Stephen A. Schwarzman Building > Collections & Reading Rooms > George Arents Collection

A Brief Survey

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This copy consists of the Bassus, Altus, Tenor, and Quintus. This is a book in "parts," but in a very special sense, since the parts are to be used by singers and not by readers. The book, as far as the words in it are concerned, is the same work issued four times simultaneously. The first book in parts in the Arents collection is An Apology for the Conduct of Mrs. Teresia Constantia Phillips, issued by the notorious "Con" Phillips for blackmailing purposes in 1748. Mrs. Phillips was her own publisher (see reproduction of title-page) and sold it at her own house. Her signature appears on the title-page of each number to insure purchasers that they were getting the genuine issue and not a piracy. The author was apparently successful in obtaining money, as she went to Jamaica and married several times, by means of what she extracted from her victims, including her first husband. The example of the resourceful Mrs. Phillips was followed in the nineteenth century by Harriette Wilson, whose roster of wealthy and exalted admirers was even more extensive than her predecessor's. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson  are scandalous and frequently hilarious; the conversations reported therein and the incidents described are spirited and diverting.⁵ Some of the author's highly-placed friends paid to keep their connection wlth her out of her book; others, including the Duke of Wellington, conqueror of Waterloo, did not. The book went through several editions at the time of publication and was translated and pirated all over Europe.⁶ It made much money for its author and her publisher, John Stockdale, but he was sued for libel and convicted. The 1825 edition in parts is rare.⁷ Three issues of this are in the Arents collection: nine parts in five, twelve parts in ten, and twelve parts in eight; all are in paper wrappers. The book was not reprinted in the later nineteenth century but there have been at least three reprints in the twentieth century.⁸ But whether in print or not the work is undoubtedly a fascinating example of its type. To the male writers of gay reminiscences one can say place aux dames.

That works are still being published in parts is proved by the presence of twentieth-century books in the Arents collection. The latest of these is still in process: Old Garden Roses, by Sacheverell Sitwell and James Russell, of which Part I appeared in 1955. To be sure this method of publication is now rare, especially as compared to its prevalence in the nineteenth century. Pollard ascribed the decline in popularity of English books in parts in the later years of the century to the emergence of cheaper magazines where such works could be serialized and which would give the purchaser more for his money. But in spite of the popularity of the serials in periodicals certain types of books in parts still sold to readers at a penny a number, as will be seen.

The most striking feature of the literature which was issued in parts is its great diversity. Almost every type of book and author is represented in the Arents collection. There are no works on mathematics or chemistry, but this lack may yet be filled. There are, however, works on theology, philosophy, and zoology. A large number of the great books of the past were reprinted in parts during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some of these will be noticed later. No edition of Noah Webster's famous dictionary was ever issued in parts in America but his unabridged dictionary was published,1830-1831, in London in 13 parts. Only one imperfect copy of this has been located.⁹ The Arents collection does, however, possess a copy of A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, by G. Gregory, in 12 parts, London, 1806-1807, and also The Oxford English Dictionary, in parts, 1884-1933. The difficulty of using a dictionary in paper parts may account for the rarity of such books in their original state. The purchaser would immediately have them bound for preservation.

For the purpose of showing the many different kinds of books found in the Arents Collection of Books in Parts they are divided roughly into six categories. The first may be called general literature, including novels, poetry, and other works of belles lettres. This category includes older classics reprinted in parts. The second class is composed of caricature books, scandalous memoirs, sporting books (including fiction on this subject) and works of "high life," where the satiric verges on the slanderous and shocking. The third category comprises works on travel (including landscapes), architecture (including pictures of actual buildings), and art (including reproductions of paintings). The fourth class is composed of "shilling shockers" and "penny dreadfuls" where the chief interest is in sensational and criminal incidents sometimes based on real events. In certain cases these books might be considered ordinary fiction, but in general they have no pretentions as literature. They are among the rarest of works in parts. The fifth class contains informational works: biography, theology, philosophy, and science excepting the natural sciences. The sixth class comprises works on natural science, most containing colored plates, such as botany, ornithology, and zoology.

Even a person inexperienced in the intricacies of Victorian bibliography knows that Dickens and Thackeray published their works in parts. The first editions of those great novels Vanity Fair  and Pickwick Papers  were issued in twenty parts in nineteen. One of the fourteen "prime Pickwicks"¹⁰ is in the Arents collection. The two contemporary American editions in parts are rarer than the English Pickwick. A superb copy of the Philadelphia edition, 1836-1837, in five parts in board covers, is in the collection, as is the best of the four known copies of the New York edition in 26 parts, published in paper wrappers in 1836-1838. All of the longer works of Dickens appeared in parts with the exception of Great Expectations, which came out in three volumes. All of the English as well as twelve American part issues are in the Arents library. Three of Thackeray's major novels were issued in parts; Henry Esmond  was not. One of the finest copies known of Vanity Fair is in the Arents collection. It would not be an exaggeration to say that another copy in such fine condition could not be found. The first American edition in two parts, one of two recorded copies, is also present.

Of the seventy-odd works listed in Michael Sadleir's bibliography of Anthony Trollope only nine appeared in parts. These are in the Arents collection. Among these are such important novels as The Prime Minister, The Vicar of Bullhampton, The Last Chronicle of Barset, and He Knew He Was Right. The Anglo-Irish writer Charles Lever, so popular about the same time, issued many of his works in parts. Fifteen of these rollicking tales of Irish and military life, with illustrations by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"), are in the Arents colIection. The best known of these, The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, 1839, was often reprinted. But it, like its author's other works, is no longer in print. Handy Andy, a popular work by another Irish writer, Samuel Lover, was first published in 12 parts in 1842, with illustrations by the author: each wrapper was adorned with a large hand. These were a shilling a part. At some time later a penny issue, in 48 parts without wrappers, was published. Apparently the publisher used the sheets of the first edition, since the set-up is practically identical and the same printer's name appears on the last page. These two editions are in the Arents collection. The monthly issue is of great rarity and no other copy of the penny issue seems to be recorded. Lover was so versatile that he could set his own poems to music and illustrate his own works, as well as dramatize his own novels.

