Chapter VIII: Part II: pp. (iv.) enclosing inset title-page printed in red and (3)

THE COUNTESS AND THE DANCER: Or HIGH LIFE IN VIENNA. A Comedy Drama in
Four Acts. Altered from a masterpiece of VICTORIEN SARDOU by CHARLES
READE. London: 1883. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8⅜). Pp. vi + 60. Grey
paper wrappers, printed in black; wording as title-page.

NOTE

The bibliography of Reade's plays is obscure and confusing. I have listed in the foregoing pages only those of the printed issue of which I have found certain evidence. He is known, however, to have written many more, some at least of which were probably printed privately. Wherefore it seems desirable here to supply such particulars as can be found of the writing and acting of Reade's other plays. The facts are taken mainly from Coleman's book, which contains as an appendix a good list of titles and dates of production. Unfortunately the book itself is so confusingly put together that text and appendix are far from complementary and at times even in conflict.

A. EARLY UNACTED PLAYS, WRITTEN BEFORE 1851.

THE WAY THINGS TURN.

THE DANGEROUS PATH.

THE LOST SISTERS.

MARGUERITE.

LUCREZIA BORGIA.

A LADY'S OATH.

CHRISTIE JOHNSTONE

(The novel of the same name was built, long after, on the ruins of
this unacceptable play).

B. ACTED PLAYS, WITH DATES OF FIRST PRODUCTION AND OTHER AVAILABLE
DETAILS.

THE VILLAGE TALE (produced 1852)

(Based on _Claudie_, by George Sand. Revived in 1872 under the title
_Rachel the Reaper_).

ART (produced 1852)

(An adaptation of _Tiridate_ and later christened _Nance Oldfield_).

NOBS AND SNOBS (produced 1854)

(Revived in 1865 under the title _Honour before Titles_).

THE FIRST PRINTER (produced 1854).

FREE LABOUR (produced 1870)

(A dramatic version of the novel _Put Yourself in his Place_).

SHILLY SHALLY (produced 1872)

(An unauthorized dramatization of Anthony Trollope's novel _Ralph
the Heir_. Reade's action in appropriating the story was deeply
resented by Trollope).

THE WANDERING HEIR (produced 1872 or 1873)

(A dramatic version of the story of the same name).

JEALOUSY (produced 1875)

(An adaptation of Sardou's comedy _Andrée_, and not to be confused
with Reade's dramatizations of his own novel _Griffith Gaunt_).

RACHEL THE REAPER (produced 1876)

(See above: _A Village Tale_).

JOAN (produced 1876)

(Dramatized, without permission, from _That Lass o' Lowries_, by
Mrs. Hodgson Burnett).

DRINK (produced 1879)

(Adapted from _L'Assommoir_ by Emile Zola).

SINGLE HEART AND DOUBLE FACE (produced 1882)

(A dramatic version of the story of the same name).

GEORGE JOHN WHYTE-MELVILLE
1821-1878

G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE

Although as an authority on matters sporting Whyte-Melville stands alone, it is yet impossible, with the best will in the world and with all the respect due to his personal chivalry and courage, to regard him in the rôle of novelist as anything but absurd.

His books, where they deal with the science and the joys of hunting, have the vivid appeal that only delighted conviction can give; but as fiction, as readings of life adequately expressed in English prose, they are negligible and often ludicrous.

Whyte-Melville, the sportsman, is a figure of dignity and inspiration; Whyte-Melville, the social novelist, is Ouida in breeches. That the breeches are of perfect cut may not disguise the conventional swagger of the legs they cover. The ways trodden by this author in his search for character and incident are the exclusive ways of Victorian landlordism. Their pavements are thronged with fair ladies and brave gentlemen, while in the roadway crowd the lower orders—some mildly criminal, some a little comic, but the majority joyous in their privilege to serve the brilliant purpose of their betters. The antics of these humble creatures are watched with kindly patronage by those to whom wealth and pleasure are a normal birthright. Conversing among themselves, heartily but with elegance, the Guardsmen and squirelings of the fashionable clubs find time to exchange gracious greeting with their poorer neighbours, whose uncouth speech strikes quaintly pleasant on their cultured ears. An instruction is given; half a sovereign changes hands; a cap is dutifully touched. God willed that of His creatures some be rich and others poor; let the former bear themselves honourably and remember (when not otherwise engaged) the duties of their station; let the latter be happy in the lot to which Providence has called them.

But genial condescension to his dependants is not the only or even the main business of the Whyte-Melville gentleman. His life has two absorbing interests—horses and ladies. To a point these interests merge. With identical _expertise_ he takes the points of a fine girl and of a blood mare. The former in her drawing-room, the latter in her stable, await in gleaming beauty his appreciative caress. At their point of ultimate usefulness, however, femininity and horseflesh part company. The latter is the hero's ally, the former his quarry in the chase; and while his adventures on horseback are told with the zest and knowledge of real authority, his exploits in lady-killing have the tedious unreality of a tale only half imagined and not a quarter lived.

It is for the falseness of his emotional writing that Whyte-Melville challenges comparison with Ouida. And, the comparison made, one is bound to concede victory to the latter. Both deal in the passions of the nobly born; but while the woman has at least the courage of bad taste, the man, fettered by good form, achieves no taste at all. Whyte-Melville's novels, like _Hamlet_, are full of quotations. He is the father of novelette; the wellspring of cliché. His lovely ladies are not women nor his gallants men: they are the dummies of suburban melodrama, exquisitely gowned, faultlessly tailored, mouthing the phrases of drawing-room passionates, but, even as dummies, failing to achieve that semblance of gilded sin that is their only purpose.

Nevertheless, despite their ineptitude, the books of Whyte-Melville compel a curious and obscure respect. Respect for what it were hard to say, for his written word is his own deadliest accuser. Sentences might be chosen almost at random from the novels of social life that would prove his possession of every fault possible to a novelist and to a writer of prose. And yet, through the screen of their fatuity, one has glimpses of the personality of the author himself—a personality at which one may make mock, but only with affection. This country gentleman turned novelist was an upright, guileless creature, hard riding, generous hearted, as unconscious of his innate snobbery as of his natural modesty, conventional because unaware of any world or school of thought beyond the narrow limits of his own. His pictures of England are as dull and as unreal as the pretty garden scenes in water-colour produced by county ladies to this day; but both the painter of these lifeless pictures and the comfortable amateurs responsible for horrid views of moorland and herbaceous border command a sort of wistful admiration. There is something so clean and easy and contented in the mentality from which these books and drawings spring that, if only it were not so stupid, so impenetrable to variety of idea, its passing might well be looked on with regret. Whyte-Melville's qualities, like those of the type he represents, are more obscure than his defects. The class of country gentleman to which he personally belonged is rapidly disappearing; when it is gone we shall wonder a little perplexedly why we miss it. It was so easy to ridicule, so pathetically a target for mockery and persecution. In our greater wisdom we have shot it to pieces, riddling its obtuse selfishness, its bland complacency, with the bullets of reforming zeal. But something fine will have perished with it, something indefinable but leaving a sense of gap, to remind us that destruction is never quite the discriminating triumph that iconoclasts claim for it in advance.

