Humanities and Social Sciences Library > Collections & Reading Rooms > George Arents Collection

A Brief Survey

Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

books, particularly when they are in parts and complete, are of such a fantastic rarity as to present a challenge to the most experienced and resourceful hunter of books. It is a miracle that they exist at all, produced, as they were in cheap and perishable form for a public who wanted blood and thunder. Some of these sensational works sold for a penny, others for sixpence and even a shilling, in the case of authors like Henry Cockton, whose works contained plates and were more pretentious. These latter works which I have classed with "shilling shockers" might be regarded as on the fringes of the more conventional fiction described above.

Occasionally various of the better-known authors of sensational and underworld fiction will be mentioned in works on the "gothic" school but on the whole this voluminous mass of writing is completely ignored by writers on English and American literature. This may be because it was not preserved at the time and has found its way into so few permanent collections. Black Bess, or The Knight of the Road, circa 1880, in 254 penny numbers, is the only such work included in the catalogue Victorian Fiction, where it is referred to (p. 4) as "a typical example of those cheap part-issues, aimed largely at the schoolboy market, which continued, along side (and by this time outliving) their newly respectable brethren, the original tradition of the part-issues as distributed through the chapbook and news-vending trades."

Charles Reade, Wilkie Collins, and even Dickens wrote novels where criminal and sensational incidents form a major ingredient in the plot. Their connection with literature of gore and adventure has been the subject of at least one learned book²¹. We know that when Dickens exerted the full powers of his personality in his reading Sikes and Nancy from Oliver Twist  he not only exhausted himself but caused his hearers to faint in windrows²².  In writing this book he intended, like the fat boy, to make our fIesh creep. We may therefore suppose that, along with his fellow-writers of lesser eminence who dabbled in crime in certain of their works, his literary style and his surer hand in character delineation, together with the fact that his works were illustrated by more eminent artists than the penny dreadfuls (they certainly cost much more even in parts), have earned them the respectful attention of critics and bibliographers..

In this connection I cannot forebear to quote G. K. Chesterton's A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls: "Among these stories there are a certain number which deal sympathetically with the adventures of robbers, outlaws and pirates, which present in a dignified and romantic light thieves and murderers like Dick Turpin and Claude Duval. That is to say, they do precisely the same thing as Scott's 'Ivanhoe,' Scott's 'Rob Roy,' Scott's 'Lady of the Lake,' Byron's 'Corsair,' Wordsworth's 'Rob Roy's Grave,' Stevenson's 'Macaire,' Mr. Max Pemberton's 'Iron Pirate,' and a thousand more works distributed systematically as prizes and Christmas presents... In the case of our own class, we recognize that this wild life is contemplated with pleasure by the young, not because it is like their own life, but because it is different from it."²³

As I hope to be able to deal more in detail with this interesting group of books in the Arents collection, I shall only mention one of them here: An Authentic and Faithful History of the Mysterious Murder of Maria Marten, With a Full Development of All the Extraordinary Circumstances Which Led to the Discovery of Her Body in the Red Barn . . . Together With the Trial at Large of William Corder for the Murder. This appeared in 24 parts, in yellow printed wrappers, which sold for sixpence. It is illustrated with copperplate portraits, views, and plans. The name of J. Curtis appears as the author. In his work on shorthand of 1835 Curtis stated that he was editor of The Newgate Calendar  and had been shorthand reporter at the Old Bailey for eighteen years.

As before in choosing a few titles from many it is difficult to single out the informational works in parts for mention here. One of the interesting early books in this category in the Arents collection is The Wonders of the Little World,  by Nathaniel Wanley, issued in 32 parts in 1788-1790. The original edition of this book, called by the Dictionary of National Biography "an anecdotal treatise on mankind," was published in 1678. J. C. Lavater's Essays on Physiognomy  was issued in 41 parts in an English translation, 1789-1798. It is lavishly illustrated and is in large 4^to. This work, highly esteemed in its day, sold for twelve shillings a part to subscribers. William Blake was among the artists who executed the engravings. Another great rarity in parts is The Indian Tribes of North America, by Thomas L. M'Kenney and James Hall, issued in large folio, in 80 parts, 1837-1844, with 120 fine colored portraits. An uncommon book is Herbert Spencer's First Principles, in six parts, 1860-1862.

In the case of the very large books on birds and flowers which exist in parts in the Arents collection, the difficulties in making a very small selection are great indeed. Each is such a remarkable example of book production. The chief feature of this type of book is the superb colored plates, masterpieces of lithography in many cases and with additional color added by fine artists in this class of illustration. The text is also important for its scientific information. The Birds of Great Britain, by John Gould, 1862-1873, in large folio,

²¹ Walter C. Phillips, Dickens, Reade, and Collins, Sensation Novelists (New York 1919).

Next