)
35. Collected Poems (1930)
    • The Collected Poems. ['Wessex Poems and Other Verses' (1898); 'Poems of the Past and the Present' (1901); 'Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses' (1909); 'Satires of Circumstance' (1914); Moments of Vision' (1917); 'Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses' (1922); 'Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles' (1925); 'Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres' (1928)]. 1930. London: Macmillan, 1974.
36. A Selection of Poems. Ed. W. E. Williams (1960)
    • Thomas Hardy: A Selection of Poems. Ed. W. E. Williams. The Penguin Poets. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960.
37. The Complete Poems. Ed. James Gibson (1976)
38. The Variorum Edition of The Complete Poems. Ed. James Gibson (1979)
    • The Variorum Edition of The Complete Poems. Ed. James Gibson. London: Macmillan, 1979.
39. The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy. Ed. Samuel Hynes. 5 vols. Oxford English Texts (1982-1995)
    • Volume 1: Wessex Poems; Poems of the Past and the Present; Time’s Laughingstocks. 1898, 1901, 1909. Illustrated by the Author. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.



Thomas Hardy: The Dynasts (1904-8)


Drama:


40. The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon (1904-08)
    1. Part 1 (1904)
    2. Part 2 (1906)
    3. Part 3 (1908)
       • Included in: The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon, Part III / The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall. 1908 & 1923. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1925.
    • The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon. 1904, 1906, 1908. Introduction by John Wain. Pocket Papermacs. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd. / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1965.
41. The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at Tintagel in Lyonnesse (1923)
    • Included in: The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon, Part III / The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall. 1908 & 1923. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1925.
    • Included in: 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.



Florence Hardy: The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840–1891 (1928)


Non-fiction:


42. Hardy, Florence. The Life of Thomas Hardy: The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840–1891; The Later Years of Thomas Hardy, 1892–1928. 1928 & 1930. London: Studio Editions, 1994.
43. The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy: An Edition on New Principles of the Materials Previously Drawn upon for The Early Life of Thomas Hardy 1840–1891 and The Later Years of Thomas Hardy 1892–1928 Published over the Name of Florence Emily Hardy. Ed. Michael Millgate. 1984. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1989.
44. Thomas Hardy's Public Voice: The Essays, Speeches, and Miscellaneous Prose. Ed. Michael Millgate. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001.



Richard H. Taylor, ed.: The Personal Notebooks of Thomas Hardy (1978)


Notebooks:


45. The Personal Notebooks of Thomas Hardy: With an Appendix Including the Unpublished Passages in the Original Typescripts of the Life of Thomas Hardy. Ed. Richard H. Taylor. London: The Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1978.
46. Thomas Hardy's 'Studies, Specimens &c.' Notebook. Ed. Pamela Dalziel & Michael Millgate. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.



Carl J. Weber, ed.: ‘Dearest Emmie’: Thomas Hardy’s Letters to His First Wife (1963)


Letters:


47. ‘Dearest Emmie’: Thomas Hardy’s Letters to His First Wife. Ed. Carl J. Weber. London: Macmillan and Company Limited / New York: St. Martins’ Press Inc., 1963.
48. One Rare Fair Woman: Thomas Hardy’s Letters to Florence Henniker, 1893-1922. Ed. Evelyn Hardy & F. B. Pinion. Coral Gables, Florida: University Of Miami Press, 1972.
49. The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy. Ed. Richard Little Purdy, Michael Millgate & Keith Wilson. 8 vols. Oxford English Texts (1977-2012)
    • The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy. Volume III: 1902-1908. Ed. Richard Little Purdy & Michael Millgate. 8 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.



Denys Kay-Robinson: The First Mrs. Thomas Hardy (1979)


Secondary:


50. Cox, R. G. ed. Thomas Hardy: The Critical Heritage. The Critical Heritage Series. Ed. B. C. Southam. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970.
51. Firor, Ruth A. Folkways in Thomas Hardy. 1931. A Perpetua Book. New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, Inc., 1962.
52. Gittings, Robert. Young Thomas Hardy. 1975. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980.
53. Gittings, Robert. The Older Hardy. 1978. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980.
54. Gittings, Robert, & Jo Manton. The Second Mrs. Hardy. 1979. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
55. Hardy, Evelyn, & Robert Gittings, ed. Some Recollections by Emma Hardy, Thomas Hardy’s First Wife, Together with Some Relevant Poems by Thomas Hardy. 1961. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.
56. Kay-Robinson, Denys. The First Mrs. Thomas Hardy. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1979.
57. Lea, Hermann. Thomas Hardy’s Wessex: Illustrated from Photographs by the Author. 1913. London: Macmillan Ltd., 1977.
58. Lea, Hermann. The Hardy Guides: A Guide to the West Country. . Ed. Gregory Stevens Cox. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.
    1. Tess of the d’Urbervilles; Jude the Obscure; The Woodlanders; A Pair of Blue Eyes and other Works
    2. Far from the Madding Crowd; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Under the Greenwood Tree; The Return of the Native and other Works
59. Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy: A Biography. 1982. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
60. Pinion, F. B. A Hardy Companion: a Guide to the Works of Thomas Hardy and Their Background. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd. / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1968.
61. Purdy, Richard Little. Thomas Hardy: A Bibliographical Study. 1954. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.
62. Tomalin, Claire. Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man. 2006. London: Penguin, 2007.

Roman Polanski, dir.: Tess (1979)

•

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

•

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

1930s Vintage Library

•

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!

•

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.]

•

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.

•

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:

•

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)




•

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)




•

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)




•

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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