This, then, is one contemporary view of Whyte-Melville's novels, whose only demonstrable virtue is their sportsmanship. One may quote from _Market Harborough_, from _Riding Recollections_, even from the social stories, passages of speed and exhilaration, passages of unaffected wisdom and perception, descriptive of the hunting that, next to honour, he loved best of all that life could offer. In opposition may be printed page after page of stilted rhetoric, mawkish humour, the falsest of sentiment, the most wanton elaboration of noun and adjective. But after all quotation is done and a balance struck, there will still remain the elusive quality that gave character to the class from which the author came, an essence of breeding and tradition that no phrasing can crystallize, that vanishes in the moment of its expression. For this spiritual quality Whyte-Melville is admirable; for his literary faults he is unreadable. Such, in a nutshell, is the judgment of one reader who cannot excuse a book stupidity and pretentiousness for the sake of isolated passages of hunting lore, but seeks to appreciate in the character of a social generation that is fading fast, a distinction that to all seeming will fade with it.

There are, however, readers of other kinds, and for their sake and because among our grandmothers and our aunts the stories of Whyte-Melville were avidly admired, a summary classification of his books shall be attempted.

He began as a writer of autobiographies, of the part-fashionable, part-sporting, part-knockabout kind, the tradition of which came down from the eighteenth century, through Frederick Marryat, to a dozen writers of the hard-drinking, riotous forties. _Digby Grand_ (1853) and _Tilbury Nogo_ (1854) are essentially novels of this type, while in _Kate Coventry_ (1856) the author merely adapts the recipe to the needs of a girl heroine. _The Interpreter_ (1858) strikes a note of its own, for the scenes in the Crimea and in Turkey were drawn from the writer's experience and give a convincing picture of the period and its happenings. Apart from them, however, the book is an ordinary first-person record of the social wanderings of a young Englishman of family.

Between the second and the third of the books above mentioned had appeared _General Bounce_ (1855), a transitional novel, not wholly apart from those that preceded it, but halfway to a place among the stories of contemporary love-making and sport, of which the author was to produce a lengthy list. These novels of English society contain much of the most repellent of Whyte-Melville's work, although many have refreshing interludes of hunting and scenes on the racecourse or in the stable that will endear them to specialists in the genre, if they cannot reconcile others to the artificial tedium of the love stories and the clumsy contriving of the plots. Here are the titles of the social novels:

GENERAL BOUNCE (1855),
GOOD FOR NOTHING (1861),
THE BROOKES OF BRIDLEMERE (1864),
THE WHITE ROSE (1868),
M OR N (1869),
CONTRABAND (1871),
SATANELLA (1872),
UNCLE JOHN (1874),
ROY'S WIFE (1878),
BLACK BUT COMELY (1879).

Next in numerical importance are the costume novels, beloved of an earlier generation, but to the critical modern reader the poorest of poor stuff, so compact of Wardour Street, of hollow sentiment, and of forced, démodé attitude as to be intolerable.

HOLMBY HOUSE (1860)

(A tale of the Civil War with a strong bias in favour of the
Cavalier party),

THE QUEEN'S MARIES (1862)

(A romantic tribute to Mary, Queen of Scots),

THE GLADIATORS (1863)

(A novel of Rome and Judæa at the time of Christ),

CERISE (1866)

(An eighteenth-century tale),

SARCHEDON (1871)

(A novel centring round the figure of Semiramis),

SISTER LOUISE (1876)

(A novel of seventeenth-century France),

ROSINE (1877)

(A novel of the French Revolution).

There remain two books of purely sporting significance, and _Katerfelto_.

_Market Harborough_ (1861), the pride of the Pytchley, is hardly a novel. It is a string of hunting and horse-dealing episodes into which Whyte-Melville threw all that he had of science and of enthusiasm. _Riding Recollections_ (1878) are what their name implies. It is not for any but the expert to criticize these books, which are held in some quarters to be essential textbooks to a hunting education. _Katerfelto_ (1875) will also escape comment here, but for a different reason. Among my childhood memories this Exmoor tale glows adored, uncriticized. How will it read to-day? To put it to the test frightens me. I dare not open it.

EDITIONES PRINCIPES
FICTION, POETRY, ESSAYS

1850

HORACE: ODES, EPODES AND CARMEN SÆCULARE Translated into English verse
by G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE Esq., late Coldstream Guards. London:
Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Stationers Hall Court. 1850. 1 vol. Demy
8vo (5½ × 8½). Pp. (viii) + 120. Dark green cloth, blocked in gold
and blind. Yellow end-papers.

1853

DIGBY GRAND: An Autobiography. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. London: John
W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1853. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 303 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. iv + 312 + (4). No half-title. Publishers'
advertisements, paged 1-4, occupy pp. (313) to (316).

Red cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in February, 1853. The story
appeared serially in “Fraser's Magazine.”

1854

TILBURY NOGO: Or PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF AN UNSUCCESSFUL MAN. By the
author of _Digby Grand_. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly.
1854. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 8¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 310 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 348.

No half-titles. Brown cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in June, 1854. The story
appeared serially in “The Sporting Magazine.”

1855

GENERAL BOUNCE: Or THE LADY AND THE LOCUSTS. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE.
London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1855. 2 vols. Ex. Cr.
8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 296 + (4). Advertisement of _Digby Grand_
occupies verso of half-title. Publishers' advertisements, numbered 1
to 4, occupy pp. (297) to (300).

Vol. II. pp. iv + 278 + (2). No half-title. Publishers'
advertisements occupy pp. (279) to (280).

Pale brown cloth, gilt. Pale brick end-papers.

NOTE—Although dated 1855 this book was actually published in
December, 1854. The story appeared serially in “Fraser's
Magazine.”

