Acquisitions (96): Vita Sackville-West

Vita Sackville-West: The Land & The Garden (1989)

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Vita Sackville-West: Vita Sackville-West (1915)



Vita Sackville-West: The Land & The Garden (1989)
[Finally Books - Hospice Bookshop, Birkenhead - 18/7/2023]:

Vita Sackville-West. The Land & The Garden: A New Edition. 1927 & 1946. Illustrated by Peter Firmin. Introduction by Nigel Nicolson. Exeter, Devon: Webb & Bower (Publishers) Limited, 1989.

Vita Sackville-West: The Land (1926)

The Land

As we were watching Christopher Nolan's brilliant new movie Oppenheimer the other day, I noticed a copy of T. S. Eliot's Waste Land among the books piled on the angst-ridden young physicist's bedside table.

T. S. Eliot: The Waste Land (1922)

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain ...

They're probably the best-known lines in twentieth-century poetry.

Mind you, these cinematic pans over the shelves to establish the credentials of a protagonist as an all-round brainbox are a fairly familiar device: the one in Apocalypse Now, where Colonel Kurtz's books are shown to include well-thumbed copies of Frazer's Golden Bough and Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance, is justly famous.

Christopher Nolan, dir.: Oppenheimer (2023)

Christopher Nolan is (imho) right not to despise these humble tools of the historical filmmaker. It makes sense in context, and fits in with the emphasis on Sanskrit - also extensively referenced in Eliot's poem - later on the film.

What struck me about it most, though, was the date. Eliot's poem first appeared in 1922, when it caused an immediate sensation. Vita Sackville-West, whose long pastoral poem The Land I bought a copy of the other day in a Hospice Shop, wrote most of it in exile in Persia, where her husband Harold Nicolson's diplomatic posting had taken the young couple.

I'm not, it would appear, the first to spot the resemblance between the two books:

Some critics have read Sackville-West’s poem as a response to the bleaker outlook and modernist style of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, which was published four years prior. Where Eliot’s work is famously difficult, pushing the boundaries of form, Sackville-West’s turn to tradition can be seen as an act of literary conservatism.

- Wikipedia

Hers begins (not quite so catchily):

I sing the cycle of my country's year,
I sing the tillage, and the reaping sing,
Classic monotony, that modes and wars
Leave undisturbed, unbettered, for their best
Was born immediate, of expediency ...

Virginia Woolf: Orlando: A Biography (1928)

Despite the defiant conservatism - and rather forced classicism - of her poetry (she admitted later to not having read Virgil's Georgics - the obvious prototype for The Land - until she was halfway through her own epic), within a couple of years of its publication Vita Sackville-West would inspire what her son Nigel Nicolson called "the longest and most charming love letter in literature": her friend (and lover) Virginia Woolf's strange, history-bending, gender-fluid novel Orlando - perhaps more familiar to many of us from Sally Potter's 1992 film adaptation:

Sally Potter, dir.: Orlando (1992)

So there you have it - on the one hand, a fussily dressed, bowler-hatted banker, soon to turn gentleman-publisher, whose private life was a long struggle against the anarchic disorder represented by his first wife Vivienne:

‘My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
I never know what you are thinking. Think.’

I think we are in rats’ alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

On the other hand, we have an androgynous, bisexual rebel, married to a closeted homosexual diplomat and politician. Who's the maverick now?

Brian Gilbert, dir.: Tom & Viv (1994)

Putting it another way, any attempts which have so far been made to dramatise T. S. Eliot's private life have foundered on the fact that most people would rather read him than read about him. He's just not that interesting once you get him off the page. It's the discordant, jazz age cacophany of Eliot's nightmarish vision of London in the First World War that counts - not the sad details of his admittedly tempestuous marriage.

Stephen Whittaker, dir.: Portrait of a Marriage (1990)

Vita, by contrast, is rather dull on the page - despite her immense industry as a novelist, biographer, and writer about gardens (her true passion, we're told) - but riveting to read about. The epigraph to the miniseries above - based on Nigel Nicolson's bestselling book about his parents - says it all: "They both took lovers - of either sex ..." Who wouldn't want to hear about all that?

