           
|
  |
The Anglo–German co-operation underlying
this project has greatly benefited from generous support
given to the two main research centres at Cardiff University
and the Universität-Gesamthochschule Paderborn. The Cardiff
team, based in the Centre for Editorial and Intertextual
Research (CEIR), has been supported for the duration of
the project by a two-year Larger Research Grant from the
British Academy, which provided funds to help employ Anthony
Mandal as main researcher, as well as supporting travel
between Cardiff and Paderborn and a series of visits to
major holding libraries within Britain. Research at Cardiff
has also benefited substantially through the general support
given by the School of English, Communication and Philosophy
at Cardiff (ENCAP) in the form of administrative support,
equipment, and library purchases. Among fellow members of
staff and colleagues who have offered help and advice are
Jacqueline Belanger, Tom Dawkes, Tim Killick, Sharon Ragaz,
and David Skilton.
The
Paderborn Novel Project is especially indebted to the owner
of the Fürstliche Bibliothek Corvey, Franz Albrecht von
Metternich-Sándor, Herzog von Ratibor und Fürst von Corvey,
who opened his library for international scholarship, to
his son Erbprinz Viktor, and the general administration
at Schloß Corvey. The Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung
des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, generously provided financial
support for the cataloguing and microfiching of the Corvey
Library, which in turn led to participation in the present
bibliography. Grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(DFG) funded visits to Great Britain as well as research
assistance. The Universität Paderborn provided general administrative
help. Thanks are also due to Günter Tiggesbäumker, Hartmut
Steinecke, Stephanie Junger, and Thorsten Liß for help and
advice.
The
compilers would also like to offer special thanks to the
following librarians and curators for facilitating their
researches and answering queries: Iain Beavan (Aberdeen
University Library); Michael Bott (University of Reading
Library); Chris Fletcher, John Goldfinch (British Library);
Mr J. J. Hall (University Library, Cambridge); Michael Richardson
(University of Bristol Library); Christopher Skelton-Foord
(Bodleian Library); Daniel J. Slive (University of California
Library, Los Angeles). They are also grateful to the British
Library for permission to cite and quote from the Bentley
Papers; and also for permission to publish materials from
the Longman archives held at Reading University. Special
thanks are also due to Claire Connolly, Gillian Hughes,
Fionnula Dillane, and Annika Bautz, who consulted material
in (respectively): the Houghton and Widener libraries, Harvard;
Princeton University Library; Trinity College, Dublin and
the National Library of Ireland, and Newcastle University
Library. Individual assistance was also provided by David
Hewitt, in supporting work at Aberdeen, and Meiko O’Halloran.
Throughout the project close contact has also been maintained
with Rolf Loeber and Magda Stouthamer Loeber, whose ongoing
work in compiling a Bibliography of Irish Fiction has fed
into the present project in a number of beneficial ways.
ABBREVIATIONS
| * |
No copy of first edition located |
| ? |
doubtful |
| // |
paragraph break |
| ABu |
Aberdeen University Library |
| adv. |
advertisement/advertised |
| Bentley MS
List |
Bentley Papers, vol. lxxviii: Publication
List, vol. i (BL Add MSS 46,637): 1829–1837 |
| BI |
Britain and Ireland |
| BL |
British Library |
| Blanck |
Jacob Blanck, et al., A Bibliography
of American Literature, 10 vols. (New Haven, 1955–93) |
| BLC |
British Library Catalogue |
| BLPC |
British Library Public Catalogue (online) |
| Block |
Andrew Block, The English Novel 1740–1850:
A Catalogue including Prose Romances, Short Stories,
and Translations of Foreign Fiction (London, 1939;
revised 1961; reprinted 1968) |
| BP |
A List of the Principal Publications
Issued from New Burlington Street during the Year 1830
(London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1893) |
| BRu ENC |
Bristol University Library, Early Novels
Collection |
| c. |
circa |
| C |
Cambridge University Library |
| CBEL3 |
The Cambridge Bibliography of English
Literature, 3rd edn., vol. 4: 1800–1900, ed. Joanne
Shattock (Cambridge, 1999) |
| CFu |
University of Wales Cardiff |
| CLU-S/C |
Special Collections, University of California,
Los Angeles |
| CME |
Corvey Microfiche Edition |
| Corvey |
Corvey, Fürstliche Bibliothek zu Corvey |
| D |
National Library of Ireland, Dublin |
| d. |
died |
| DLC |
Library of Congress, Washington DC |
| DNB |
Dictionary of National Biography |
| Dt |
Trinity College Library, Dublin |
| E |
National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh |
| ECB |
English Catalogue of Books 1801–1836,
ed. Robert Alexander Peddie and Quintin Waddington (London,
1914; Kraus Reprint, New York, 1963) |
| ed. |
edited |
| edn. |
edition |
| EN2 |
The English Novel 1770–1829, vol.
