THE OMNIBUS BOOK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20264, 25 May 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE OMNIBUS BOOK.

MARVELS OF PRINTING,

BY ALAN C. ERASER.

One interesting feature of present-day publishing enterprise which is bringing joy to tho hearts of book-lovers—-those, especially with limited space on their shelves—is tho rise and rapid development of the omnibus book. " Omnibus," of course, is the familiar term for that modern miracle of good printing and binding seen in most bookshops and libraries nowadays; the book of a thousand or more pages printed in_ clear type on thin, opaque paper, and containing within its single covers the substance of at least three (sometimes even four or five) ordinary thick-paper volumes. In general excellence of turn-out it is among the aristocrats of the book world to-day; yet its price, thanks to cheaper production of India-paper is not beyond the reach of tho average book buyer. One of the happiest strokes of publishing genius in the way of omnibus books that have happened recently is the handsome edition of Sir J. M. Barrio's complete plays issued in one volume, with a portrait of the author—ono of those covetablo books which, sooner or later, draw the roquisito cash from the pockets of tho book-fancier! It is certainly a book to bo possessed; not only for its literary charm, but for the memories it evokes of some of tho most delightful comedies seen on the English stage in our time.

Who can forget them —the famous " Admirable Crichton," the quaint, oldfashioned charm of " Quality Street," the pathetic story of " Mary Eose," the most delicious of Scotch comedies, " What Every Woman Knows" '! Who, too, having once seen it, will not always remember " Dear Brutus," that delicatelywrought fantasy of Midsummer's Eve, with its poignant themo of tho " inight-liavc-been " and its undertone of sadness and retrospection ? Richest recollection of all, perhaps, is of that memorable December, 1904, when, at the Duke of York's Theatre, tho chief temple of Barrie in London, Miss Nina Boucicault played Peter Pan for the first time to the Captain Hook of Gerald du Maurier. and created ai figure of childhood which has become as legendary as the immortal " Alice " herself. The Oxford Johnson.

British and American publishers are vieing with each other these days in producing all manner of interesting variations and combinations of tho omnibus book. Few could have guessed, five or ten years ago, that Boswell's " Life of Dr. Johnson," most delightful but voluminous of biographies, which has been printing for more than a century in editions ranging front two to eight volumes, would be condensed into a single, well-printed, India-paper volume as that issued cot long ago by the Oxford University Press, with a) neat gold medallion of the worthy doctor himsolf embossed on its dark blue cover—certainly one of the finest examples of modern bookcraft to be seen to-day. The complete works of Charles and Mary Lamb in one handy volume is another triumph of this enterprising press; while their single-volume Shakespere, of course, has long been famous. American publishers havo recently made two sterling contributions tb the omnibus series by giving us the whole of 0. Henry's short stories, amounting to nearly 300, in a single sumptuous book; and by a still more generous one-volume edition of Herman Melville's seven novels, the first three of which—" Moby Dick," " Typce," and " Omoo"—rank among the finest romances of the sea l ever written. Coming at the height of Melville's recent revival in popularity, this book is one of the most desirable that any literary connoisseur could possess. Novels of Yesterday and To-day.

Getting back to English works, it would have needed a far-seeing literary prophet to predict that tho whole of Jano Austen's charming sextette of novels would some day bo gathered into a single nosegay within the covers of one delightfully printed book; or that Doughty's "Travels in Arabia Deserta " would be obtainable, complete and unabridged, in a single wonderful volume, like the ono recently published by Jonathan Cape, with its interesting introduction by Lawrence cf Arabia. Two other particularly choice examples of clear, compact printing within minimum book space are the complete " Blake " and the complete " Donne," issued by those fine artists in modern book production, the Nonesuch Press. Among ■ the more popular works of English fiction now published in attractive single-volume form are Galsworthy's " Forsyte Saga," one of the first omnibus novels to achieve a world-wide sale approaching that of a "best-seller": Arnold Bennett's " The Clavhanger Family," which is running the Forsytes close in fame; Compton Mackenzie's " Sinister Street," the two volumes of which are now merged in one; and that fine trilogy by R. 11. Mottram, beginning with " Tho Spanish Farm," considered by many critics to be . the outstanding novel of the Great War in English literature. What Next? Still more recent additions have been tho collected short stories of Hardy, Stevenson, and H. G. Wells-*~three masters of this form of literary art—and the compendious volume of " Great Short Stories of the World"; while lovers of the " creepy " tale or the " shocker " will have a- book after their hearts in the wellchosen selection of " Talcs of Detection, Mystery and Horror." What further developments of the omnibus book are yet in store for us? We have not yet had Bernard Shaw's plays in a complete volume; and the collected short stories of Kipling, Conrad, and W. W. Jacobs would all bo welcome in onevolumo form, to say nothing of P. G. Wodehouse's spirited tales centring round the person of tho inimitqblo Jeeves. Seeing, too, that the Sherlock Holmes adventures are now complete in one book, we may hope that " Sapper's " famous hero. Bulldog Drummond, will follow the fashion, giving us a volume of superb, co''centratnrl sensation.

Even Gibbon's " Decline and Fall who knows? —may appear before long in one miraculous volume, rivalling Webster's Dictionary itself in size, weight, and substance!