The Small Library/Chapter 3
Every intelligent man, whether an enthusiastic book-lover or not, recognizes that books should form part of the fittings of every room in a house. Whether the apartment be a library, study, parlour, nursery, drawing-room, kitchen, bedroom, dining-room, boudoir, hall, or den, books of a suitable kind should form part of its equipment. There is much to be said in favour of gathering the book-wealth of a household together in one place, but there are practical inconveniences connected with this course which make it undesirable. If all the books are in the 'Library' one has to endure the nuisance of demands for particular works, coming from the kitchen, drawing-room, or bedroom, and the difficulty of securing their prompt and accurate return. It also imposes upon the butler, the maid-of-all-work, or whoever admits and attends upon callers, the awful responsibility of procuring from the library a pass-time book to amuse the waiting visitor in the drawing-room. This might easily lead to frightful complications, as, for example, an author receiving a presentation copy of his own work uncut, or scribbled over with sarcastic annotations. On the whole, there are too many practical disadvantages about the concentration plan to make it generally acceptable. On the other hand, a bedroom is not a suitable place for books, unless in the case of people living in lodgings. In the first place, wise to encourage the habit of reading in bed, or of reading when one ought to be sleeping? Again, in cases of illness, particularly when infectious, the is it stripping of the room, disinfection, and other disturbing processes, make bedrooms unsuitable places for the permanent storage of books. But on this point, every householder must be a law unto him or herself, as also on other points, such as the desirability of placing books in the scullery or coal-cellar.
A somewhat extensive and careful inquiry shows that the general reference library of the average British householder is not only incomplete, but in most cases non-existent. In dozens of cases, he does not possess a single reference book of any kind, and in a majority of cases which have come under notice, the household reference library consists of a solitary school dictionary of the English language. In a few cases houses are also found boasting of a cookery-book, issued free by an enterprising firm of sauce manufacturers, in which, by an extraordinary coincidence, the one thing needful to the success of a dish, is a dash of one or other of the firm's productions. There are also houses which preserve as literature the almanacks containing recipes and testimonials, issued by various vendors of quack medicines, and there is no doubt that the gullible British householder will accept almost anything which is sufficiently advertised and boomed, provided it is free. But of good, general reference books, which answer nearly every question likely to arise in an ordinary household, either from arguments in the family, the suggestions of friends, or the discussions of newspapers, the majority of British families do not possess many. It is chiefly because of this, and an extraordinary failure to make intelligent use of the reference departments of Public Libraries, that so much ignorance is manifested by the average British citizen, on nearly every subject under the sun. He addresses queries to the newspapers on topics which he could answer for himself by using his own home library, if he had one; or inquiring at the nearest Public Library. But, instead of equipping himself with the tools of knowledge for the benefit of himself or his family, he prefers to grope blindly along in his own pigheaded way, like his fathers before him, a prey to every intelligent American or German who cares to take advantage of his blunt indifference to the power and value of book-learning. It is laughable, though it is also pitiful, to observe such foolish persons asking the same old questions in the same old way, over and over again, as if answers to them had not been placed on permanent record time after time. The value of a small Home Reference Library is simply enormous, and its possessor is rendered superior to the little perplexities and difficulties of life, which constantly occur to embarrass man who will not expend a little money to provide a few necessary books. Cases are on record of persons who have starved themselves in order to 'save up' for a sideboard, in which to store a few wedding presents and half a dozen bottles of soda-water; their ignorance, the while, of every vital fact of live being such, through neglect of the information contained in books, that they were incompetent to take part in a discussion on any subject. It is extraordinary to what an extent shrewd and naturally intelligent business men will speak about literature as frivolous and not worth consideration in the struggle for life. By literature they seem to recognize only novels and poetry; never, as a rule, the books in which are recorded the world's history; the facts of life as seen by successive observers; the technique, history and special advantages of every trade, process or profession; the wisdom of the world's best men; in short, the only permanent records of what has already been accomplished by human beings in every department of life. They will make the cheap, inaccurate, and ephemeral information dispensed by the newspaper serve their turn, and from it they will take their politics, religion, and tips for financial speculations. Now, this is not as it should be, in a country which is threatened on every side by serious competition, in spite of the educational facilities provided by the State. It is not enough to have books on view at Public Libraries. In a critical time like the present, when intelligence and knowledge are at a premium, it is just as important that every householder should possess certain books for himself, and learn how to use them. The best reference books for a Household Library are those which will give the most frequently wanted information in the most accessible manner. Leaving out purely professional books, which every householder must procure to meet his own requirements, the following is a brief list of absolutely indispensable books, which should be found in every British home, both for the adult and scholar members of the family:—
A Minimum Household Reference Library.
