In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

251 it represents a post-Darwiη i a η view of Nature, and on Christminster, which Jude seems to envisionas a replacement for the harmony he cannot find in Nature. Both Ha rdy ' s Use of Al 1 U1Si on and True Correspondence are useful additions to Hardy scholarship because they represent valid approaches that have not been taken before in any systematic way. Springer's book is more valuable in its particulars than in its generalities, while Johnson's book offers in every sense an original and fascinating reading of a writer "who in being most ancient is most modern" (p. 8). Kristin Brady University Ontari o of Western HOLMES AND DOYLE Richard Lancelyn Green and John Michael Gibson. A Bib!iography of A^ Conan Doyle. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983. $49.95 Walter Klinefelter. Ori gins of Sherlock Hol mes. Bloomington, IN: Gaslight Publi cati ons, T98T: $TT79b Paul D. Herbert. The Si ncerest Form of F1attery: An Historical Survey of Parodies, Pastiches and Other Imitative Writings of Sherlock Holmes T891-1980. Bloomington, IN: Gaslight Publications, 1983. $14.95 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was an indefatigable writer. Though he is primarily famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, most of his published work had little to do with the fictional detective. Besides the Holmes stories, Doyle published other fiction (both short stories and novels), poems, essays, autobiography, letters to newspapers, arguments vindicating falsely accused men, histories of England's involvement in wars, and pleas for belief in psychic phenomena. Much of this material was inconsequential or mainly of contemporary interest and, except for a few other works of fiction, receives attention today only because of Sherlock Holmes. After Doyle became tremendously popular, his work was widely published in England, in America, in British colonies and abroad, often reprinted, and often pirated. In their bibliography Green and Gibson describe all of Doyle's published work in English that they have been able to discover. Translations are included only if they have new prefaces or were published in England as propaganda. Whenever possible, Green and Gibson consulted publishers' records, and in thorough bibliographical descriptions they record editions, impressions and issues, with variant points. They include magazine publication; list contents of collections; indicate reprints and piracies; record such details as binding variants, dust jackets (when found), variant end papers, and points of issue such as misprints in texts. In addition to separately published pamphlets, books, and collected editions, Green and Gibson include Doyle's prefaces, forewords, collaborations, newspaper contributions, and other ephemera. For important titles, their notes give biographical and publication 252 information which is often fascinating, bringing Doyle and his methods of writing to life. In addition to a frontispiece portrait of Doyle, thirteen illustrations reproduce covers and title pages. Appendices list British, Colonial, North American, and continental publishers, unauthorized and cheap American editions, music and plays by Doyle, mi satt ributions and dedications, and other pertinent information. To test the accuracy of this bibliography, I decided to make a spot check of several of the titles against the holdings of the rare book collection of the Lilly Library at Indiana University. With only minute exceptions, the work of Green and Gibson matches the books I examined bibliographical point by bibliographical point. I am impressed with the detailed descriptions. It is, of course, possible in a bibliography so massive to find one or two minor points that do no seem to agree. If minor problems are listed here, it is not meant to nitpick at the accomplishment of Green and Gibson, but rather to suggest small matters that might be rechecked for a later, revised edition. Surely "Santa Monica" (p. xi) is a misprint for San Marino as the location of the Huntington Library. In the Lilly copy of the first American edition of The Case of Oscar Slater (1912) which 1 examined, item BIl.b, only pages [104-6] are blank and not pages "[104-8]"; the dust jacket is gray rather than white. The copy of The Exploits of Bri gadier Gerard (1896), item A19, contains only two pages of the publisher's catalogue, dated 10.2.96, rather than eight. Perhaps the fact that such trivial variations exist is...

pdf

Share