Beardsley Bibliography

BOOK REVIEWS sion" is another sign that the richness of their discussion doesn't permit an easy summary. A reader might well consult these abstracts to see if the book speaks to his or her interests. Among the dramatists Theatre and Fashion treats are Wilde, Henry Arthur Jones, Pinero, Shaw, Elizabeth Robins, Edith Lyttelton, Cicely Hamilton, Elizabeth Baker, Granville Barker, and Edward Knoblock. In their excellent third chapter , they examine the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell's contribution to what Shaw called derisively "Pineroticism" and to Shaw's effort to deconstruct the genre in Pygmalion. (This chapter is a causal narrative, with the enduring element being Mrs. Pat's body, her "anorexic eroticism ," which Pinero and Shaw employ to different ends, with the actress herself partially subverting both men.) The authors also discuss a number oÃ- non-literary figures at length, especially the shrewd, enterprising couturier Lucile. The book is a contribution not only to the history of drama, but to the history of fashion and the history of the women's movement. Horace apparently originated the notion that the end of literature is to teach and delight. For him, these are separate ends: to have a full house, the dramatist should both entertain the restless young and instruct the soberer older members of the audience. Dr. Johnson accepted the Horacian tag while altering it in a significant respect; for Johnson, the two ends are one: books delight by teaching. This sense of pleasure in learning captures nicely the satisfaction afforded by this admirable book. Bruce Bashford ______________ SUNY at Stony Brook Beardsley Bibliography Mark Samuels Lasner. A Selective Checklist of the Published Work of Aubrey Beardsley. Boston: Thomas G. Boss, 1995. 128 pp. $75.00 LN1989, ROBERT LANGENFELD'S Reconsidering Aubrey Beardsley , a collection of essays by various scholars, included Nicholas Salerno's annotated secondary bibliography of Beardsley scholarship totalling 1561 items, the most extensive such bibliography to appear on the young artist. (Currently in progress is Linda Zatlin's detailed catalogue raisonné of the original drawings.) Now, a primary bibliography of Beardsley's published works has appeared, one that Lasner— himself a noted collector and bibliographer—remarks is the "kind of guide a collector, a curator, or a bookseller would want to keep handy." 531 ELT 38:4 1995 Describing it as a "checklist," however, does not do his work justice, for items are not merely listed but also annotated so that running commentaries and cross-referencing provide the reader with an abundance of details commonly omitted in ordinary checklists. Cautiously, Lasner emphasizes selective in the title of his work, which is "not all-encompassing, emphasizing those printed items that, over the years, have come to be sought by collectors and enthusiasts—the original editions of books and periodicals containing Beardsley's illustrations, drawings, designs, bindings, and writings." Careful to inform the reader that he has not compiled a "definitive bibliography," Lasner was unable to provide certain details—either lacking or incomplete for unavailable items—and "no attempt has been made to include every reference to the existing Beardsley literature." Lasner's intent is to strip away "layers of myth and 'tradition/ in which misconceptions first put into print years ago have been repeated again and again without challenge." Moreover, neither Leonard Smithers nor John Lane, Beardsley's principal publishers, accurately reported the number of copies printed, nor were they accurate with bibliographical data. Of the 224 items listed, the initial item is Beardsley's first published literary work, a poem titled The Valiant," written and published in 1885 in Past and Present, the magazine of the Brighten Grammar School, which Beardsley attended; the second item is a series of eleven comic sketches, his first published drawings, which appeared in the same magazine two years later. Such arcane items abound throughout Lasner 's work. Another item lists Beardsley's contribution of eleven illustrations to the program of a comic opera titled The Pay of the Pied Piper: A Legend of Hamelin Town, in which Beardsley performed and also starred as Mercury in the prologue written by his schoolmaster, A. W. King. This school performance was presented as the annual entertainment by Brighton Grammar School in 1888. The more familiar...