II: 1800–1829, ed. Peter Garside and Rainer Schöwerling
(Oxford, 2000) |
| ER |
Edinburgh Review |
| FC |
Victoria Blain, Isobel Grundy, and Patricia
Clements (eds.), The Feminist Companion to Literature
in English (London, 1990) |
| fl. |
floruit |
| ill. |
illustrated |
| LG |
Literary Gazette |
| lib/libs |
library/libraries |
| Longman Archives |
Archives of the House of Longman, Reading
University |
| MC |
The Morning Chronicle |
| MH |
Harvard University |
| MH-H |
Houghton Library, Harvard University |
| MS |
manuscript |
| N&Q |
Notes & Queries |
| NA |
North America |
| NCu |
Newcastle upon Tyne University Library |
| n.d. |
no date |
| NjP |
Princeton University |
| n.p. |
no place of publication |
| n.s. |
new series |
| NSTC |
Nineteenth-Century Short-Title Catalogue:
Series I, 1801–1815, 6 vols. (1984–86); Series II, 1816–1870,
56 vols. (1986–95); CD-ROM (1996); Series III, 1871–1919
on CD-ROM (2002) |
| NUC |
National Union Catalog |
| O |
Bodleian Library, Oxford |
| OCLC |
OCLC FirstSearch WorldCat Catalogue (online) |
| p.c. |
private copy |
| pseud. |
pseudonym |
| RLF |
The Royal Literary Fund 1790–1918: Archives
(London: World Microfilms, 1984): references are to
reel and case number |
| ser. |
series |
| Sadleir |
Michael Sadleir, XIX Century Fiction:
A Bibliographical Record based on his own Collection,
2 vols. (Cambridge, 1951) |
| s.l. |
spine label |
| Star |
The Star; later The Albion
and Star |
| Summers |
Montague Summers, A Gothic Bibliography
(London, [1940]; reprinted 1969) |
| t.p. |
title-page |
| trans. |
translation |
| trans. |
translator |
| unn. |
unnumbered |
| vol. |
volume |
| Wolff |
Robert Lee Wolff, Nineteenth-Century
Fiction: A Bibliographical Catalogue, 5 vols. (New
York, 1981–6) |
| xNSTC |
not entered in the Nineteenth-Century
Short-Title Catalogue |
| xOCLC |
not entered in OCLC FirstSearch Catalogue
WorldCat |
GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
Peter Garside
1. SCOPE AND
PROCEDURE
This Bibliographical Survey, covering the
years 1830–1836 inclusive, follows in the wake of The English
Novel 1770–1829: A Bibliographical Survey of Prose Fiction
Published in the British Isles, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2000).
Like that bibliography its entries are taken wherever possible
from first-hand examination of surviving copies of original
first editions. The period here covered links Walter Scott’s
last published novel, Tales of My Landlord, 4th series
(1832), with Charles Dickens’s Sketches by ‘Boz’ (1836–7),
his first work of fiction to be published as an entity. Often
considered to be something of a hiatus, and so far having
only encouraged one overview critical study, [1] the period
under survey can now been seen as one of variety and richness,
marked rather by diversification than any sustained upsurge
in new titles, and exhibiting a number of transformations
in the production and marketing of the novel. Leading up to
the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837, this bibliography
also offers another vital step towards the building of a comprehensive
record of British fiction in the nineteenth century.