Sarah Raven: Vita Sackville-West's Sissinghurst: The Creation of a Garden (2014)

And then, of course, there's Sissinghurst, the magnificent garden these two ill-assorted people created together. That, rather than The Land, is probably their true legacy - and the best tribute they could pay to the eternal verities of the English countryside. It's now run for the National Trust by Adam Nicolson, Vita and Harold's grandson, in partnership with his wife Sarah Raven, author of the book above.

Adam Nicolson: Sissinghurst: An Unfinished Story (2009)

Clearly authorship runs in the blood, as Adam too has written a book on the subject.

Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters (3 vols: 1966-68)

Once you get started on collecting books about the Sackville-West / Nicolson axis, though, it soon becomes apparent that there's no real end to it. Another recent find in a local secondhand shop was the three volumes of Harold Nicolson's diary, edited - like Portrait of a Marriage - by his long-suffering son Nigel. I haven't yet read it, but it's said to be one of the great twentieth-century diaries, if only for its insider's view of British politics before, during and after the Second World War.

In the meantime, the Virginia Woolf connection alone continues to spawn theses and books by the cartload, as the cartoon below attests:

Summer Pierre: The Love Letters of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West (2021)

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William Strang: Lady with a Red Hat (1918)

Victoria Mary Sackville-West, The Hon Lady Nicolson
[Vita Sackville-West]
(1892-1962)

Books I own are marked in bold:

Peter Firmin: Illustration for The Land & The Garden (1989)

Poetry:


1. Timgad (1900)
2. Constantinople: Eight Poems (1915)
3. Poems of West & East (1917)
4. The Land (1926)
   • The Land. 1926. Windmill Library. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1933.
   • Included in: The Land & The Garden: A New Edition. 1927 & 1946. Illustrated by Peter Firmin. Introduction by Nigel Nicolson. Exeter, Devon: Webb & Bower (Publishers) Limited, 1989.
5. King's Daughter (1929)
6. Invitation to Cast Out Care (1931)
7. Sissinghurst (1931
8. Collected Poems (1933)
9. Solitude: A Poem (1938)
10. The Garden (1946)
    • Included in: The Land & The Garden: A New Edition. 1927 & 1946. Illustrated by Peter Firmin. Introduction by Nigel Nicolson. Exeter, Devon: Webb & Bower (Publishers) Limited, 1989.
11. Lost poem (or A Madder Caress) (2013)

Fiction:


12. Heritage (1919)
13. The Dragon in Shallow Waters (1920)
14. Challenge (1920)
15. Orchard and Vineyard: Stories (1921)
16. The Heir: A Love Story (1922)
    • Included in: Seducers in Ecuador & The Heir. 1924, 1922. Introduction by Lisa St Aubin de Terán. Virago Modern Classics. London: Virago Press Limited, 1997.
17. Grey Wethers: A Romantic Novel (1923)
18. Seducers in Ecuador (1924)
    • Included in: Seducers in Ecuador & The Heir. 1924, 1922. Introduction by Lisa St Aubin de Terán. Virago Modern Classics. London: Virago Press Limited, 1997.
19. The Edwardians (1930)
20. All Passion Spent (1931)
21. Family History (1932)
22. The Death of Noble Godavary (1932)
23. Thirty Clocks Strike the Hour, and Other Stories (1932)
24. The Dark Island (1934)
25. Grand Canyon: A Novel (1942)
26. Devil at Westease: The Story as Related by Roger Liddiard (1947)
27. Nursery Rhymes (1947)
28. The Easter Party (1953)
29. No Signposts in the Sea (1961)

Children's Books:


30. A Note of Explanation [written for Queen Mary's Dolls' House in 1924] (2017)

Plays:


31. Chatterton: A Drama in Three Acts (1909)

Biographies:


32. Aphra Behn, the incomparable Astrea (1927)
33. Andrew Marvell (1929)
34. Saint Joan of Arc (1936)
35. Pepita (1937)
36. The Eagle and the Dove, a Study in Contrasts: St. Teresa of Avila and St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1943)
37. Walter de la Mare and The Traveller (1953)
38. Daughter of France: the life of Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchesse de Montpensier, 1627-1693, La Grande Mademoiselle (1959)