- A good Dictionary of the English Language.
- A good general Gazetteer.
- A good Geographical Atlas.
- A Biographical Dictionary (general).
- A good Arithmetic.
- A Medical Dictionary (Domestic medicine).
- A Nursing Manual.
- A good Cookery Book.
- A Manual of Domestic Economy.
- A Manual of Natural History.
This minimum list comprises most of the books which will answer nearly all everyday questions, and the works contained in it should be found in every British home, from the lowest to the highest. The total cost of such a collection will vary with the editions or special books chosen, and as there are hundreds of different books on each one of the subjects, the difficulty of selection is great. To a librarian this difficulty is magnified by the danger of appearing unfair or invidious by selecting one special book for mention out of so many. Without giving any expression of opinion as to the surpassing quality of the books recommended, a list of cheap books is subjoined on the subjects noted, which almost every workman can buy in a short time, and a list of more expensive books on the same subjects, well within the means of every middle-class household. From these suggestions any one can make a selection:—
- *Nuttall's English Dictionary. 3s. 6d. Warne.
- Annandale's English Dictionary. 5s. Blackie.
- *Chamber's Concise Gazetteer of the World. 6s. Chambers.
- Chisholm. Gazetteer of the World. 17s. 6d. Times Office.
- Cassell's Universal Atlas. 30s. Cassell.
- *Bartholomew's Century Atlas and Gazetteer. 3s. 6d. Walker.
- Patrick. Biographical Dictionary. 10s. 6d. Chambers.
- *Brooksmith. Arithmetic. 4s. 6d. Macmillan.
- Thomson and Steel. Domestic Medicine. 10s. 6d. Griffin.
- *Mackenzie. Home Medicine. 1s. Gill.
- *Wood (C. J.). Nursing for the Home and the Hospital. 1s. 6d. Cassel
- Harrison (Eveleen). Home Nursing. 4s. 6d. Macmillan.
- *Cassell's Cookery Book. 1s. Cassell.
- Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery. 5s. Cassell.
- Beeton's Household Management. 7s. 6d. Ward, Lock & Co.
- *Barnett and O'Neill. Domestic Economy. 1s. Macmillan.
- *Wood. Natural History. 3s. 6d. Routledge.
- Lydekker. Concise Knowledge Natural History. 5s.
The books marked * are published at less than 30s., but as most of them are subject to at least 25 per cent. discount, they can be purchased from almost any bookseller for less than 20s. This, then, is the minimum reference library which every British house-holder should possess. There is great need for a general biographical dictionary less in size and price than Chambers' very excellent work mentioned above, and a biographical dictionary about 5s., giving essential facts and dates only, is a good speculation for any publisher.
For householders who can afford to furnish their reference libraries more completely, the following supplementary list of books is recommended:—
- Chamber's Encyclopædia. 10 vols. £5.
- Haydn's Dictionary of Dates. Last edition.
- Who's Who. (Contemporary Biography.) To be got occasionally.
- Hazell's Annual. To be got occasionally.
- Whitaker's Almanack. 1s. Annually.
