How to Form a Library, 2nd ed

by Henry B. Wheatley

Modern Fiction.

Selections from—Thackeray, Dickens, George Eliot, Kingsley, Scott, Bulwer-Lytton.

It must be borne in mind by the reader that this list, although the one sent round for criticism by the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, is not really Sir John Lubbock's. This will be found on p. 240. Sir John Lubbock's address was not given in full, and the list drawn up by the Pall Mall, from the reports in the daily papers, contained in fact only about 85 books.

It seems necessary to allude particularly to this imperfect list, because it is the only one upon which the critics were asked to give an opinion, and their criticisms are peculiarly interesting, as they give us an important insight into the tastes and opinions of our teachers. In itself it is almost impossible to make a list that will be practically useful, because tastes and needs differ so widely, that a course of reading suitable for one man may be quite unsuitable for another. It is also very doubtful whether a conscientious passage through a "cut-and-dried" list of books will feed the mind as a more original selection by each reader himself would do. It is probably best to start the student well on his way and then leave him to pursue it according to his own tastes. Each book will help him to another, and consultation with some of the many manuals of English literature will guide him towards a good choice. This is in effect what Mr. Bond, Principal Librarian of the British Museum, says in his reply, to the circular of the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. He writes "The result of several persons putting down the titles of books they considered 'best reading' would be an interesting but very imperfect bibliography of as many sections of literature;" and, again, "The beginner should be advised to read histories of the literature of his own and other countries—as Hallam's 'Introduction to the Literature of Europe,' Joseph Warton's 'History of English Poetry,' Craik's 'History of English Literature,' Paine's History, and others of the same class. These would give him a survey of the field, and would quicken his taste for what was naturally most congenial to him."

There probably is no better course of reading than that which will naturally occur to one who makes an honest attempt to master our own noble literature. This is sufficient for the lifetime of most men without incursions into foreign literature. All cultivated persons will wish to become acquainted with the masterpieces of other nations, but this diversion will not be advisable if it takes the reader away from the study of the masterpieces of his own literature.

Turning to the comments on the Pall Mall Gazette's list, we may note one or two of the most important criticisms. The Prince of Wales very justly suggested that Dryden should not be omitted from such a list. Mr. Chamberlain asked whether the Bible was excluded by accident or design, and Mr. Irving suggested that the Bible and Shakespeare form together a very comprehensive library.

Mr. Ruskin's reply is particularly interesting, for he adds but little, contenting himself with the work of destruction. He writes, "Putting my pen lightly through the needless—and blottesquely through the rubbish and poison of Sir John's list—I leave enough for a life's liberal reading—and choice for any true worker's loyal reading. I have added one quite vital and essential book—Livy (the two first books), and three plays of Aristophanes (Clouds, Birds, and Plutus). Of travels, I read myself all old ones I can get hold of; of modern, Humboldt is the central model. Forbes (James Forbes in Alps) is essential to the modern Swiss tourist—of sense." Mr. Ruskin puts the word all to Plato, everything to Carlyle, and every word to Scott. Pindar's name he adds in the list of the classics, and after Bacon's name he writes "chiefly the New Atlantis."

The work of destruction is marked by the striking out of all the Non-Christian Moralists, of all the Theology and Devotion, with the exception of Jeremy Taylor and the Pilgrim's Progress. The Nibelungenlied and Malory's Morte d'Arthur (which, by the way, is in prose) go out, as do Sophocles and Euripides among the Greek Dramatists. The Knights is struck out to make way for the three plays of Aristophanes mentioned above. Gibbon, Voltaire, Hume, and Grote all go, as do all the philosophers but Bacon. Cook's Voyages and Darwin's Naturalist in the Beagle share a similar fate. Southey, Longfellow, Swift, Hume, Macaulay, and Emerson, Goethe and Marivaux, all are so unfortunate as to have Mr. Ruskin's pen driven through their names. Among the novelists Dickens and Scott only are left. The names of Thackeray, George Eliot, Kingsley, and Bulwer-Lytton are all erased.

Mr. Ruskin sent a second letter full of wisdom till he came to his reasons for striking out Grote's "History of Greece," "Confessions of St. Augustine," John Stuart Mill, Charles Kingsley, Darwin, Gibbon, and Voltaire. With these reasons it is to be hoped that few readers will agree.

Mr. Swinburne makes a new list of his own which is very characteristic. No. 3 consists of "Selections from the Bible: comprising Job, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel; the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, the Gospel and the First Epistle of St. John and Epistle of St. James." No. 12 is Villon, and Nos. 45 to 49 consist of the plays of Ford, Dekker, Tourneur, Marston, and Middleton; names very dear to the lover of our old Drama, but I venture to think names somewhat inappropriate in a list of books for a reader who does not make the drama a speciality. Lamb's Selections would be sufficient for most readers.