Guides & Travel-Books:


39. Knole and the Sackvilles (1922)
40. Passenger to Teheran (1926)
41. Twelve Days: An Account of a Journey across the Bakhtiari Mountains of South-western Persia [aka Twelve Days in Persia] (1927)
42. [with Beverley Nichols, Compton Mackenzie, & Marion Dudley Cran] How Does Your Garden Grow? (1935)
43. Some Flowers (1937)
44. Country Notes (1939)
45. Country Notes in Wartime (1940)
46. English Country Houses (1941)
47. The Women's Land Army (1944)
48. Exhibition Catalogue: Elizabethan Portraits (1947)
49. Knole, Kent (1948)
50. In Your Garden (1951)
51. In Your Garden Again (1953)
52. More for Your Garden (1955)
53. Even More for Your Garden (1958)
54. Joy of Gardening: A Selection for Americans (1958)
55. Berkeley Castle (1960)
56. Faces: Profiles of Dogs. Photographs by Laelia Goehr (1961)
57. Garden Book (1975)
58. Hidcote Manor Garden, Gloucestershire (1976)
59. Une Anglaise en Orient (1993)

Translations:


60. Rainer Maria Rilke. Duineser Elegien: Elegies from the Castle of Duino. Trans. V. & Edward Sackville-West (1931)

Edited:


61. Another World Than This ..: An Anthology (1945)



Nigel Nicolson: Portrait of a Marriage (1990)


Letters:


62. Dearest Andrew: letters from V. Sackville-West to Andrew Reiber, 1951-1962 (1979)
63. The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf. Ed. Louise A. DeSalvo & Mitchell A. Leaska (1984)
    • The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf. Ed. Louise DeSalvo & Mitchell A. Leaska. 1984. London: Virago Press Limited, 1992.
64. Vita and Harold: The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson (1992)
    • Vita & Harold: The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, 1910-1962. Ed. Nigel Nicolson. 1992. A Phoenix Paperback. London: Orion Books Ltd., 1993.
65. Violet to Vita: The Letters of Violet Trefusis to Vita Sackville-West, 1910–1921. Ed. Mitchell A. Leaska & John Phillips (1991)
66. Portrait of a Marriage: Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. Ed. Nigel Nicolson (1973)
    • Nicolson, Nigel. Portrait of a Marriage. 1973. London: George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd., 1990.
    • Nicolson, Nigel. Portrait of a Marriage. 1973. Illustrated Edition. London: George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd., 1990.
67. [with Virginia Woolf] Love Letters: Vita and Virginia. Introduction by Alison Bechdel (2021)

Secondary:


68. Bell, Quentin. Virginia Woolf: A Biography. 2 vols. 1972. A Paladin Book. Frogmore, St. Albans, Herts.: Triad Paperbacks Ltd., 1976.
69. Glendinning, Victoria. Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West. 1983. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.
70. Nicolson, Harold. Diaries and Letters 1930–1939. Ed. Nigel Nicolson. 1966. London: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1967.
71. Nicolson, Harold. Diaries and Letters 1939–1945. Ed. Nigel Nicolson. London: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1967.
72. Nicolson, Harold. Diaries and Letters 1945–1962. Ed. Nigel Nicolson. London: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1968.
73. Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. 1928. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1945.
74. The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Ed. Anne Olivier Bell, with Andrew McNeillie. Introduction by Quentin Bell. 5 vols. 1977-84. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979-85.
75. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Ed. Nigel Nicolson, with Joanne Trautmann. 6 vols. London: The Hogarth Press, 1975-1980.
    1. The Flight of the Mind: 1888-1912 (Virginia Stephen) (1975)
    2. The Question of Things Happening: 1912-1922 (1976)
    3. A Change of Perspective: 1923-1928 (1977)
    4. A Reflection of the Other Person: 1929-1931 (1978)
    5. The Sickle Side of the Moon: 1932-1935 (1979)
    6. Leave the Letters Till We're Dead: 1936-1941. 1980 (1983)

Virginia Woolf & Vita Sackville-West: Love Letters (2021)

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

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Acquisitions (40): A Baker's Dozen of 6-volume Sets

Antiquarian Books

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Edwardian Inlaid Book Trough

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

'Daddy, what did you do in the Great War?' (1914-15)

'What did you do during the Covid-19 lockdown?' might be a more contemporary version of the question from this classic British recruiting poster. Sat at home in my bubble, mostly, with occasional trips to the park and expeditions to the local supermarket, would have to be my answer.