1856

KATE COVENTRY: An Autobiography. Edited by G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE,
author of _Digby Grand_. Originally published in “Fraser's
Magazine.” London: John W. Parker and Son, West Strand. 1856. 1 vol.
Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾). Advertisement of books by the same author
occupies p. (323) and publishers' list p. (324). Scarlet ribbed
cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Chalk-blue end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in October, 1856.

[1857]

THE ARAB'S RIDE TO CAIRO: A Legend of the Desert. By G. J. WHYTE
MELVILLE. Illustrated and Illuminated by Mrs. Wolfe Murray. Seton &
Mackenzie, Edinburgh. Houlston & Stoneman, London. 1 vol. Fcap. 4to
(6⅞ × 8¼). Pp. 14. Red cloth, full gilt, blocked in gold, or green
morocco, full gilt, tooled in gold and black. Yellow end-papers.

NOTES—(i) This volume was published in January, 1857.

(ii) It is hardly a book in the ordinary sense, consisting,
as it does, of 14 pp. of stout card printed on one side
only. Each page is printed in three or more colours, vaguely
after the style of an illuminated MS. Pseudo-gothic
lettering is used throughout, and the whole volume is
typical of the Victorian table book at its most ornate.

1858

THE INTERPRETER: A Tale of the War. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, Author of
_Digby Grand_, _General Bounce_ etc. etc. Originally published in
“Fraser's Magazine.” London: John Parker and Son, West Strand. 1858.
1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅝). Pp. iv + 431 + (1). No half-title.
Publishers' catalogue, 8 pp., bound in at end. Red cloth, gilt,
blocked in black, uniform with _Kate Coventry_. Chocolate
end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in January, 1858.

1860

HOLMBY HOUSE: A Tale of Old Northants. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Author
of _Digby Grand_, _The Interpreter_ etc. Originally published in
“Fraser's Magazine.” London: John Parker and Son, West Strand, 1860.
2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 325 + (3). Pp. (i) and (ii) precede
frontispiece and form technically a half-title, but p. (i) is not
printed as such. Publishers' advertisements occupy pp. (327) and
(328).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 344 + (4). No half-title. Publishers'
advertisements, numbered 1 to 4, occupy pp. (345) to (348).

Frontispiece in coloured lithograph to Vol. I., printed separately.
Red-brown cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in March, 1860.

1861

MARKET HARBOROUGH: Or HOW MR. SAWYER WENT TO THE SHIRES. London:
Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1861. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7½).
Pp. viii + 312. Olive-green cloth, gilt. Yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in April, 1861.

1861

GOOD FOR NOTHING: Or ALL DOWN HILL. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Author of
_Digby Grand_, _The Interpreter_, _Holmby House_ etc. Originally
published in “Fraser's Magazine.” London: Parker, Son and Bourn,
West Strand. 1861. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 298 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy p.
(299).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 265 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp.
(267) and (268).

No half-titles. Maroon cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in December, 1861.

1862

MARKET HARBOROUGH: Or HOW MR. SAWYER WENT TO THE SHIRES. 4th Edition.
INSIDE THE BAR: Or SKETCHES AT SOAKINGTON. By the author of _Digby
Grand_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1862. 1 vol.
Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7½). Pp. iv + 393 + (3). Buff cloth, printed, in red
and black. White end-papers, of which the first inside front is
printed with publishers' advertisements.

NOTE—This volume is the first edition of _Inside the Bar_.
It was published in April, 1862.

1862

THE QUEEN'S MARIES: A Romance of Holyrood. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE,
Author of _Digby Grand_, _The Interpreter_, _Holmby House_, _Good
for Nothing_ etc. London: Parker, Son and Bourn, West Strand. 1862.
2 vols. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 304.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 254 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy p.
(255), and 8 pp. advertisements, printed on text paper but numbered
1 to 8, are bound in at end.

No half-titles, but in Vol. II. 2 pp. blank precede title. Violet
cloth, gilt. Chocolate end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in July, 1862.

1863

THE GLADIATORS: A Tale of Rome and Judæa. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE,
author of _Digby Grand_, _The Interpreter_, _Holmby House_, _The
Queen's Maries_ etc. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and
Green. 1863. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 324.

Vol. II. pp. iv + 305 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. iv + 291 + (1).

No half-titles. Red embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in gold and blind.
Pale chocolate end-papers.

NOTE—This book was announced for publication by Parker in
November, 1863. In January, 1864, it appeared over Longmans'
imprint, but dated 1863. Whether any copies are in existence
with a Parker imprint I do not know; if so they are the real
first edition.

1864

THE BROOKES OF BRIDLEMERE. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Author of _The
Gladiators_, _Digby Grant_ (sic), _The Interpreter_, _Holmby House_,
_The Queen's Maries_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly.
1864. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 293 + (3).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 307 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 293 + (3). Publishers' catalogue, 36 pp., and
dated October, 1864, bound in at end.

No half-titles. Red cloth, gilt. Pale yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published on October 29, 1864.

1866

CERISE: A Tale of the Last Century. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, author of
_The Gladiators_, _Digby Grand_, _The Brookes of Bridlemere_ etc.
London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1866. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo
(4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. iv + 309 + (3).

Vol. II. pp. iv + 301+ (3).

Vol. III. pp. iv + 318 + (2).

No half-titles. Magenta cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale cream
end-papers.

NOTES—(i) This book was published in April, 1866.

(ii) _Cerise_ was rapidly reprinted, and it is curious to
report that copies of the _third_ edition exist with
publishers' catalogue at the end of Vol. III. dated March,
1866—_i.e._, prior to the book's _first_ publication. The
first edition contained no catalogue.

1868

THE WHITE ROSE. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE, author of _Cerise_, _The
Gladiators_, _Brookes of Bridlemere_ etc. London: Chapman and Hall,
193 Piccadilly. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 262 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 263 + (1).

Vol. III. pp. vii + (i) + 252.

Red-purple cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in February, 1868.

1869

BONES AND I: Or THE SKELETON AT HOME. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE. Author
of _The Gladiators_, _Cerise_, _Digby Grand_ etc. London: Chapman
and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1869. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅜). Pp. iv +
287 + (1). No half-title. Brown cloth, gilt. Pale yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in June, 1869.

1869

SONGS AND VERSES. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. London: Chapman and Hall,
193 Piccadilly. 1869. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. vii + (i) + 136.
Errata slip inserted at p. 1. Dark red cloth, gilt, blocked in
black. Pale yellow end-papers.

NOTES—(i) This book was published in September, 1869.