From the inception
of the project, the compilers were conscious of entering into
territory likely to present new challenges and unexpected
difficulties. As is stated in the conclusion to the Historical
Introduction to the second volume of The English Novel
1770–1829, the year 1829 marks a watershed in the production
of fiction in Britain, with a fuller realization of an extended
middle-class market, as evident in the success of the Magnum
Opus collected edition of Scott’s Waverley Novels, launched
as a monthly publication from June that year. This in turn
provided the model for Colburn and Bentley’s Standard Novels
series, offering cheap one-volume editions of recently published
novels, commencing with James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pilot
in February 1831 at the price of 6s. (By December 1836, this
series, now appearing under Bentley’s name alone, had reached
its 56th volume.) A considerable amount of energy during the
period evidently went into the production of such sets and
series, ranging from compilations of older works of fiction,
such as the Novelist’s Library, edited by Thomas Roscoe,
planned as a classic collection, to the innovatory Library
of Romance, edited by Leitch Ritchie, whose aim was to
provide a regular supply a new works of fiction by leading
contemporary writers, and which commenced with the Banims’
Ghost-Hunter and his Family (see 1833: 9).
Another salient
feature of these years is the increasing practice of publishing
original fiction in numbers and through serialization in periodicals.
The interchange between novel production and magazines containing
significant amounts of fiction, such as Blackwood’s Edinburgh
Magazine and the Metropolitan Magazine, as well
as the new-style annuals and keepsakes, also becomes more
variegated and in bibliographical terms problematic. One noticeable
symptom here is the proportionately large increase in the
output of works of fiction consisting of a variety of individual
tales and sketches, a number of which openly acknowledge a
source in periodicals of the time. Prior serialization in
magazines also led in some cases to a situation where a work
appeared in book form first in North America, the text having
been pirated from the magazine version, before the first ‘official’
British edition: notable instances here are Captain Marryat’s
Jacob Faithful (see 1834: 48) and Peter Simple
(see 1834: 49), and Samuel Warren’s Passages from
the Diary of a Late Physician (see 1832: 86). Other
manifestations of a transformational fiction market include
compilations of shorter fiction, usually presented as edited
by one person, such as Andrew Picken’s The Club-Book
(see 1831: 56), which contained new writing by John Galt,
James Hogg, and others, and the onset of the ‘Penny Dreadful’
in the last two years under view, whose small fragmented units
and sensationalist contents again throw out new bibliographical
challenges over inclusion and description.
As in the two
volumes of The English Novel 1770–1829, the main part
of the present Checklist consists of annual listings of novels
as first published in Britain and Ireland during the seven
years covered. These annual lists are reserved for what are
considered in a suitably broad sense to represent works of
adult prose fiction, and as a whole 610 entries will be found
therein, to which a further 138 titles are added in the Appendices,
making a sum total of 748. The criteria for inclusion generally
match those employed while compiling the second volume of
The English Novel, one result of this being that it
is possible to make direct comparisons on fronts such as the
number of new titles issued annually. Works published in series
such as the Standard Novels are generally not included
except in cases where there is no prior record of publication.
The individual works published in Ritchie’s Library of
Romance, on the other hand, are given entries under the
appropriate year, as representing new works of fiction. In
the case of three series of original titles produced by Harriet
Martineau during the period, however, it has been decided
to supply the record in the form a separate Appendix (1),
partly in view of the specially programmatic nature of their
contents, and also to avoid the 34 titles involved unbalancing
the main listings. Number publications are included in the
main listings granted there is clear evidence of a subsequent
sale in book form, and it is the completed form that provides
the entry, though details of constituent parts and evidence
of prior serialization will often be found in the notes to
the entry.