For the most part, though, I tried to organise my book collection - adding plastic covers to those books that seemed to need them, and continuing to map their positions on the shelves for easy access.

Does that sound futile? No doubt. I was working as well, but there are only so many hours a day one can spend marking assignments and organising zoom tutorials. Part of the fruits of my labours is this list of sets of books in my collection. Enjoy - and please don't judge me too harshly ...

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

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

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

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

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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.

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Joseph Addison: The Works (1901-06)

1. Joseph Addison. The Works. Ed. Richard Hurd. Rev. Henry Bohn. 6 vols. Bohn’s Standard Library. London: George Bell and Sons, 1901-06.
1. Plays; Poems; Medals (1906)
2. The Tatler; The Spectator (1901)
3. The Spectator (cont.) (1906)
4. The Spectator (cont.); The Guardian; The Freeholder (1902)
5. The Freeholder (cont.); On the Christian Religion; Letters (1902)
6. Letters (cont.); Addisoniana (1902)



There are certain recurrent numbers in the book-trade - books are grouped in sets of three, four, six, ten or twelve - less often five, seven, or nine. Hence the idea for this blogpost (as well as the companion one on sets of twelve books in my possession).

I do like these old Bohn Classics - they're surprisingly pleasant to read, though grey is perhaps not the most inspiring of colours.

As for Addison, well, I can't say I've (so far) read a great deal of his work: a few Spectator essays, some poems, but you never know when an edition of his collected works mightn't come in handy!



Sir Godfrey Kneller: Joseph Addison (1672-1719)




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R. W. Chapman. ed.: The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen (1923-54)



2. The Works of Jane Austen: 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. 6 vols.
1. Sense and Sensibility. 1811. 1923. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1949.
2. Pride and Prejudice. 1813. 1923. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege / Oxford University Press, 1952.
3. Mansfield Park. 1814. 1923. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948.
4. Emma. 1816. 1923. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege / Oxford University Press, 1952.
5. Northanger Abbey & Persuasion. 1818. 1923. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948.
6. Minor Works. Now First Collected and Edited from the Manuscripts. 1954. 3rd ed. Rev. B. C. Southam. 1969. London: Oxford University Press, 1975.



This, by contrast, is a bona fide classic. There's something rather delicious in the way that Chapman has tried to preserve even the accidental features of Austen's original publications. His claim that even her volume breaks are arranged for maximum dramatic effect is a bold one, but very persuasive in the case of Mansfield Park, in particular.

It's hard to imagine this edition ever being superseded. That's not to say that there isn't more - much more - to be said on the subject of Austen and her intentions, but simply that anything textually related will have to be based on the foundation of what the Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen has already achieved.



Cassandra Austen: Jane Austen (1775-1817)




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Richard Barber: Legends of King Arthur (2001)



3. Richard Barber. Legends. 1998 & 2000. 6 vols. London: The Folio Society, 2001 & 2002.
• Set I - Legends of King Arthur. Illustrated by Roman Pisarev. 3 vols (2001):
  1. Arthur
  2. Tristan
  3. The Holy Grail
• Set II - British Myths and Legends. Illustrated by John Vernon Lord. 3 vols (2002):
  1. Marvels and Magic
  2. Heroes and Saints
  3. History and Romance



I do have rather a soft spot for these multi-volumed Folio Society reprints of books originally far less inspiring in appearance.

These two, together, perform the very useful function of providing a clearly written summary of the legendarium of England, free from the archaic phrasing of Caxton, Malory, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and many others. I can certainly imagine it providing a wonderful introduction to the subject for younger readers, as well as those of us who have at one time or another struggled through the originals.

