The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. ("CBEL"). [ 4 vols, complete set ]

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1940 first edition. 4 vols, cloth, 8vo,. xxxviii, [2] , 912 + xviii, [2], 1003 + xix, [3], 1098 + 287 pp. Approximately 152,500 entries. Volumes: I : 600-1660; II : 1660-1800; III : 1800-1900; IV : Index. The aim of CBEL is "to record, as far as possible in chronological order, the authors, titles and editions, with relevant critical matter, of all the writings in book-form (whether in English or in Latin) that can still be said to possess some literary interest, by natives of what is now the British empire, up to the year 1900". It includes sections on political and social background and Commonwealth literature dropped from the later New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. A supplement (not included here) was published in 1957. From the blurb: "The four volumes of this Bibliography contain particulars of every writer and every book worthy of inclusion in a record of English Literature from the earliest times to the beginning of this century. Whether famous or now forgotten, poets, dramatists, novelists, essayists, and critics are here with a list of their work, along with historians, theologians, philosophers, scholars, and scientists. Here too are lists of newspapers and magazines, and selected titles from the thousands of pamphlets and ephemera that have appeared since printing was invented. In short, as the Preface claim', "no type of printed book, from the chapbook to the scientific treatise, from the collection of hymns to the gift-book, from the schoolboy's 'crib' to the treatise on whist, has been neglected". The work is divided Into five chronological sections; these form a shorthand history of English Literature far more complete and more instructive than any textbook can be, Each entry shows, besides the author and title of the work to which it refers, the date end place of first publication, the date of subsequent editions end translations within fifty years of the first - a period long enough to cover authors' revisions and to give some idea of the immediate success of a work - and finally details of the more important or convenient modern editions. In addition there are lists showing the most important critical and biographical studies of the various authors, and sections illustrating the social, political, and intellectual background. A Good set, edges slightly spotted.