In searching
for potential titles in the earlier stages of the project,
a wide net was cast in a number of directions. Initial lists
were drawn up from various secondary sources, these including
Andrew Block’s English Novel, 1740–1850 and Montague
Summers’s Gothic Bibliography, both used guardedly
owing to their sprawling and irregular nature, as well as
the bibliographically reliable catalogues of collections of
nineteenth-century fiction assembled by Michael Sadleir and
Robert Lee Wolff. [2] Contemporary listings have also proved
an invaluable source, and trawls have been made through the
lists of new publications in the Edinburgh Review and
Literary Gazette, and the advertisements and notices
in two newspapers, The Star and The Morning Chronicle.
Amongst modern resources, the procedure has involved isolation
of all titles given Dewey decimal classification as fiction
in the Nineteenth-Century Short-Title Catalogue (823
English Fiction, etc.), as well as a variety of electronic
searches through the OCLC FirstSearch WorldCat online database
(OCLC). Full searches were conducted in specialist collections
of fiction at Bristol and Aberdeen universities, the latter
consisting to a large degree of novels in their original boards.
Once more, too, the unique collection of novels at Schloss
Corvey in Germany has served as a mainstay both in terms of
searching titles and recording details from original copies
for the entries. Throughout the bibliography, 330 of the entries
assembled describe a copy held in the Corvey library, the
large proportion occurring in the imprint years 1830–4, that
is prior to the death of Victor Amadeus, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg,
the main collector, in 1834.
The search
for original editions not held by Corvey (or, in a few instances,
where the Corvey copy is imperfect) has mainly been conducted
in leading British libraries. One considerable factor has
been the much more extensive holdings of the British Library
for this period, compared with the earlier years of the nineteenth
century. Some 309 of the entries are taken from copies in
the British Library, and the project is much indebted to the
efficiency of service provided at St Pancras and the special
consideration given to our researchers. Owing to the concentration
of resources, and the state of copies found there, the Aberdeen
holdings also offered an efficient way of examining copies
for some 35 entries. Novels not found in the above sources
have been searched and recorded in the Bodleian Library, Cambridge
University Library, the National Library of Ireland, the National
Library of Scotland, Newcastle University Library, and Trinity
College, Dublin. Where the British libraries failed to yield
a copy the project turned to North America, and the entries
will show a few cases of copies recorded at the libraries
at Harvard, Princeton, and University of California, Los Angeles.
In only ten instances has it been necessary to reconstitute
entries from secondary sources, as a result of not being able
to locate any surviving copy.
One remaining
special feature of this Checklist, compared with its predecessors,
is the extensive number of titles included in Appendix 2 (104
works in all), which is reserved for titles which failed,
albeit often narrowly, to match the criteria used for inclusion
into the main annual listings. This itself reflects the proliferation
of sub-genres such as juvenile fiction at this period, as
well as an overlapping with related non-fictional modes, and
beyond that no doubt the diversification of the readership
for fiction. A brief rationale for inclusion under one of
the various sub-headings of this Appendix will be found in
its main header, though inevitably some of the decisions made
over exclusion from the main listings and positioning within
the sub-sections have been of a hair-line nature. Unlike the
final Appendix in volume 2 of The English Novel, the
present equivalent Appendix is not selective in principle
but is meant to display as full a record as possible of the
types included. Items that normally have not been given entries
in either the main listings or appendices include children’s
fiction (pre-puberty), chapbooks and tracts, very short tales,
miscellanies (those consisting predominantly of essays, poetry,
and/or sketches), and periodical works (including annuals,
gift books, and uncollected serial works). Many such works
have nevertheless been examined in the course of the project’s
searches, or in a few instances some putative titles have
been found to be non-existent ‘ghost’ titles or to belong
to another period—these ‘rejects’ amounting as a whole to
322 items (of which a list has been retained).
