Modern English Books of Power Part 9

The standard life is _The Life and Letters of Robert Browning_, by Mrs. Sutherland Orr, but valuable are _The Love Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning_, issued by Browning's son in 1899. For Edmund Gosse's _Robert Browning--Personalia_ the poet supplied much of the material in notes. Good short sketches and estimates are Chesterton's _Browning_ in the English Men of Letters series and Waugh's _Robert Browning_.

GEORGE MEREDITH

The standard edition of Meredith's works is the Boxhill edition in seventeen volumes, with photogravure frontispieces, issued in this country by the Scribners. The same text is used in the Pocket Edition in sixteen volumes, which does not include the unfinished novel, _Celt and Saxon_. A ma.s.s of comment on Meredith may be found in the English and American reviews and magazines, to which Poole's _Index_ furnishes the best guide.

Mrs. M.S. Henderson, _George Meredith: Novelist, Poet, Reformer_; George Macaulay Trevelyan, _The Poetry and Philosophy of George Meredith_; John Lane, _Biography of George Meredith_, and R. Le Gallienne, _Characteristics of George Meredith_.

STEVENSON

Robert Louis Stevenson's early work appeared in fugitive form in magazines and reviews and even after he had written _The New Arabian Nights_ and _Travels With a Donkey_ he was forced to see such excellent matter as _The Silverado Squatters_ cut up into magazine articles and more than half of it discarded.

The vogue of Stevenson was greater in this country than in England until he had fully established his reputation. In 1878 _An Inland Voyage_ appeared and in 1879 _Travels With a Donkey_, but it was not until 1883 that _Treasure Island_ made him well known. The standard edition of Stevenson is the Thistle edition, beautifully printed and ill.u.s.trated, and issued at Edinburgh and New York, 1894-1898. _The Letters of Stevenson to His Family_, originally issued in 1899, have now been incorporated with _Vailima Letters_ and issued in four volumes. They are arranged chronologically, with admirable biographical commentary by Sydney Colvin, to whom a great part of them was written. Stevenson's personality was so attractive that a ma.s.s of reminiscence and comment has been produced since his death in 1894. The best books are Graham Balfour, _Life of Robert Louis Stevenson_; Walter Raleigh, _R.L.

Stevenson_; Simpson, _Stevenson's Edinburgh Days_, and _Memoirs of Vailima_, by Isobel Strong and Lloyd Osbourne, the novelist's stepchildren. Henry James in _Partial Portraits_ has a fine appreciation of Stevenson and _Robert Louis Stevenson in California_, by Katharine D. Osbourne is rich in reminiscence.

THOMAS HARDY

Since 1895, Thomas Hardy has written no fiction. The standard edition of his works is published in this country by the Harpers. Recently this firm has issued Hardy in a convenient thin paper edition which may be slipped into the coat pocket.

His first novel, _Desperate Remedies_, appeared in 1871 but it was not until the issue of _Far From the Madding Crowd_ in 1874 that he gained popular fame. Many magazine articles have been written on the "corner of Dorsets.h.i.+re" which Hardy calls Wess.e.x. Good books on the Hardy country are _The Wess.e.x of Romance_, by W. Sherren, and _The Wess.e.x of Thomas Hardy_, by Windle.

KIPLING

The standard edition of Kipling is the Outward Bound edition, published in this country by the Scribners. It contains a general introduction by the author and special prefaces to each volume, with ill.u.s.trations from bas reliefs made by the novelist's father. Doubleday, Page & Co. are issuing a pocket edition of Kipling, on thin paper with flexible leather binding, which is very convenient. Any additional books will be added to each of these editions. Kipling has told of his early life in India and of his precocious literary activity in _My First Book_ (1894). Richard Le Gallienne made a study of the novelist in _Rudyard Kipling--A Criticism_ and Edmund Gosse in _Questions at Issue_ discusses his short stories.

Prof. William Lyon Phelps in _Essays on Modern Novelists_ has a fine chapter on Kipling. Andrew Lang in _Essays in Little_ treats of "Mr. Kipling's Stories" and Barrie has an appreciation in CONTEMPORARY REVIEW for March, 1891. A useful _Kipling Index_ is issued by Doubleday, Page & Co. All t.i.tles are indexed so that one may locate any story or character.