Literary Taste: How to Form It/Chapter XII

by Arnold Bennett

Layout 2After dealing with the formation of a library of authors up to John Dryden, I must logically arrange next a scheme for the period covered roughly by the eighteenth century. There is, however, no reason why the student in quest of a library should follow the chronological order. Indeed, I should advise him to attack the nineteenth century before the eighteenth, for the reason that, unless his taste happens to be peculiarly "Augustan," he will obtain a more immediate satisfaction and profit from his acquisitions in the nineteenth century than in the eighteenth. There is in eighteenth-century literature a considerable proportion of what I may term "unattractive excellence," which one must have for the purposes of completeness, but which may await actual perusal until more pressing and more human books have been read. I have particularly in mind the philosophical authors of the century.

Prose writers

	£	s.	d.
JOHN LOCKE, Philosophical Works: Bohn's Edition (2 vols.)	0	7	0
SIR ISAAC NEWTON, Principia (sections 1, 2, and 3): Macmillan's	0	12	0
Gilbert Burnet, History of His Own Time: Everyman's Library	0	1	0
William Wycherley, Best Plays: Mermaid Series	0	2	6
WILLIAM CONGREVE, Best Plays: Mermaid Series	0	2	6
Jonathan Swift, Tale of a Tub: Scott Library	0	1	0
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels: Temple Classics	0	1	6
DANIEL DEFOE, Robinson Crusoe: World's Classics	0	1	0
DANIEL DEFOE, Journal of the Plague Year: Everyman's Library	0	1	0
Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, Essays: Scott Library	0	1	0
William Law, Serious Call: Everyman's Library	0	1	0
Lady Mary W. Montagu, Letters: Everyman's Library	0	1	0
George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge: New Universal Library	0	1	0
SAMUEL RICHARDSON, Clarissa (abridged): Routledge's Edition	0	2	0
John Wesley, Journal: Everyman's Library (4 vols.)	0	4	0
HENRY FIELDING, Tom Jones: Routledge's Edition	0	2	0
HENRY FIELDING, Amelia: Routledge's Edition	0	2	0
HENRY FIELDING, Joseph Andrews: Routledge's Edition	0	2	0
David Hume, Essays: World's Classics	0	1	0
LAURENCE STERNE, Tristram Shandy: World's Classics	0	1	0
LAURENCE STERNE, Sentimental Journey: New Universal Library	0	1	0
Horace Walpole, Castle of Otranto: King's Classics	0	1	6
Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker: Routledge's Edition	0	2	0
Tobias Smollett, Travels through France and Italy: World's Classics	0	1	0
ADAM SMITH, Wealth of Nations: World's Classics (2 vols.)	0	2	0
Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets: World's Classics (2 vols.)	0	2	0
Samuel Johnson, Rasselas: New Universal Library	0	1	0
JAMES BOSWELL, Life of Johnson: Everyman's Library (2 vols.)	0	2	0
Oliver Goldsmith, Works: Globe Edition	0	3	6
Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling: Cassell's National Library	0	0	6
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Art: Scott Library	0	1	0
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the French Revolution: Scott Library	0	1	0
Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Present Discontents: New Universal Library	0	1	0
EDWARD GIBBON, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: World's Classics (7 vols.)	0	7	0
Thomas Paine, Rights of Man: Watts and Co.'s Edition	0	1	0
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, Plays: World's Classics	0	1	0
Fanny Burney, Evelina: Everyman's Library	0	1	0
Gilbert White, Natural History of Selborne: Everyman's Library	0	1	0
Arthur Young, Travels in France: York Library	0	2	0
Mungo Park, Travels: Everyman's Library	0	1	0
Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals: Clarendon Press	0	6	6
THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS, Essay on the Principle of Population: Ward, Lock's Edition	0	3	6
William Godwin, Caleb Williams: Newnes's Edition	0	1	0
Maria Edgeworth, Helen: Macmillan's Illustrated Edition	0	2	6
JANE AUSTEN, Novels: Nelson's New Century Library (2 vols.)	0	4	0
James Morier, Hadji Baba: Macmillan's Illustrated Novels	0	2	6
	£5	1	0

The principal omissions here are Jeremy Collier, whose outcry against the immorality of the stage is his slender title to remembrance; Richard Bentley, whose scholarship principally died with him, and whose chief works are no longer current; and "Junius," who would have been deservedly forgotten long ago had there been a contemporaneous Sherlock Holmes to ferret out his identity.

Poets

	£	s.	d.
Thomas Otway, Venice Preserved: Temple Dramatists	0	1	0
Matthew Prior, Poems on Several Occasions: Cambridge English Classics	0	4	6
John Gay, Poems: Muses' Library (2 vols.)	0	2	0
ALEXANDER POPE, Works: Globe Edition	0	3	6
Isaac Watts, Hymns: Any hymn-book	0	1	0
James Thomson, The Seasons: Muses' Library	0	1	0
Charles Wesley, Hymns: Any hymn-book	0	1	0
THOMAS GRAY, Samuel Johnson, William Collins, Poems: Muses' Library		0	1	0
James Macpherson (Ossian), Poems: Canterbury Poets	0	1	0
THOMAS CHATTERTON, Poems: Muses' Library (2 vols.)	0	2	0
WILLIAM COWPER, Poems: Canterbury Poets	0	1	0
WILLIAM COWPER, Letters: World's Classics	0	1	0
George Crabbe, Poems: Methuen's Little Library	0	1	6
WILLIAM BLAKE, Poems: Muses' Library	0	1	0
William Lisle Bowles, Hartley Coleridge, Poems: Canterbury Poets	0	1	0
ROBERT BURNS, Works: Globe Edition	0	3	6
	£1	7	0

Summary of the first period

			£	s.	d.
39 prose authors in	60	volumes costing	5	1	0
18 poets in	18	volumes costing	1	7	0
57	78		£6	8	0