2. READING THE
ENTRIES
Arrangement
In the main listings entries are listed chronologically
by year of imprint. Within each year, anonymous works whose
authors have not been identified are arranged alphabetically
by title, and precede entries for novels by known authors
and/or translators, ordered alphabetically by author’s name,
or by the pseudonymous name where the author’s proper name
has not been discovered. In the case of compilations, the
editor’s name is given, though the authorship of individual
constituent pieces where known is supplied in the ‘Notes’
field of entries. Where an element of doubt remains about
an attribution a question mark is placed before the author
name (or alternative names where there is more than one claimant
for authorship). Entries for authors with several works in
one year are ordered alphabetically by title, though evidence
can normally found within the entry itself about the precise
chronology. In those few cases where it is difficult to determine
which of two editions or translations of a novel were issued
first, separate (a) and (b) entries are supplied. Novels with
volumes bearing different imprint years are not normally separately
entered under the respective years of publication, unless,
for example, a significant break took place in the publication
or a new series of the title is clearly indicated. On this
latter basis, separate entries are provided for both Mary
Russell Mitford’s Our Village, ‘fourth series’ (1830)
and ‘volume V’ (1832), as for the second series of William
Nugent Glascock’s Naval Sketch Book (1834). The arrangement
of the appendices follows the same chronological and alphabetical
procedures as the main listings, though imprint years do not
provide separate headings.
Cross-referencing
within the entries has mainly been used as a means of signalling:
a) publication over different calendar years, with markers
from years other than the one where the entry is placed; b)
cases of contested or multiple authorship, where the alternative
authors are not apparent in the alphabetical ordering; c)
the appearance or announcement of the same novel under different
titles in the first year of publication. Alternative names
by which a single author might now be known are generally
not indicated in this way, the name chosen for the entries
normally being that which an author published under or was
known by during the years under examination, though cross-references
(e.g. from married names, or aristocratic titles) are provided
in the Author Index, which also lists pseudonyms with cross-references
to real author names where known.
Where no surviving
copy of a novel in its original edition has been discovered,
and its title and publication details have been reconstituted
from secondary evidence, the reconstituted entry is marked
with an asterisk * before the title and the absence of any
located copy is noted in the line reserved for shelf-marks
and catalogues. Where not already explicit, sources are given
for the various elements of the reconstitution.
Components of each entry
A standard entry consists of the following eight ‘fields’:
- Entry number
- Author name(s)
- Full title
- Place of publication and imprint details
- Pagination, format, and price
- Contemporary listings
- Location and shelf-mark of copy examined and references
to other catalogues and copies
- Notes
i) ENTRY
NUMBER
In the main listings, numbering starts freshly with each
year. Individual entries numbers consist of year followed
by sequential number (e.g. 1835: 57), and these
numbers both head the entries and are also cited for cross-referencing
and in the indexes. Within the two appendices, the same
principle applies, with sub-section letter followed by sequential
number (e.g. A: 17, D: 4); a full
citation in these cases also includes the appendix number
(e.g. Appendix 2, C: 7).
ii) AUTHOR
NAME(S)
Each entry opens with the name(s) of the author,
editor, or translator, where known. Unless bracketed, names
are given as they appear on the title-page. Square brackets
are used to denote information supplied by outside information.
Additions which help complete names, supplied through researched
information (e.g. a fuller or extra Christian name), are
likewise given in square brackets. In instances where information
is found within the text (e.g. a signature at the end of
a preface), but is not displayed on the title-page, this
is denoted by the use of surrounding curly brackets—as,
for example, in BRAY, {A}[nna] {E}[liza], in which
case the title-page attribution is to ‘Mrs. Bray’, but the
Introduction is signed ‘A. E. B’. ‘Mr’, Mrs’, and ‘Miss’
are omitted, unless these are the only qualification to
the surname or indication of gender. Where no author has
been identified, the entry opens with ‘ANON.’. In some cases
where evidence concerning the authorship is not conclusive,
information about possible attributions can be found in
the notes field, with references to names also being given
in the Author index. Translators and editors are treated
similarly to authors, with the additions of ‘(trans.)’
and ‘(editor)’ immediately after the names: author
names always have sequential priority. A pseudonymous name
is followed by ‘[pseud.]’, with doubt as to whether the
name is real or not being indicated by ‘[pseud.?]’