- A Book of Recipes. (Cooley's is good, but expensive.)
- A History of England. (Green.)
- A History of Scotland. (Say Hume Brown.)
- A History of Ireland. (Say Walpole.)
- A History of the World. (Sanderson.)
- Dictionaries of Latin, French and German.
- A Collection of Poetry. (Say Palgrave's Golden Treasury.)
- A Collection of Quotations. (Bartlett 3s. 6d., or Wood 7s. 6d.)
There are many other books which could be named, but these must wait till the question of stocking larger libraries is under consideration.
In the suggestions made above, there is considerable scope for an enterprising bookseller in association with a cabinet-maker. When a young couple start housekeeping, they generally buy a considerable number of articles of furniture which are seldom used. Their purpose is mainly decorative, and there would be considerable wisdom in substituting for these comparatively useless cabinets, ottomans, hall-stands, lamps, screens, and whatnots, a suitable bookcase fitted with some of the books already recommended. A reference library, however small, is infinitely more valuable than numerous pieces of useless furniture, which are usually purchased more out of regard for convention than necessity or utility. Here, then, is a suggestion for some enterprising firm, to prepare and sell in combination the nucleus of a Household Reference Library, stored in suitable cabinets according to size.
Before leaving the subject of the Household Library it will be necessary to consider what provision should be made for the general book collecttion in houses of moderate size. Houses possessing large libraries as heirlooms are naturally ruled out in such a survey, as are also those formed by certain millionaires at so much the foot run for books and binding. In addition to certain necessary reference and juvenile books, such as those already mentioned, every house should possess a general collection of literature of a varied character and on different subjects, including a large selection of good fiction. In the formation of such a collection, the taste and preferences of the collector must be the sole guides. It is a thankless task making out lists of so-called 'Best Books', as aids to selection, because opinions differ so much, and compilers look at the question from so many standpoints. The useful, but huge, lists of Mr. Swan Sonnenschein are at one end of the row, and the select lists of fifty or a hundred best books, compiled by Lord Avebury (when Sir John Lubbock) and many others, are at the other extreme. Some of these selections are useful as suggestions, but most of the smaller lists are overburdened by a straining after what is regarded as high literary quality, which makes them very austere and forbidding. Lord Avebury's List of a Hundred Books, for example, contains many items which are unsuited for a general household library, or indeed for the library of any one save the special student. It aims too high, and is dull and impractical in consequence. Most of the other select lists published are marred by the same defects. They are efforts to show the compiler's catholicity and profundity rather than practical attempts to direct attention to good books which will instruct, elevate, and divert. Imagine any one, after a hard day's work in an office or factory, coming home to read Wake's Apostolic Fathers or Bacon's Novum Organum! There is a limit to human endurance in the task of reading for instruction's sake alone, and it is reached when lists of good books are drawn chiefly from pagan philosophers and divers religious cranks of varying degrees of interest and value. The books which will interest most people are those which make some kind of direct appeal to their humanity, idea of beauty, or desire for special knowledge. Most popular books must have merits of a very substantial or peculiar kind to ensure their longevity, otherwise it would be impossible to account for the appearance of edition after edition of certain works. Enterprising booming is not the only reason for the success of any book, especially when it is an old one published before puffing journalism became a force. For these reasons, a list of titles is here offered, on lines which differ materially from those adopted by most previous selectors. It is not an attempt to guide the book-collector, nor an effort to dictate to the gatherer of a Household Library what is best in all literature to select; but simply a series of suggestions which may aid the ordinary citizen, not specially skilled in book-knowledge, to make up his mind to form a library of reasonable quality and utility. The list is frankly a Philistine one, which will probably meet with the disapprobation of those devotees of the written word who regard fine writing as the beginning and end of all literature. Nevertheless, it is a very practical one, covering the popular side of most subjects, and including a body of imaginative literature which no household need be ashamed to possess. The bulk of the works are those which enjoy great and continuous popularity in Public Libraries, many of them are classics, a few are included because of their historical value, and every book is interesting. From this series of suggestions, any householder can gradually build up his Home Library, varying the selection to meet his own views or tastes, and omitting anything which may seem unsuitable.
