So far as I am aware, no such scheme has ever been printed before.
CHAPTER XI
AN ENGLISH LIBRARY: PERIOD I
[For much counsel and correction in the matter of editions and prices
I am indebted to my old and valued friend, Charles Young, head of the
firm of Lamley & Co., booksellers, South Kensington.]
For the purposes of book-buying, I divide English literature, not
strictly into historical epochs, but into three periods which,
while scarcely arbitrary from the historical point of view, have
nevertheless been calculated according to the space which they will
occupy on the shelves and to the demands which they will make on the
purse:
I. From the beginning to John Dryden, or roughly, to the end of the
seventeenth century.
II. From William Congreve to Jane Austen, or roughly, the eighteenth
century.
III. From Sir Walter Scott to the last deceased author who is
recognised as a classic, or roughly, the nineteenth century.
Period III. will bulk the largest and cost the most; not necessarily
because it contains more absolutely great books than the other periods
(though in my opinion it _does_), but because it is nearest to us, and
therefore fullest of interest for us.
I have not confined my choice to books of purely literary
interest--that is to say, to works which are primarily works of
literary art.
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