(ii) The author revised and added to the poems in this book
on several occasions after its original publication.
Strictly speaking, any new edition which contains even one
fresh poem may rank as a first edition, and collectors of
Whyte-Melville, who are also purists, may therefore be
advised not to pass over any one of the first six or seven
editions of _Songs and Verses_ without satisfying themselves
that no fresh matter distinguishes it from its predecessors.

1869

M. OR N. “SIMILIA SIMILIBUS CURANTUR.” By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. Author
of _Digby Grand_, _Cerise_, _The Gladiators_ etc. London: Chapman
and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1869. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 312 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. vi + 313 + (3). Publishers' advertisements occupy pp.
(315) (316).

Light brown (or brown) embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Pale
yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published on October 15, 1869. I do not
know which shade of binding is the earlier.

1871

CONTRABAND: Or A LOSING HAZARD. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. Author of
_Digby Grand_, _Cerise_, _The White Rose_ etc. London: Chapman and
Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1871. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 307 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. vi + 281 + (1).

Bright blue cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Yellow end-papers.

NOTE—Although this book is dated 1871, it was actually
published in December, 1870.

1871

SARCHEDON: A Legend of the Great Queen. By G. J. WHYTE MELVILLE.
Author of _The Gladiators_, _Holmby House_, etc. London: Chapman and
Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1871. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 289 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. (vi) + 270.

Vol. III. pp. (vi) + 251 + (1).

Bright blue cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Pale chocolate
end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in July, 1871.

1872

SATANELLA: A Story of Punchestown. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. London:
Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1872. 2 vols. Sm. Cr. 8vo (5 ×
7¼).

Vol. I. pp. vii + (i) + 260.

Vol. II. pp. vii + (i) + 267 + (1).

Lithographed frontispiece to each volume printed separately and one
other similar illustration in vol. ii. Red (or maroon) cloth,
blocked in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in June, 1872. I do not know
which shade of binding is the earlier.

1873

THE TRUE CROSS: A Legend of the Church. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE.
Author of _The Gladiators_, _Sarchedon_ etc. London: Chapman and
Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1873. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅜). Pp. (iv) + 241
+ (1). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated January, 1873, bound in
at end. Green (or chocolate) cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale
yellow end-papers.

NOTES—(i) This book was published in March, 1873.

(ii) Copies in red-brown cloth, gilt, without decorative
blocking, are of later issue, although they sometimes
contain a catalogue of the original date. Which shade of the
original binding is the earlier, I do not know.

1874

UNCLE JOHN: A Novel. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. Author of _Market
Harborough_, _The Gladiators_, _Kate Coventry_, _Satanella_ etc.
etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1874. 3 vols. Cr. 8vo
(5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 267 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. (viii) + 236.

Vol. III. pp. (viii) + 218 + (2).

Green cloth, blocked in black and gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in August, 1874.

1875

KATERFELTO: A Story of Exmoor. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE, author of
_Digby Grand_, _Cerise_, _Uncle John_ etc. With Illustrations by
Colonel Hope Crealocke, C.B. London: Chapman and Hall, 193
Piccadilly. 1875. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5⅝ × 8⅝). Pp. (iv) + 291 + (1).
No half-title. Publishers' catalogue, 34 pp., dated November, 1874,
bound in at end. Twelve illustrations in lithograph, printed
separately. Dark red cloth, blocked in gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

NOTE—Although dated 1875, this book was actually published
in December, 1874.

1876

SISTER LOUISE: Or THE STORY OF A WOMAN'S REPENTANCE. By G. J.
WHYTE-MELVILLE, Author of _Digby Grand_, _The Gladiators_,
_Katerfelto_. With Illustrations by Miriam Kerns. London: Chapman
and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1876. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5⅜ × 8⅝). Pp. xii +
268. Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated December, 1875, bound in
at end. Eight illustrations, roughly lithographed. Green cloth,
gilt, blocked in black. Chocolate end-papers.

NOTES—(i) Although dated 1876, this book was actually
published in December, 1875.

(ii) Copies without catalogue and with yellow end-papers are
probably of a subsequent issue.

1877

ROSINE. By J. G. [_sic_] WHYTE-MELVILLE, Author of _Cerise_,
_Katerfelto_ etc. etc. With illustrations by Miriam Kerns. London:
Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly, 1877. 1 vol. Demy 8vo (5¾ × 8⅝).
Pp. (vi) + 266. Publishers' catalogue, 36 pp., dated December, 1876,
bound in at end. Eight illustrations. Magenta cloth, gilt, blocked
in black. Very dark green end-papers.

NOTES—(i) Although dated 1877, this book was actually
published in December, 1876.

(ii) Copies in maroon cloth, gilt, blocked in black but
without other decoration on side save a simple rectangular
frame are of later issue.

1878

RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. With Illustrations by
Edgar Giberne. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1878. 1
vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (5¼ × 7⅞). Pp. xii + 251 + (1). Publishers'
catalogue, 32 pp., dated November, 1877, bound in at end. Eight
illustrations, being photographs from drawings pasted on to thin
card. Dark brickish-red cloth, blocked in black and gold. Yellow
end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in April, 1878.

1878

ROY'S WIFE: A Novel. By G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. London: Chapman and
Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1878. 2 vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7⅜).

Vol. I. pp. vi + 299 + (1).

Vol. II. pp. vi + 310.

Olive-brown cloth, gilt, blocked in black. Cream end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in July, 1878.

1879

BLACK BUT COMELY: Or THE ADVENTURES OF JANE LEE. By G. J.
WHYTE-MELVILLE. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1879. 3
vols. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 303 + (i).

Vol. II. pp. viii + 304.

Vol. III. pp. viii + 292 + (4). Publishers' advertisements occupy
pp. (293) to (296). Publishers' catalogue, 32 pp., dated December,
1878, bound in at end.

A four-page slip of publishers' advertisements should be found
inserted between the front end-papers of Vol. I. This slip predates
the catalogue in Vol. III. Blue-grey cloth, gilt, blocked in black.
Yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in January, 1879.

[?1879 or 1880]

THE BONES AT ROTHWELL: A Lecture delivered by the late Captain WHYTE
MELVILLE, being an account of the remarkable bone cavern beneath
Rothwell Church. Price 1d. Rothwell, printed by Ed. Chamberlain, 3
Market Place. (Quotation from Gray's _Elegy_ heads title-page and
wrapper.) 1 vol. Cr. 8vo. 16 pp. White paper wrappers, printed in
black. Outside back wrapper occupied by printer's advertisements.

