"The Library of Famous Literature."

Observer, Volume XXI, Issue 118, 17 August 1901, Page 22

" The Library of Famous Literature."

".rtVHE International Library, of J[ is advertised elsewhere in Famous Literature," which this issue, is an 'endeavour .to present, >in a compact form, the cream of all literature. It is a great undertaking, and its success in England has been the event of the .past publishing season. The general editor of the "Library" is Dr. Richard Garnett; C.8., who, to an encyclopaedic knowledge of books acquired in his. long service in the Reading Room- of the British Museum, adds a critical skill and an enthusiasm for letters whish have already made many charming contributions to contemporary literature. No man could be better equipped for a task so delicute and so difficult. He has been assisted in his labours by M. Leon Valleo. the erudite Librarian of the Bibliothetiue Nationale, who has not only brought the fruit of his specialised experience, but has also enriched the Library by the contribution of an admirable study of French literature. Professor Brandl, who occupies the chair of Literature in the Imperial University of Berlin, has also been associated with Dr. riarnett in the preparation of the Library, and has written for Ihe fourth volume of the work' a study of the '' Main Currents of (lernran Literature." Mr Donald Cf Mitchell, who is perhaps better known under his pseudonym of "Ik Marvel,'' is responsible for those sections of the work which deal with that American literature that in a good deal less than a working cnturyhas added so extensively, to our book-shelves. The plan of the work is simplicity itself. The twenty volumes of '" The Library of Famous Literature " contain the best parts of each author's work, not a ragged extract, but a carefully-chosen complete picture in that author's typical style — enough for half-an-hour's reading, enough to give the reader ihc desired sense of an intellectual change of air. More than a thousand of these examples are offered in a handsome and convenient form. The "Library," in short, endeavours to do the reader's "skipping" for him, perhaps to do it more judiciously than he could do it himself, and in any case, to do it intelligently and with insight. Of voluminous and so many-sided a work it is obviously impossible to give, a detailed account, but an examination of the volumes shows that Dr. Gamet t and his associates have exhibited very considerable ingenuity in the selection and arrangement of their material. The index to the twenty volumes shows that more than three hundred of the most famous poems, and more than four hundred of the best stories, are included in this Anthology, which also contains the best of i he world's store of travel and adventure, philosophy and science, wit and humour, letters, journals, and memoirs. Five hundred full-page illustrations, printed apart from the letter press, on enamelled paper, add to the beauty and interest of the volumes. In addition to an original series of portraits of authors in their homes, these illustrations include a number of co,oured reproductions of illuminations from rare mediaeval manuscripts. The twenty volumes contain 10,000 pages of the best work that has been done in literature since men first struggled to give literary form to their traditions, their fancies, and their invention, from the most ancient fragment of an Egyptian papyrus down to the contemporary work of the American humourist.