Mind you, as Caxton put it in his preface to the Morte d'Arthur, "for to pass the time this book shall be pleasant to read in, but for to give faith and belief that all is true that is contained herein, ye be at your liberty."



Richard Barber: British Myths and Legends (2002)




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William Blake: The Illuminated Books (1991-95)



4. William Blake. The Illuminated Books. 6 vols. London: The William Blake Trust & The Tate Gallery / Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991-95.
1. Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion. Ed. M. D. Paley (1991)
2. Songs of Innocence and Experience. Ed. A. Lincoln (1991)
3. The Early Illuminated Books. Ed. M. Eaves, R. N. Essick & J. Viscomi (1993)
4. The Continental Prophecies. Ed. D. W. Dörrbecker (1995)
5. Milton a Poem. Ed. R. N. Essick & J. Viscomi (1993)
6. The Urizen Books. Ed. D. Worrall (1995)



There have been many attempts to reprint Blake's prophetic books. This is one of the most sumptuous. Of course, the problem is that the colouring of each copy - whether done by Blake himself or by Mrs. Blake - is unique.

Having said that, there are certain consistencies. Late copies tend to be far richer in purples and violets than the more delicate water-colour hues the little family business started off with.

That proviso apart, this is probably as good a set of his master-works as we're ever likely to see.



William Blake: The Illuminated Books (1991-95)




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Geoffrey Keynes, ed.: The Works of Sir Thomas Browne (1928-31)



5. The Works of Sir Thomas Browne. Ed. Geoffrey Keynes. 6 vols. London: Faber & Gwyer / New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1928-31.
1. Religio Medici; Christian Morals; A Letter to a Friend (1928)
2. Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Books I-III (1928)
3. Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Books IV-VII (1928)
4. Hydrotaphia; Brampton Urns: The Garden of Cyrus (1929)
5. Miscellany Tracts; Repertorium; Miscellaneous Writings (1931)
6. Letters (1931)



It's hard to describe the charm of Browne's work to someone who hasn't experienced it. It sounds dry-as-dust, but actually it's anything but that.

It's no accident that he was one of Jorge Luis Borges's favourite authors. The two shared an affinity for the weird, the recondite, and the paradoxical.

There may be more scholarly annotated editions out there, but this one - edited by bibliographer and pioneering Blake scholar Geoffrey Keynes - is certainly one of the most beautiful books of its era, the late 1920s.



John Wollaston: Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)




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R. W. Franklin, ed.: The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition (1998)



6. Emily Dickinson. Poems / Letters. 6 vols. 1955 & 1958. Cambridge, Mass & London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998 & 1979.
1. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition. Ed. R. W. Franklin. 3 vols (1998)
2. The Letters of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Thomas H. Johnson, with Associate Editor Theodora Ward. 3 vols. 1958 (1979)



No matter what your opinion of the merits of the Belle of Amherst, you'll certainly find her work most commodiously presented in these handsome hardback volumes.

A variorum edition of the poems was definitely necessary, given her equivocal views on revision and alternative readings.

The letters are, perhaps, the true treasure here, though. They read as much as a family drama as an intellectual autobiography, and are indispensable to any true appreciation of her work.



Thomas H. Johnson & Theodora Ward, ed.: The Letters of Emily Dickinson (1958)




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F. Scott Fitgerald: The Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald (1958-63)



7. F. Scott Fitgerald. The Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald. London: The Bodley Head, 1958-63.
1. The Great Gatsby; The Last Tycoon and Some Shorter Pieces. 1925, 1941. Introduction by J. B. Priestley (1958)
2. Tender is the Night; Autobiographical Pieces; Letters to Frances Scott Fitzgerald and Four Short Stories. 1934 (1959)
3. This Side of Paradise; The Rich Boy; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Cut-Glass Bowl and Other Short Stories (1960)
4. The Beautiful and Damned. 1922 & 1961. Rev. ed. 1967 (1979)
5. Short Stories – I. Early Successes; II. Glamour and Disillusionment. Ed. Malcolm Cowley. 1951 (1963)
6. Short Stories – III. Retrospective: Basil and Josephine; IV. Last Act and Epilogue. Ed. Malcolm Cowley. 1951 (1963)



There's something rather beautiful about these Bodley Head sets of particular writers - Max Beerbohm, Ford Madox Ford, Jack London, and Henry James are some of the others.