iii) FULL TITLE
The title is given in full as it appears on the title-page,
with block capitals being used throughout, no attempt being
made to replicate peculiar fonts and combinations of letters
found in the originals. Mottoes and special headers are
generally excluded, though the notes often pick up on special
features of interest. In the case of works appearing as
a part of a series, the series title-page (where extant)
is also transcribed in full in the notes. Where an engraved
title-page is found in addition to a standard (conventionally
printed) title-page, the latter is transcribed to make the
entry, though any significant variants or additional features
in the engraved title are recorded in the notes. Use of
‘[sic]’ to indicate features such as idiosyncratic
spellings is sparing; and in a few cases, especially where
misreading is possible, supplementary punctuation is supplied
is square brackets. Where variations are found between the
titles of the different volumes of a novel, the differences
are recorded in the notes section.
iv) PLACE OF
PUBLICATION AND IMPRINT
DETAILS
The first-named place of publication on the original
imprint is given first, followed (after a colon) by the
full details of publishers, booksellers, and printers as
they appear on the title-page up to the imprint date. A
comma separates this information from the date, which is
always given in arabic numerals even when in roman on the
original. Where a place of publication is not named on the
imprint but is inferred or researched from other information,
this is given in square brackets. Where no date is given
on the title-page the abbreviation n.d. (no date) is used,
followed by an attributed date in square brackets. With
multi-volume works the first volume normally supplies the
details, and any differences found in the imprint information
in other volumes is recorded in the notes. In the case of
different years of publication between volumes of the same
work, this is presented in the form of a split date at the
end of the line, for example ‘1834/36’. Printer details
not found within the imprint itself are not recorded in
this field, though details found elsewhere in colophons
and other printer marks (say, on the verso of the title-page)
are systematically recorded in the notes section (see below).
v) PAGINATION,
FORMAT, AND PRICE
The last roman and arabic page of each volume is given,
with instances where both types of pagination are continuous
being recorded in the notes. These page numbers are preceded,
in the case of multi-volume novels, by the volume number
in upper-case roman. Where volumes of the same work bear
different imprint dates this is indicated in parenthesis
after the volume numbers. Illustrations are abbreviated
as ‘ill.’, and are signalled after the page number, separated
by a comma: normally this is reserved for cases where pictorial
images are involved, vignettes consisting only of a design
not normally being counted as illustrations. Where pagination
information is unavailable because no copy has survived,
the number of volumes only is indicated.
The format
of each copy examined has been individually checked by collation
of leaves. Whereas in the period 1770–1829 the majority
of novels were published either in octavo (8vo) or duodecimo
(12mo) formats, with gatherings respectively of eight or
twelve leaves, the increasing use of the smaller 18mo and
16mo formats in the period under view has led to fresh complications.
Copies in 18mo examined often collate in sixes, but sometimes
in twelves and sixes, whereas 16mo generally collates in
eights. A main indication in these cases then is that page
sizes are smaller than would be expected for 8vos or for
12mos in half-sheets. Due consideration has been taken of
this factor in making decisions, though because of the variations
found between copies of the same work, owing to cropping
and other factors, no record of page diameters has been
given in the entries. Secondary sources such as contemporary
listings sometimes give useful information about format,
but because of its variable quality this has at best been
used guardedly.
Price is
given in shillings (s) and pence (d) as found in the work
itself or in newspapers and other listings, with the accompanying
description where found (most commonly ‘in boards’). Sources
for the information are also given, in parenthesis, these
including spine label (s.l.), MC, LG, ER, and ECB. All variants
are provided.
vi) CONTEMPORARY
LISTINGS
Unlike in the preceding printed volumes of The English
Novel, no attempt is made to record surviving reviews,
a task made all the more difficult by the increasing diversification
of reviewing outlets and methods during this period. As
an alternative, this field in its present form records details
from a variety of contemporary listings, which offer invaluable
information on matters such as impression numbers, price,
and (most pertinent here) dates of first publication. Four
categories of record are provided, in the following order:
publishing records (the Bentley Papers and Longman Archives);
newspaper notices (The Star and Morning Chronicle);
listings of new works from periodicals (the Literary
Gazette and Edinburgh Review); and, finally,
The English Catalogue of Books, 1800–1836 (ECB).