NOTE—This is the text of a lecture delivered by
Whyte-Melville on January 3, 1862, to the Moulton Religious
and Useful Knowledge Society, and printed in the
“Northampton Mercury” for January 11 of the same year. When
first the pamphlet above described was issued I cannot be
certain, but R. B. Wallis, in a booklet published in 1888,
and entitled _All About the Rothwell Bones_, speaks of the
lecture as obtainable in pamphlet form from Chamberlan of
Rothwell. Certainly, therefore, the publication predates
1888, and I have ventured above on the date of the year
following Whyte-Melville's death because it seems possible
that the lecture was first issued in pamphlet form to
combine the interest in the Rothwell Bones with that likely
to be created in Whyte-Melville by his decease. The
clumsiness with which Whyte-Melville is spoken of as “the
late,” but at the same time given the rank of “Captain”
instead of that of “Major,” implies a hasty reprint from the
file of the “Northampton Mercury,” by someone aware of his
death but careless of the military rank to which he finally
attained.

The colour of the paper wrapper varies with different
issues. In addition to a white copy, as above described, I
have seen one in a pale yellow cover.

ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL
1810-1865

MRS. GASKELL

_BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICAL REMINISCENCE_

MRS. GASKELL: HAUNTS, HOMES AND STORIES. By ESTHER A. CHADWICK.
London. 1910.

MRS. GASKELL. By the same. London. 1913.

MRS. GASKELL. By A. E. BAYLEY. (Women Novelists of Queen Victoria's
Reign.) London. 1897.

MRS. GASKELL AND KNUTSFORD. By G. A. PAYNE. London. 1906.

_BIBLIOGRAPHY_

Much valuable bibliographical information is contained in two little books by Mr. John Albert Green of the Manchester Reference Library:

A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDE TO THE GASKELL COLLECTION IN THE MOSS-SIDE
LIBRARY. Manchester. 1911.

CATALOGUE of an Exhibition of Books and Autographs illustrating the
Life and Work of Mrs. E. C. Gaskell. Manchester. 1911.

Students may also be referred to:

GASKELL BIBLIOGRAPHY. A list of the writings of Mrs. E. C. Gaskell and
of the Rev. William Gaskell. By Wm. E. A. and Ernest Axon.
Manchester. 1895.

I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPES
FICTION, BIOGRAPHY, ETC.

1848

MARY BARTON: A Tale of Manchester Life. (Quotation from Carlyle.)
London: Chapman and Hall, 186 Strand. MDCCCXLVIII. 2 vols. Ex. Cr.
8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (x) [paged as viii] + 317 + (3). The place of half-title
and verso is taken by a publishers' advertisement, 2 pp., listing:
“Chapman and Hall's Series of Original Works in Fiction, Biography,
and General Literature.”

Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 312.

No half-titles. Ribbed mulberry cloth, gilt, blocked in blind.
Yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in October, 1848.

[1850]

LIBBIE MARSH'S THREE ERAS: A Lancashire Tale. London: Hamilton Adams
and Co. 1 vol. 16mo. Pp. 72. Paper wrappers printed with title of
story.

NOTE—This story first appeared in 1847, in Vol. I. of
“Howitt's Journal,” over the pseudonym “Cotton Mather
Mills.” It was issued by Chapman and Hall over the author's
name in 1855 as a fourpenny pamphlet of twenty-four pages.

1850

*THE SEXTON'S HERO AND CHRISTMAS STORMS AND SUNSHINE. Contributed by
the authoress of _Mary Barton_. For the benefit of the Macclesfield
Public Baths and Washhouses. Manchester: Johnson, Rawson and Co.
1850. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo. Pp. 28. Paper wrappers.

NOTE—These stories first appeared in 1847 and 1848 in Vols.
II. and III. of “Howitt's Journal,” over the pseudonym
“Cotton Mather Mills.” They were reissued under one cover by
Chapman and Hall in 1855 over the author's name.

1850

*LIZZIE LEIGH: A Domestic Tale from “Household Words.” By CHARLES
DICKENS. New York. Dewitt and Davenport. 1850. 1 vol. 12mo. Buff
paper wrappers printed in black with wording as above.

NOTE—This pamphlet was a pirated edition of a story
published anonymously in “Household Words” and rashly
assumed by the pirates to have been written by Dickens. It
made a further appearance the next year in _The Irving
Offering_ (New York, 1851), still over Dickens' name.

1850

THE MOORLAND COTTAGE. By the author of _Mary Barton_. With
illustrations by Birket Foster. London: Chapman and Hall, 193
Piccadilly. 1850. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. (viii) + 182 +
(2). Advertisement of _Mary Barton_ occupies p. (183). Line-engraved
frontispiece and picture title-page precede printed title-page.
Other line-engraved illustrations here and there in the text. Maroon
cloth, full gilt, blocked in gold and blind. Pale yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in December, 1850.

1853

RUTH: A Novel. By the author of _Mary Barton_ (Quotation from Phineas
Fletcher.) London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1853. 3 vols.
Ex. Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. (ii) + 298. Publishers' advertisements, 36 pp., dated
1853, bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. (ii) + 328.

Vol. III. pp. (ii) + 311 + (1).

No half-titles. Dull purple cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Yellow
end-papers, of which those at front of Vols. I. and II. are printed
with publishers' advertisements.

NOTE—This book was published in January, 1853.

1853

CRANFORD. By the author of _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_ etc. London: Chapman
and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1853. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. iv +
324. No half-title. Olive-green embossed cloth, blocked in gold and
blind. Yellow end-papers.

1854

*TWO LECTURES ON LANCASHIRE DIALECT. By the author of _Mary Barton_.
London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Paper
wrappers.

1855

LIZZIE LEIGH AND OTHER TALES. By the Author of _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_
etc. Cheap Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1855.
1 vol. Sm. Cr. 8vo (4½ × 7). Pp. (viii) + 304. Yellow paper boards.

_Contents_: The Well of Pen Morfa—The Heart of John
Middleton—Disappearances—The Old Nurse's Story—Traits
and Stories of the Huguenots—Moreton Hall—My French
Master—The Squire's Story—Company Manners—Mr. Harrison's
Confessions—Libbie Marsh's Three Eras—The Sexton's
Hero—Christmas Storms and Sunshine—Hand and Heart—Bessie's
Troubles at Home.

This is the first edition of all the above stories, with the
exception of _Lizzie Leigh_, _Libbie Marsh's Three Eras_,
_The Sexton's_ _Hero_, _Christmas Storms and Sunshine_,
_Hand and Heart_, and _Bessie's Troubles at Home_.