While I have myself reluctantly concluded that Fitzgerald was essentially a one-book man - The Great Gatsby seems somehow to encapsulate almost all that he had to say in the fictional form - I do find many of his shorter pieces very accomplished, and it's a pleasure to read him in this form.

Mind you, the flow of posthumous and uncollected stories seems still to be steadily accreting. And some of this new material is undeniably interesting - but there's not much there to change the views one would form from these six elegant volumes.



F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)




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Edward Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1910)



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.



I've told elsewhere the true tale of my acquisition of these volumes.

They're certainly not a patch on David Womersley's Penguin Classics edition, but they remain very attractive, especially now they've been given a set of new mylar covers.

I've only made it all the way to the end of Gibbon's great work once, though I've read the first couple of volumes a number of times. He remains one of my favourite authors, though - perhaps because his matter-of-fact approach to the history of the early church seems to me so refreshingly honest.



Henry Walton: Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)




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Henry James: Complete Novels (1983-2011)



9. The Novels of Henry James. 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.
1. Novels 1871-1880: Watch and Ward / Roderick Hudson / The American / The Europeans / Confidence. 1871, 1875, 1877, 1878 & 1879. Ed. William T. Stafford. The Library of America, 13 (1983)
2. Novels 1881-1886: Washington Square / The Portrait of a Lady / The Bostonians. 1880, 1881 & 1886. Ed. William T. Stafford. The Library of America, 29 (1985)
3. Novels 1886-1890: The Princess Casamassima / The Reverberator / The Tragic Muse. 1886, 1888 & 1890. Ed. Daniel Mark Fogel. The Library of America, 43 (1989)
4. Novels 1896-1899: The Other House / The Spoils of Poynton / What Maisie Knew / The Awkward Age. 1896, 1897, 1897 & 1899. Ed. Myra Jehlen. The Library of America, 139 (2003)
5. Novels 1901-1902: The Sacred Fount / The Wings of the Dove. 1901 & 1902. Ed. Leo Bersani. The Library of America, 162 (2006)
6. Novels 1903-1911: The Ambassadors / The Golden Bowl / The Outcry / Appendix: “The Married Son.” 1903, 1904, 1911 & 1908. Ed. Ross Posnock. The Library of America, 215 (2011)



The textual history of Henry James's novels and stories was greatly complicated by his decision to revise most of them substantially for the 24-volume New York edition (1907-1909). This entailed turning his clear early prose into the more tortuous idiolect of his later style, with predictably uneven results. The Library of America has therefore attempted to reproduce the first book-form of each novel, rather than these later versions, which are - in any case - readily available elsewhere.

I actually have a facsimile edition of the printer's copy for the revised text of The American (1877), which really has to be seen to be believed. Certainly no-one can accuse James of undertaking the task lightly. Virtually every page has extensive additions and changes, including the notorious 'his cheek knew the kiss of the matitutinal steel' for the original 'he was clean-shaven.'



Henry James: Novels 1903-1911 (2011)




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Polybius: The Histories (1922-27)



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.



Polybius wrote a history of his own times which included an eye-witness account of the sack of Carthage in the Third Punic War.

That is, in fact, his principal subject matter: the struggle between Rome and Carthage for domination of the Mediterranean.

These dual-text Loeb editions can be somewhat cumbrous to read, but are indispensable if one wants to know precisely what some ancient author or other actually said. And that can matter just as much in the case of an historian as an epic poet or dramatist.