SUGGESTIONS FOR A GENERAL HOUSEHOLD
LIBRARY.
Science.
Useful and Fine Arts.
Philosophy, Religion, and Sociology.
Blackie. Self-culture.
Burton. Anatomy of Melancholy.
Cobbett. Advice to Young Men.
Drummond. Natural Law in Spiritual World.
Jevons. Principles of Science.
à Kempis. Imitation of Christ.
Kidd. Social Evolution.
Lewes. History of Philosophy.
Marcus Aurelius. Thoughts.
Montesquieu. Spirit of Laws.
Morison. Service of Man.
Plato. Republic (Golden Treasury).
Robertson. Elements of Philosophy.
Smiles. Self-help.
Smith. Wealth of Nations.
Spencer. Education.
Study of Sociology.
Taylor. Holy Living and Dying.
History and Travel.
Borrow. Bible in Spain.
Brassey. Voyages in the 'Sunbeam'.
Bryce. American Commonwealth.
Burnaby. A Ride to Khiva.
Carlyle. French Revolution.
Cook. Voyages round the World.
Darwin. Naturalist's Voyage.
Dufferin. Letters from high Latitudes.
Duruy. History of France.
Escott. England: its People, etc.
Freeman. Sketch of European History.
Froissart. Chronicles.
Froude. Oceana.
Gardiner. Outline of English History.
Gibbon. Roman Empire.
Green. Short History of English People.
Kinglake. Eothen.
Loftie. History of London.
Macaulay. History of England.
McCarthy. History of our own Times.
Motley. Dutch Republic.
Oman. History of Greece.
Ramsay. Reminiscences of Scottish Life.
Scott. Tales of a Grandfather.
Stevenson. Edinburgh.
Inland Voyage.
Travels with a Donkey.
Taine. Notes on England.
Twain. Tramp Abroad.
Wallace. Russia.
Whiteing. Life of Paris.
Whymper. Scrambles amongst the Alps.
Biography.
Berlioz. Life by himself.
Boswell. Life of Johnson.
Cellini, Benvenuto. Autobiography.
Evelyn. Diary.
Forster. Life of Dickens.
Froude. Carlyle.
Hazlitt. Spirit of the Age.
Johnson. Lives of English Poets.
Lee. Life of Shakespeare.
Lewes. Life of Goethe.
Lockhart. Life of Scott.
Life of Napoleon.
Life of Burns.
Miller. My Schools and Schoolmasters.
Pepys. Diary and Memoirs.
Plutarch. Lives.
Rousseau. Confessions.
Ruskin. Prœterita.
Seeley. Napoleon I.
Southey. Life of Nelson.
Poetry, Essays, Etc.
Poetical Works of:—
R. Browning, Burns, Byron, Chaucer, Coleridge, Dante, Goethe, Homer, Keats, Longfellow, Milton, Moore, Scott, Shakespeare, Shelley, Tennyson, Virgil, Wordsworth.
Henley. English Lyrics, 1340-1809.
Palgrave. Golden Treasury of Verse.
Mackay. 1,001 Gems of Poetry.
Addison. Selections from the 'Spectator'.
Bacon. Essays.
Birrell. Obiter Dicta.
Brown. Horæ Subsecivæ.
Browne (Artemus Ward). Works.
Burton. The Book Hunter.
Carlyle. Essays.
Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Literature. New ed.
De Quincey. Englsh Opium-eater.
Dunlop. History of Fiction (Wilson).
Emerson. Essays.
Hewitt-Beach. Our Mother Tongue.
Holmes. Breakfast-Table Series.
Jerome. Idle Thoughts.