A typical entry then might look like: BP (1 Jan 1832);
Star (2 Jan 1832); LG 780: 842 (31 Dec 1831); ER 54: 560
(Dec 1831); ECB 84 (Dec 1831). In the case of entries
from newspapers, The Star is used as the main source
until its demise in 1835, the Morning Chronicle serving
as its replacement for 1836 and as a source in 1835 when
information from The Star is absent or less accurate.
The entry given from newspapers is the first considered
to give an indication of the publication date of the work,
though other information gleaned from this source (such
as advance notices) is provided in the notes section. In
the case of periodicals, the information is taken from the
list of ‘New Books/ Publications’ found near the end of
the weekly issues of the Literary Gazette and the
quarterly numbers of the Edinburgh Review. For pinpointing
dates of publication, then, one might expect a diminishing
chance of precision as the entries proceed, with the exception
of ECB which in these last years that it records is more
focused than previously.
vii) LOCATION AND
SHELF-MARK OF
COPY EXAMINED AND
REFERENCES TO OTHER
CATALOGUES AND COPIES
This field always begins with an abbreviation for the library
holding the copy of the novel examined (or statement of
inability to locate a copy), followed by the holding library’s
press-mark. In the case of novels held by the Corvey library,
where no current catalogue numbers exist, the ISBN of the
Corvey Microfiche Edition (CME) is given as the most useful
identifying call number. In a handful of instances, where
the Corvey copy is incomplete or otherwise imperfect (e.g.
lacks a subscription list), alternative copies have been
sought to provide the entry, the presence of a copy in Corvey
in these cases being signalled by the inclusion of the CME
ISBN number after the shelf-mark of the actual contributing
library. (In a few cases, where no CME exists for the Corvey
copy used, the library alone is signalled, though if a CME
number for same title in a subsequent edition is available
the reference number is supplied under ‘Further Editions’
at the end of the entry.)
Details are
then given from two leading modern database catalogues of
printed books and holding libraries: the Nineteenth-Century
Short-Title Catalogue (NSTC) and OCLC FirstSearch WorldCat
Catalogue (OCLC). In both instances, a reference number
is given first, followed by information about the number
of holding libraries in parenthesis. Where NSTC includes
more than one number for the same item (under both author
and title, for example), the number cited is normally the
one based on author, or, failing that, the largest of the
entries. NSTC, which itself is based on library catalogues,
at this phase records holdings from six British and Irish
libraries and two major North American libraries:
British Library; University Library, Cambridge;
Trinity College, Dublin; National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh;
University of Newcastle Library; Bodleian Library, Oxford;
Library of Congress, Washington; Harvard University.
The library holdings given in parenthesis
relate to these institutions only, and are ordered alphabetically
by abbreviation, with British and Irish (BI) libraries first,
followed by North American (NA) ones. In each entry, the
holding libraries given are amalgamated from all NSTC entries
for the work.
OCLC entries
differ slightly by giving the accession number for the record
chosen followed by the number of holding libraries in parenthesis:
e.g. OCLC 42447732 (42 libs). In a number of cases,
more than one OCLC record is available for what is in all
probability the same original edition, and in these cases
the policy has been to choose the more substantial record,
granted its details unequivocally match the edition being
described for the entry. Because of the complexity of the
situation sometimes found, no attempt has been made to amalgamate
the numbers of holding libraries given in different records.
Where the OCLC record used applies only to microform copies
of the work, this is recorded. Unlike NSTC, OCLC is a database
which is being constantly updated and enlarged, and the
details supplied apply to the period 2002–3 when the present
entries were being assembled.