NOTES—(i) This book was published in September, 1855. It is
a volume in Chapman and Hall's Select Library of Fiction,
published at two shillings.

(ii) It may be of interest to enthusiasts to know that
_Lizzie Leigh_ was adapted for the stage by W. R. Waldron
and published in May, 1872, as No. 1393 in Lacy's Acting
Editions of British Plays. Mrs. Gaskell must be absolved
from all responsibility for this dramatization.

1855

NORTH AND SOUTH. By the author of _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_, _Cranford_
etc. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1855. 2 vols. Ex. Cr.
8vo (4¾ × 7¾).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 320. Advertisement of previous works by the
same author occupies p. (i), preceding half-title. Publishers'
advertisements, 4 pp., bound in at end.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 361 + (1). Dark brown cloth, gilt, blocked in
blind. Yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in March, 1855.

1855

*HAND AND HEART and BESSIE'S TROUBLES AT HOME. By the author of _Mary
Barton_. London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly. 1855. Fcap. 8vo
(4¼ × 6¾). Paper wrappers.

1857

THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË, AUTHOR OF _Jane Eyre_, _Shirley_,
_Villette_ ETC. By E. C. Gaskell, author of _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_
etc. (Quotation from _Aurora Leigh_.) London: Smith Elder and Co.,
65 Cornhill. 1857. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 8).

Vol. I. pp. viii + 352.

Vol. II. pp. viii + 327 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., dated
March, 1857, bound in at end.

Three illustrations in steel engraving—two in Vol. I., one in Vol.
II.—all printed separately. Dark brown cloth, gilt, blocked in
blind. Yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in April, 1857.

1859

ROUND THE SOFA. By the author of _Mary Barton_, _Life of Charlotte
Brontë_ etc. etc. London: Sampson Low Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill.
1859. 2 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅞).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 340. Publishers' advertisement slip, printed on
yellow paper, should be found inserted between the front end-papers.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 297 + (1). Publishers' catalogue, 12 pp.,
printed on text paper and dated March, 1859, bound in at end.

No half-titles. Scarlet embossed cloth, gilt, blocked in blind.
Yellow end-papers.

_Contents_: Vol. I., Round the Sofa—My Lady Ludlow. Vol.
II., The Accursed Race—The Doom of the Griffiths—Half a
Life-time Ago—The Poor Clare—The Half-Brothers.

NOTES—(i) This book was published in March, 1859.

(ii) It should be observed that only Vol. II. contains a
list of contents, the corresponding page (iv) in Vol. I.
being occupied by an author's note.

1860

RIGHT AT LAST: And Other Tales. By the author of _Mary Barton_, _Life
of Charlotte Brontë_, _Round the Sofa_ etc. etc. London: Sampson Low
Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill. 1860. 1 vol. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7¾).
Pp. (vi) + 318. No half-title. Scarlet embossed cloth, gilt, uniform
with _Round the Sofa_. Yellow end-papers.

_Contents_: Right at Last—The Manchester Marriage—Lois the
Witch—The Crooked Branch.

NOTE—This book was published on May 10, 1860.

1861

LOIS THE WITCH AND OTHER TALES. By E. C. GASKELL, author of _Mary
Barton_, _The Life of Charlotte Brontë_. Copyright edition. Leipzig:
Bernhard Tauchnitz. 1 vol. (4½ × 6¼). Pp. (viii) + 338 + (2). Usual
Tauchnitz paper wrappers.

_Contents_: Lois the Witch, The Grey Woman, The Doom of the
Griffiths, The Half-Brothers, The Crooked Branch.

NOTE—This is a first edition of _The Grey Woman_.

1863

SYLVIA'S LOVERS. By Mrs. GASKELL, author of _The Life of Charlotte
Brontë_, _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_, _North and South_ etc. (Quotation
from Tennyson.) London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill.
MDCCCLXIII. 3 vols. Ex. Cr. 8vo (4⅞ × 7⅝).

Vol. I. pp. (viii) + 310 + (2).

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 294. No half-title.

Vol. III. pp. (iv) + 284 + (4). No half-title. Advertisement of _The
Life of Charlotte Brontë_ occupies pp. (285) to (288).

Magenta cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. Greenish-buff end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in March, 1863.

1863

A DARK NIGHT'S WORK. By Mrs. GASKELL, author of _Sylvia's Lovers_,
_Life of Charlotte Brontë_, _Mary Barton_, _Ruth_ etc. etc. London:
Smith Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXIII. 1 vol. Slim Cr. 8vo
(4½ × 7⅝). Pp. (iv) + 299 + (1). Brown cloth, gilt, blocked in
blind. Cream end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in May, 1863.

1865

THE GREY WOMAN: And Other Tales. By Mrs. GASKELL, Author of _Mary
Barton_, _North and South_, _Sylvia's Lovers_, _Cousin Phillis_,
_Cranford_ etc. Illustrated Edition. London: Smith, Elder and Co.,
65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXV. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo (5 × 7½). Pp. (iv) + 280. No
half-title. Wood-engraved frontispiece and picture title-page
precede printed title. Two illustrations in course of the text, wood
engraved and printed separately. Red embossed cloth, gilt, blocked
in blind. Yellow end-papers.

_Contents_: The Grey Woman—Curious if True—Six Weeks
at Heppenheim—Libbie Marsh's Three Eras—Christmas
Storms and Sunshine—Hand and Heart—Bessie's Troubles
at Home—Disappearances.

NOTE—This book was published in October, 1865. It is a first
edition of _Curious if True_ and _Six Weeks at Heppenheim_.

1865

COUSIN PHILLIS: And Other Tales. By Mrs. GASKELL, author of _Mary
Barton_, _North and South_, _Sylvia's Lovers_, _Cranford_ etc.
London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65 Cornhill. MDCCCLXV. 1 vol. Cr. 8vo
(5 × 7½). Pp. (iv) + 286 + (2). Publishers' advertisements occupy
pp. (287) and (288). No half-title. Wood-engraved frontispiece and
picture title-page, printed separately, precede printed title. Two
illustrations in the course of the text, wood engraved and printed
separately. Red embossed cloth, blocked in gold and blind. Uniform
with _The Grey Woman_. Cream end-papers.

_Contents_: Cousin Phillis—Company Manners—Mr. Harrison's
Confessions—The Sexton's Hero.

NOTES—(i) This book was published in December, 1865.