Only a very few of the voluminous works by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton, were published in parts. His popular novel The Last Days of Pompeii appeared in three volumes. Like Lover he was a versatile Victorian, for he wrote novels, plays, poetry, essays, and did translations. And of course he made speeches in parliament in connection with his political career. The most interesting of his works in parts is The New Timon, a poem issued in four numbers in 1846. In the first printing of this the author made fun of Tennyson, calling him "school-miss Alfred" and decrying his style of poetry. Tennyson replied in Punch  with a poem abusing Lytton. Accompanying the first issue of Lytton's work in the Arents collection are excerpts from Punch  and an unpublished poem in the hand of Lord Tennyson on the subject of Lytton's lampoon.

Seven novels by William Harrison Ainsworth are in the Arents collection. His works, though popular in the Victorian era, are almost forgotten today. Yet four, including The Tower of London, are still in print. Perhaps their historical background has helped to keep them alive. The illustrations of the original part issues, by George Cruikshank and Hablôt K. Browne, contribute greatly to the exciting and mysterious atmosphere of the romances. Those other immensely popular contemporary authors, Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade, did not publish their novels in numbers. It has been suggested the reason for this was the demand of the circulating libraries for three-volume works for their subscribers, who wanted something for their money, and wanted it all at once.¹¹ Their books were printed and reprinted on both sides of the Atlantic; The Moonstone  and The Woman in White  by Collins, and The Cloister and The Hearth  by Reade are read today and will probably live on even outside of rare book collections.

Jane Austen published her novels 1811-1818 before the extensive publication of works in serial form. These famous books appeared in three and four volumes, in boards with paper labels, and are extremely rare in this condition. The reprints are as the sands of the sea, but, so far as can be ascertained, none has been issued in parts. It would seem incongruous to see Pride and Prejudice  in twenty parts in nineteen, in pink paper wrappers, with Elizabeth Bennet and Lady Catherine De Bourgh or other characters depicted on them.¹² Though they were publishing their novels during the heyday of the production of books in parts, the works of the Bronte sisters were issued in volume-form. So were those of Mrs. Gaskell, author of Cranford. On the other hand Daniel Deronda  and Middlemarch  by George Eliot appeared in parts. The first English edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was issued in parts with illustrations by George Cruikshank.

A host of lesser-known nineteenth century English novelists followed Dickens and Thackeray in bringing out their works in parts. To mention a few at random in the Arents collection: Sunrise, by William Black, Glenaveril, by the first Earl of Lytton, Poor Jack, by Captain Marryat, Godfrey Malvern, by Thomas Miller, and Lewis Arundel,  by Frank Smedley, were so issued. Present also in the collection are two anonymous novels: Saul Weir  and A Modern Minister,  published in Edinburgh in parts in 1877-1878 and 1878-1879. These are ascribed to Valentine Durrant and are very rare.¹³ This author's name is not mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography, though a work Inez the Queen, Thoughts on Poesy, 1870, is given under his name in the catalogue of the British Museum; aside from this nothing about him seems to be recorded.

The first truly "national" American author, Washington Irving, brought out several of his early works in parts. The rarest of these, and it is exceptionally rare in original condition,¹⁴ is his Salmagundi  in parts, New York, 1807-1808, the earliest American work in the Arents collection. This portrays prominent people in New York under a fairly thin mantle of incognito, but in a gay and good-humored way. It is quite different in spirit from that scandalous English roman à clef  issued a few years later, The English Spy, which satirized mercilessly the various levels of London society under George IV with the king himself as one of the most disreputable of the characters. Usually considered Irving's masterpiece, The Sketch-book  first appeared in parts in 1819-1820; the first issue of these parts in the original brown paper wrappers, another superlative rarity, is also in the Arents collection. Also present are the same author's Tales of a Traveller, 1824, and The Life of George Washington, in 68 parts, 1857-1859. Another great American rarity in the Arents collection is Correspondence of the Late President Adams,  Boston, 1809, in ten parts. The complete set




⁵ In her Tribute to Harriette (New York 1986), based to a considerable extent on the memoirs, Angela Thirkell says (p. 9): ". . . the style is so dashing, the characterization is so true, the conversations are so vividly reported, that retelling gives a poor idea of her brilliant slip-shod impertinence."

⁶ The Bibliothèque Nationale has English and French editions of 1825 and a Brussels edition in French of the same year.

⁷ None of the seven editions in the British Museum is in parts. There is, however, a copy in parts in the library at Harvard University.

⁸ The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson, 2 vols. (London 1909); another ed., London 1929, and The Game of Hearts; Harriette Wilson's Memoirs, ed. Lesley Blanch (New York 1955). It also formed the basis for a play, "The Demi-reps" by Gladys Unger and Stuart Walker, 1988, a transcript of which is in the Theatre Collection of The New York Public Library. It does not see that this play was ever produced or published.

⁹ I am indebted for this information to Dr. Edwin Carpenter, whose edition of Emily E. F. Skeel's Bibliography of the Writings of Noah Webster is being published at The New York Public Library in 1957.

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