When one
of the libraries specified in NSTC provides the actual copy
consulted for the entry (and is thus given with shelf-mark
at the beginning of the entry), that library is omitted
from the holding libraries abbreviated later in parenthesis.
xNSTC and xOCLC indicate that a novel in the edition used
for the entry (in all normal circumstances the first edition)
is not included in NSTC/OCLC.
vii) NOTES
The notes section is not used to record information comprehensively,
but is intended primarily to supply readers with additional
information of interest, including for example details of
dedications, subscription lists, and advertisements within
the novels. In the case of translations from another language,
basic details are provided of the original source text and
date and place of publication. Additional information about
authorship is also placed near the beginning of this section,
with reasons for new attributions and explanations of difficulties
encountered in ascription. Details concerning the actual
copy of the work examined generally follow the arrangement
of its contents, while further notes are given in much the
same order as other parts of the full entry. Information
concerning impression numbers, as found in publishing archives,
for example, are generally found near the end of the main
notes section.
In two particular
areas the notes make an advance compared with the previous
printed Bibliography, covering 1770–1829. In view of the
relatively high proportion of works of fiction incorporating
a variety of separate tales, an effort has been made to
record in some detail the titles of the constituent items
and the inclusive page numbers in which they are contained.
In giving the pagination of tales within works, the beginning
of the tale is counted from the individual subordinate title-page
(where this appears); and normally the wording of a tale’s
title is given from the header of the tale itself, rather
than the contents list. The other advance is that a systematic
effort has been made in the notes to record printer information
as found in colophons and other printer’s marks outside
the main imprint. In the case of London printers, a degree
of standardization has taken place, with the suppression
of recurrent details such as ‘London’ and ‘Printed by’ from
the description given, some ironing out of accidentals such
as hyphens and initial capitals, and (where there are variations
in detail within a work) utilization generally of the fullest
form found. In the case of non-London printers, where a
place other than London is given this is included in the
description: e.g. Printer’s mark reads: ‘Dumfries: Printed
by John M‘Diarmid and Co.’, with similar colophon. Where
colophons and printer’s marks of different printers are
found between the different volumes of a work, indicating
(say) that it was parcelled out between more than one firm,
this is also recorded in detail. Where no printer information
is found (other than in the main imprint), this is usually
noted.
Also listed
are further editions of the novel published up to 1870.
In identifying these, NSTC and OCLC have both played a major
part, though additional information has also been supplied
by reliable sources such as the published records of the
collections of Michael Sadleir and Robert Lee Wolff, and
occasionally through hands-on work in existing library collections.
Up to five further editions published in Britain and Ireland
are listed, with supporting references in appendices (in
those cases where xOCLC or xNSTC has been recorded in the
main entry, a full reference number is also given for the
first British or Irish edition to found in those resources).
Places of publication for further editions are recorded
where they differ from that of the main entry. Where more
than five editions have been identified, the number of additional
editions reliably identified is given in square brackets
(e.g. as [at least 5 more edns. to 1870]). The sequence
of British and Irish editions is then followed by citation
of the first known North American edition before 1870, except
in cases where the American edition preceded the British
(in which case the latter provides the entry, and information
about its American predecessor is provided in the main notes
section). In cases where different editions appear to have
been published in the first known year of publication in
North America (e.g. in both New York and Philadelphia),
the first of these alphabetically by place of publication
is given, followed by the other(s).
Details are
also supplied of the first known translations into foreign
languages up to 1870, with a record of titles where these
differ substantively and/or interestingly from the English
original.
NOTES
-
Elliot Engel and Margaret F. King,
The Victorian Novel before Victoria: British Fiction
during the Reign of William IV, 1830–37 (London,
1984).
-
Michael Sadleir, XIX Century Fiction:
A Bibliographical Record Based on his own Collection,
2 vols. (Cambridge, 1951); Robert Lee Wolff, Nineteenth-Century
Fiction: A Bibliographical Catalogue, 5 vols. (New
York, 1981–6).
Last modified
26 January, 2006
.
This document is maintained by Anthony Mandal (Mandal@cf.ac.uk).
|
|