(ii) It is a first edition of _Cousin Phillis_, which story
appeared serially in the “Cornhill.”

1866

WIVES AND DAUGHTERS: An Everyday Story. By Mrs. GASKELL. With 18
illustrations by George du Maurier. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65
Cornhill. 1866. 2 vols. Demy 8vo (5½ × 8⅝).

Vol. I. pp. (iv) + 336.

Vol. II. pp. (iv) + 332.

No half-titles. Ten illustrations in Vol. I. and eight in Vol. II.,
all wood engraved and printed separately. Maroon cloth, blocked in
gold. Pale yellow end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in February, 1866. The story
appeared serially in the “Cornhill.”

_NOTE_

The Knutsford edition of Mrs. Gaskell's works (Smith, Elder and Co., 1906, 8 vols.), edited by A. W. Ward, contained in Vols. I., III., VI., and VII. material not previously issued in book form. Further additional matter (notably a chapter of _Cranford_) was published by Clement Shorter in the edition of Mrs. Gaskell's works edited by him for The World's Classics. The same authority published an edition of _The Life of Charlotte Brontë_ in 1900 (Smith, Elder) with many valuable notes. He has also issued a privately printed edition of Mrs. Gaskell's Letters on Charlotte Brontë, but this booklet, in accordance with the plan of the present volume, is not herein specifically listed. Full details of the various appearances of Gaskell miscellanea (with the exception of that last mentioned above) will be found in J. A. Green's Bibliographical Guide to the Gaskell Collection, referred to on p. 203.

II.—BOOKS PARTIALLY WRITTEN, ATTRIBUTED TO, OR EDITED BY MRS GASKELL.

1840

VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES: Old Halls, Battle Fields, and Scenes
illustrative of striking passages in English History and Poetry. By
WILLIAM HOWITT, author of _The Rural Life of England_, _Boy's
Country-Book_ etc. Illustrated by Samuel Williams. London: Longman,
Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans. MDCCCXL. 1 vol. Med. 8vo (5¾ × 9).
Pp. vii + (i) + 526. No half-title. Wood-engraved vignette on
title-page and numerous other illustrations. Pp. 130 to 146 are
occupied by an account of Clopton Hall, written by Mrs. Gaskell.
Fawn cloth, blocked in gold.

1853

*THE SICKNESS AND HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE OF BLAEBURN. By the author of
_Mary Barton_. Boston. 1853. 1 vol. 12mo. Paper wrappers.

NOTE—This is a reprint (unauthorized) of a story that
appeared anonymously in Vol. I. of “Household Words.” The
attribution to Mrs. Gaskell is a mistake, Harriet Martineau
being the real author of the tale.

1857

MABEL VAUGHAN. By the author of The _Lamplighter_. Edited, by
arrangement with the author, by Mrs. GASKELL, author of _Mary
Barton_. London: Sampson Low, Son and Co., 47 Ludgate Hill. 1857. 1
vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼ × 6¾). Pp. viii + 459 + (1). Publishers'
catalogue, 12 pp., paged but undated, bound in at end. Line-engraved
frontispiece, printed separately. Dark green cloth, blocked in gold
and blind. Pale yellow end-papers. Also issued simultaneously in
boards.

NOTE—This book was published in September, 1857.

1862

GARIBALDI AT CAPRERA. By COLONEL VECCHI. Translated from the Italian.
With Preface by Mrs. GASKELL. Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., and 23
Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. London. 1862. 1 vol. Fcap. 8vo (4¼
× 6⅝). Pp. xi + (i) + 130 + (2). Publishers' advertisement occupies
p. (131). Publishers' catalogue, 16 pp., undated, bound in at end.
Frontispiece in tinted lithograph, showing Garibaldi's house.
Scarlet cloth, blocked in gold. Chocolate end-papers.

NOTE—This book was published in February or March, 1862.

HERMAN MELVILLE
1819-1891

HERMAN MELVILLE

At intervals during the last forty years, Herman Melville has been discovered by intellectuals, belauded, a little read, and once more forgotten. It is typical of the man and of his perverse withdrawal from the lettered world, that even before his death he was the subject of spasmodic battues by appreciative readers, who sought to startle into activity their idol's reputation by methods suited to the enlivenment of an author long dead and hidden by the undergrowth of time.

The latest and the most thorough stimulation to which the repute of Melville has been subjected is now at full stretch. Whatever its critical shortcomings, this concerted attempt to write a new name on the roll of nineteenth-century genius bids fair to achieve one important triumph—the immortalization of _Moby Dick_ and, consequentially, of the man who wrote it.

A very minor result of the same Melville boom is his inclusion in this book. Save in the matter of date, he has little in common with the other writers here treated. They are of Victorianism Victorian; he, if he belongs to any period or to any genealogy, is of the ageless, race-less family of the lonely giants. That his fellows between these covers are all lesser novelists than he, I am unprepared to admit. Trollope excels him in humour, wisdom and depth of understanding; he must rank, as master of technique, below all save Whyte-Melville and perhaps Disraeli. But he has a quality of grandeur, a majesty of isolation that they lack, and his very inchoate bitterness of spirit transcends by its datelessness their well-rounded friendliness and their complacent wit.

If that were not enough, he differs from them also in the very texture and subject of his work. His mysticism, for all its yearning and its gloom, is of a spiritual quality far rarer than that of their materialism, for all its vivacity and its aspiration. Between him and Reade is a certain soul resemblance, but the advantage in this is Melville's. He directly influenced the Englishman,[4] and beside his remote immensity Reade, even at his most massive and his most contentious, seems but a dwarf, roaring disgruntlement against the walls of Grub Street.

Footnote 4:

There is in existence the copy of _Moby Dick_ in which Reade made
extensive notes and excisions, maybe with the idea of issuing an
abbreviated version. Readers of _Love Me Little, Love Me Long_ will
immediately detect the influence of Melville's great book on the
whaling narrative related by Frank Dodd to Mr. Fountain and to his
lovely niece.

Melville's books are the strange mirror of a strange life. The young writer, famous at thirty, who yet lives out a diminuendo of appreciation to an old age of disappointed poverty, is no unfamiliar figure. One thinks immediately of William Harrison Ainsworth, from the foppish eminence of his early twenties to the last sad years in a Tonbridge villa, when he laboured at the regular production of three-volume fiction—one novel a year at seventy-five pounds the time—alone amid the memories of vanished splendour. But the man who as a youth wins reputation in letters and passes, of deliberate purpose, maturity and age in other, non-literary, pursuits is a scarcer type, of which Melville is an unusual example.