Polybius (c.200-118 BCE)




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Rainer Maria Rilke: Sämtliche Werke (1955-66)



11. Rainer Maria Rilke. Sämtliche Werke. Ed. Rilke Archive, with Ruth Sieber-Rilke & Ernst Zinn. 6 vols. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1955-1966.
1. Erster Band: Gedichte, Erster Teil. 1955 (1982)
2. Zweiter Band: Gedichte, Zweiter Teil. 1956 (1982)
3. Dritter Band: Jugendgedichte. 1959 (1982)
4. Vierter Band: Frühe Erzählungen und Dramen. 1961 (1978)
5. Fünfter Band: Worpswede; Auguste Rodin; Aufsätze. 1965 (1984)
6. Sechster Band: Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge; Prosa 1906 bis 1926 (1966)



I had a long period of Rilke-fixation during my undergraduate years at Auckland University. J. B. Leishman's translations of his works were the the easiest to get hold of then, and I developed quite a taste for his careful, accurate - though somewhat uninpired - versions. I felt that they took me closer to the original poems than later, more impressionistic recreations.

I was also taking my first steps in German at the time (we'd only had Russian and French as foreign languages at school - no Latin or German, so I tried to repair my deficiencies in both areas in my first few years at the University of Auckland.

This is the standard version of Rilke's collected works, in a very handsome hardback edition.



Leonid Pasternak: Rilke (1875-1926)




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William Robertson: Works (1826)



12. The Works of William Robertson, D.D. 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.
1. The History of Scotland: 1542-1603 (1759) (1)
2. The History of Scotland: 1542-1603 (1759) (2)
3. The History of the Reign of Emperor Charles V (1769) (1)
4. The History of the Reign of Emperor Charles V (1769) (2)
5. The History of America (1777) (1)
6. The History of America (1777) (2) / An Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge Which the Ancients Had of India (1791)



Reading the work of eighteenth and nineteenth century historians is now more of a pastime for literary scholars than actual students of history. It's generally assumed that subsequent research will have invalidated their conclusions and superseded many of their facts.

This may well be so - especially in the case of Robertson's History of America, which records his intense scepticism about the state of civilisation in Mexico and Peru before their conquest by the Spanish.

Having spent a good deal of time poring over the pages of Macaulay, Motley, Prescott and Parkman, however, I have to say that I do think there are still things to be learnt from these authors - certainly in terms of narrative cohesion, even if many of their details are now unreliable.

This is one of various books I purchased from Professor Peter Lineham on his retirement. It certainly couldn't have gone to a more appreciative home.



William Robertson (1721-1793)




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Virginia Woolf: The Letters (1975-80)



13. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Ed. Nigel Nicolson, with Joanne Trautmann. 6 vols. London: The Hogarth Press, 1975-80.
1. The Flight of the Mind: 1888-1912 (Virginia Stephen) (1975)
2. The Question of Things Happening: 1912-1922 (1976)
3. A Change of Perspective: 1923-1928 (1977)
4. A Reflection of the Other Person: 1929-1931 (1978)
5. The Sickle Side of the Moon: 1932-1935 (1979)
6. Leave the Letters Till We're Dead: 1936-1941. 1980 (1983)



Virginia Woolf's letters and diaries have become a vital source of gossip about English intellectual life in the first half of the twentieth century. You name it, she's got a bitchy comment to make about it - which is very useful if one is studying any of these people in their own right.

You certainly can't fault her for telling it like it is. It might perhaps have been kinder to hold back on occasion, but as far as the all-important task of amusing posterity goes, she is the Queen of Confrontation ...

There are six volumes in this set of her collected letters, another six volumes of collected essays, and six volumes of diaries (5 in the main series, plus another book of early journals). It's possible that these books are more assiduously pored over now than any of her actual fiction, strange to say.

George Charles Beresford: Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

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Antiquarian Bookshop

So there you are. Clearly this principle could be applied ad infinitum: sets of five books, trilogies, etc. But you get the general idea.

Some people, I suppose, are turned off by the sheer concentrated wordage on offer in such multi-volume sets. I'm afraid I'm not one of them. C. S. Lewis is alleged to have said once that you couldn't find a book long enough or a cup of tea large enough for him. I don't know if I'd go to quite those lengths, but I certainly do like a long drawn-out reading project.

And going from volume to volume, rather than shifting bookmarks in some weighty tome, is by far my favourite way of doing it.

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

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