LAMB
Reprints of the Essays of Elia have been very numerous. One of the best editions of Lamb's complete works was edited by E.V. Lucas in seven volumes, to which he added in 1905 The Life of Charles Lamb in two volumes. Another is Complete Works and Correspondence, edited by Canon Ainger (London, six volumes). Ainger also wrote an excellent short life of Lamb for the English Men of Letters series. Hazlitt and Percy Fitzgerald have revised Thomas Noon Talfourd's standard Letters of Charles Lamb, With a Sketch of His Life. Among sketches of the life of Charles and Mary Lamb may be noted Barry Cornwall's Charles Lamb—A Memoir; Fitzgerald, Charles Lamb: His Friends, His Haunts and His Books; Walter Pater, Appreciations; R.H. Stoddard, Personal Recollections; Augustine Birrell, Res Judicatæ; Nicoll, Landmarks of English Literature; Talfourd, Final Memorials of Charles Lamb; Hutton, Literary Landmarks of London.
DICKENS
The first collective edition of Dickens' works was issued in 1847. The standard edition is that of Chapman & Hall, London, who were the original publishers of Pickwick. One of the best of the many editions of Dickens is the Macmillan Pocket edition with reproductions of the original covers of the monthly parts of the novels as they appeared, the original illustrations by Cruikshank, Leech, "Phiz" (Hablot Browne) and others, and valuable and interesting introductions by Charles Dickens the younger. Another good edition is in the World's Classics, with brilliant introductions by G.K. Chesterton. In buying an edition of Dickens it is well to get one with reproductions of the original illustrations, as these add much to the pleasure and interest of the novels.
For ready reference to Dickens' works there is a Dickens Dictionary, giving the names of all characters and places in the novels, by G.A. Pierce, and another similar work by A.J. Philip. Mary Williams has also prepared a Dickens Concordance.
Forster's Life of Charles Dickens, in three volumes, is the standard work, as Forster was closely connected with the novelist from the time he made his hit with Pickwick. George Gissing, the novelist, made an abridgment of Forster's Life in one volume, which is well done. Scores of shorter lives and sketches have been written. Among the best of these are Dr. A.W. Ward's Charles Dickens in the English Men of Letters series; Taine's chapter on Dickens in his History of English Literature; Sir Leslie Stephen's article in the Dictionary of National Biography; Mrs. Oliphant's The Victorian Age in English Literature; F.G. Kitton's Charles Dickens: His Life, Writings and Personality. The Letters, edited by Miss Hogarth and Mary Dickens, are valuable for the light they throw on the novelist's character and work.
In reminiscence of Dickens, the best books are Mary Dickens' My Father as I Recall Him; J.T. Fields' In and Out of Doors With Charles Dickens and G. Dolby's Charles Dickens as I Knew Him, the last devoted to the famous reading tours. Edmund Yates, Anthony Trollope, James Payn, R.H. Haine and many others have written readable reminiscences.
For the home life of Dickens and his haunts see F.G. Kitton's The Dickens Country; Thomas Fort's In Kent With Charles Dickens and H.S. Ward's The Real Dickens Land. Of poems on Dickens' death the very best is Bret Harte's Dickens in Camp. The Wisdom of Dickens, compiled by Temple Scott, is a good collection of extracts.
THACKERAY
Almost as many editions of Thackeray's works have been published as of Dickens' novels, and the reader in his selection must be guided largely by his own taste. In choosing an edition, however, always get one that contains Thackeray's own illustrations, as, though the drawing is frequently crude, the sketches are full of humor and help one to understand the author's conception of the characters. The best general edition is The Biographical, with introductions by his daughter, Mrs. Richmond Ritchie (London, 1897-1900). The Charterhouse edition of Thackeray in twenty-six volumes, published in England by Smith, Elder & Co. and in this country by Lippincott, is an excellent library set containing all the original illustrations.