William Morris, Early Romances:  Everyman’s
Library 0 1 0

Augusta Webster, Selected Poems 0 4 6

W.E.  Henley, Poetical Works 0 6 0

Francis Thompson, Selected Poems                0   5   0
__________
L5   7   0

Poets whom I have omitted after hesitation are:  Ebenezer Elliott, Thomas Woolner, William Barnes, Gerald Massey, and Charles Jeremiah Wells.  On the other hand, I have had no hesitation about omitting David Moir, Felicia Hemans, Aytoun, Sir Edwin Arnold, and Sir Lewis Morris.  I have included John Keble in deference to much enlightened opinion, but against my inclination.  There are two names in the list which may be somewhat unfamiliar to many readers.  James Clarence Mangan is the author of My Dark Rosaleen, an acknowledged masterpiece, which every library must contain.  T.E.  Brown is a great poet, recognised as such by a few hundred people, and assuredly destined to a far wider fame.  I have included FitzGerald because Omar Khayyam is much less a translation than an original work.

SUMMARY OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

83 prose-writers, in 141 volumes, costing L9 10 7 38 poets " 46 " " 5 7 0 __ ___ __________ 121 187 L14 17 7

GRAND SUMMARY OF COMPLETE LIBRARY.

Authors.  Volumes.  Price.

1.  To Dryden 48 72 L5 9 0

2.  Eighteenth Century 57 78 6 8 0

3.  Nineteenth Century                121      187       14 17  7
___      ___       ________
226      337      L26 14  7

I think it will be agreed that the total cost of this library is surprisingly small.  By laying out the sum of sixpence a day for three years you may become the possessor of a collection of books which, for range and completeness in all branches of literature, will bear comparison with libraries far more imposing, more numerous, and more expensive.

I have mentioned the question of discount.  The discount which you will obtain (even from a bookseller in a small town) will be more than sufficient to pay for Chambers’s Cyclopaedia of English Literature, three volumes, price 30s. net.  This work is indispensable to a bookman.  Personally, I owe it much.

When you have read, wholly or in part, a majority of these three hundred and thirty-five volumes, with enjoyment, you may begin to whisper to yourself that your literary taste is formed; and you may pronounce judgment on modern works which come before the bar of your opinion in the calm assurance that, though to err is human, you do at any rate know what you are talking about.