Born in 1819, he published _Typee_ at the age of twenty-seven, _Moby Dick_ five years later, and _The Piazza Tales_ in 1856. From then until his death, in 1891, he wrote little, and, to the even greater detriment of his fame, withdrew entirely from the society of writers, hiding his name and his very existence behind the screen of an obstinate reserve.

I have no intention here either of summarizing the life or of passing judgment on the works of Herman Melville. The former is related in detail by Professor Raymond Weaver, whose large biography is of so recent date that any shorter presentment of the facts must merely be a précis of the information therein contained. The respective merits of the outstanding books are already (and will remain for long enough) the sport of literary publicists, to whose views and counter-views I refer the curious. One feature, nevertheless, of contemporary opinion challenges to protest my amateur temerity. Apart from _Moby Dick_, the neo-Melvillian has little beyond patronizing approval for the books of his hero; _Typee_ (1846) and _Omoo_ (1847) are interesting records of travel, remarkable mainly for the early date of their appearance and as forerunners of the South Sea School in letters and in painting. _Mardi_ (1849), _Redburn_ (1849), and _White Jacket_ (1850) claim respect as autobiography and for passages that reveal their author's genius struggling toward a more complete expression. These are the rising steps to the crowning summit of Melville's work. There, unique and peerless, stands _Moby Dick_; beyond it the terraces fall away again, and even more steeply than they rose.

Is this opinion a just one? I am a little uncertain. With no desire to denigrate _Moby Dick_ or to deny it the first place in _importance_ among Melville's books, I would venture that his genius is more perfectly and skilfully revealed in a volume of stories belonging to the so-called decadence. _The Piazza Tales_ are liable to be dismissed by the critic of to-day with kindly condescension as “the best of the later work,” a judgment as misleading as it is easily explained. In some degree the worship of _Moby Dick_ and the comparative neglect of the other work are inevitable corollaries to the Melville boom at its present stage. During the first period of any new æsthetic wonder, the peculiar transcends the normal in the imagination of disciples. Let the case of Melville be paralleled with that of Tintoretto's pupil, Greco. When first set in the revival of interest in this painter's work, he was most admired when most bizarre. He won favour for the contrast he presented to his immediate forerunners and his contemporaries. The name of Greco stood for certain mannerisms in colour and composition, and, the more a Greco picture revealed those mannerisms, the better a Greco it was judged to be. Already, from the hand of time, this formula of appreciation is suffering adjustment, but Melville is to-day precisely at the point where yesterday Greco stood. Like the master of Toledo, he has peculiar and noticeable tricks of matter and of style. Because _Moby Dick_ is of these tricks more redolent than the author's other books, it tickles the palate of contemporary enthusiasm more thoroughly than do they.

Such preference is by its very nature tenacious. _Moby Dick_, for all that it is unmistakably Melville, is far from flawless. What if Melville recognized its weaknesses? What if he deplored those very characteristics that are to-day lauded as his priceless individuality and chief claim to fame? With all its vastness and its wonder, the epic story of Ahab and the great white whale displays the faults of its author as strikingly as it reveals his talents. In years to come, when the glamour of oddity has paled a little, it will be admitted that the book labours under a sad weight of intolerable prolixity. Nor is this prolixity implicit in the greatness of Melville's writing. This is proved by the two chief stories in _The Piazza Tales_. _Benito Cereno_ and _The Encatadas_ hold in the small compass of their beauty the essence of their author's supreme artistry. They are profound and lovely and tenderly robust, but they are never tedious and never wilful. Surely it were generous to admit that Melville sought to improve on _Moby Dick_ and that, in the matter of technical control, he succeeded? These two stories cannot as literary achievement compare with their vast and teeming predecessor. That is natural. But they may not be ignored as the last glimmer of a dying lamp. They mark the highest technical level of their author's work, and, had not within a year or two of their appearance the darkness of self-distrust descended on him, might well have proved a revelation of something yet to come from the brain of Herman Melville, something destined—but for the treacherous inhibition of human frailty—to excel in power everything to which that brain had previously given birth.

_BIOGRAPHY_

HERMAN MELVILLE, MARINER AND MYSTIC. By RAYMOND M. WEAVER. New York.
Doran. 1921. London: Humphrey Milford. 1922.

This long and careful book is based on the papers and information of
the Melville family and represents the sum of present-day knowledge
of Melville's life and ideas.

_NOTE_

Collectors should observe the fact that it was the custom of American publishers in the fifties and sixties to bind one edition in cloths of various colours for the purposes of window display. Consequently Melville's first American editions are met with in a variety of colourings which, in the matter of date of issue, rank equally.

I.—EDITIONES PRINCIPES
FICTION, POETRY, TRAVEL

1846

*TYPEE: A Peep at Polynesian Life during a Four Months Residence in A
Valley of the Marquesas with notices of the French Occupation of
Tahiti and the Provisional Cession of the Sandwich Islands to Lord
Paulet. By HERMAN MELVILLE. Part One. (Part Two.) New York. Wiley
and Putnam, London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1846. 2 vols. Sm.
Cr. 8vo (5 × 7¼).

Vol. I. pp.[5] Vol. II. pp.[5]

Footnote 5:

That the pagination of these volumes must be omitted is a
misfortune that was unpreventable. A detailed description of the
books was sent me from America, but the slip on which the actual
pagination was set out did not arrive.

The half-titles to both volumes read: Wiley and Putnam's Library of
American Books: Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. On the verso of
half-title to Vol. I. is a list of books of travel; on that to Vol.
II. the titles in the Library of American Books. Vol. I. contains a
map. Dark green cloth, gilt. Fawn end-papers.

1846

NARRATIVE OF A FOUR MONTHS RESIDENCE AMONG THE NATIVES OF A VALLEY OF
THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS: Or A PEEP AT POLYNESIAN LIFE. By HERMAN
MELVILLE. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1846. 1 vol. Sm.
Cr. 8vo (4¾ × 7). Pp. xvi + (ii) + 285 + (1). Publisher's
advertisements, 16 pp., dated March, 1846, bound in at end. A sketch
map of the Marquesas Islands on page (xviii) faces page (1). Red
cloth, gilt, blocked in blind. White end-papers.

NOTE—A volume in Murray's “Colonial and Home Library” (No.
15). Subsequently named _Typee_. The lettering on the spine
reads: Colonial and Home Library Vol XV Melvilles Marquesas
Islands Murray.

1847