Lamb. Essays of Elia.
Lang. Letters to Dead Authors.
Old Friends.
Lounsbury. History of English Language.
Montaigne. Essays.
Pater. Appreciations.
Saint-Beuve. Essays.
Stevenson. Across the Plains.
Virginibus puerisque. Prose Fiction.
Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
Balzac. The Chouans.
Père Goriot.
The Magic Skin.
Barrie. Auld Licht Idylls.
A Window in Thrums.
The Little Minister.
Besant-Rice. The Golden Butterfly.
Ready-money Morti-boy.
Black. A Daughter of Heth
A Princess of Thule.
Shandon Bells.
Blackmore. Lorna Doone.
Springhaven.
Björnson. Arne.
Synnöve Solbakken.
Borrow. Lavengro.
Romany Rye.
Brontë (C.). Jane Eyre.
Shirley.
Villette.
(E.) Wuthering Heights
Bulwer. The Caxtons.
Last Days of Pompeii.
Carleton. Traits and Stories.
Cervantes. Don Quixote.
Collins. Moonstone.
Woman in White.
Cooper. Leatherstocking Tales, 5 vols.
The Pilot.
Crawford. Saracinesca.
Sant' Ilario.
Casa Braccio.
Crockett. The Raiders.
Daudet. Fromont the Younger.
Tartarin of Tarascon.
Dickens. All his novels, or Bleak House, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, Chuzzlewit, Nicholas Nickleby, Old Curiosity Shop, and Pickwick Papers.
Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment.
Doyle. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The White Company.
Dumas. Monte Christo.
Three Musketeers Series.
Eliot. Adam Bede.
Mill on the Floss.
Romola.
Silas Marner.
Erckmann-Chatrian. The Conscript.
Feuillet. Romance of a Poor Young Man.
Fielding. Tom Jones.
Gaboriau. Monsieur Lecoq.
Galt. Annals of the Parish.
Gaskell. Cranford.
North and South.
Goethe. Wilhelm Meister.
Gogol. Tarass Boulba.
Goldsmith. Vicar of Wakefield.
Grant. Romance of War.
Haggard. She.
Hardy. Far from the Madding Crowd.
Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
Hawthorne. House of the Seven Gables.
Scarlet Letter. Howells. Silas Lapham.
Hugo. Les Miserables.
Notre Dame.
Irving. Sketch Book.
Jacobs. Many Cargoes, etc.
James. Daisy Miller.
Jerome. Three Men in a Boat.
Jokai. Black Diamonds.
Kingsley. Hypatia.
Westward Ho!
Kipling. Jungle Books.
Plain Tales from the Hills.
La Fayette. The Princess of Cleves.
Le Sage. Gil Blas.
Lever. Harry Lorrequer.
Lover. Handy Andy.
MacDonald. Alec Forbes.
Malory. Morte d'Arthur.
Manzoni. The Betrothed.
Marryat. Midshipman Easy.
Peter Simple.
Meredith. Evan Harrington.
Shaving of Shagpat.
Morier. Hajji Baba.
Mulock. John Halifax.
Murray. Aunt Rachel.
Ohnet. The Ironmaster.
Oliphant. Margaret Maitland.
Poe. Grotesque Tales.
Arthur Gordon Pym.
The Gold Bug.
Reade. Cloister and the Hearth.
Foul Play.
Hard Cash.
It is Never too Late to Mend.
Richardson. Clarissa Harlowe.
Richter. Flower, Fruit, and Thorn pieces.
Russell. The Wreck of the 'Grosvenor'.
Sand. Consuelo.
Francis the Waif.
Mauprat.
Scott (M.). Tom Cringle's Log.
(Walter). All the Waverley Novels.
Shorthouse. John Inglesant.
Sidney. Arcadia.
Smollett. Humphry Clinker.
Sterne. Tristram Shandy.
Stevenson. Kidnapped.
Catriona.
Master of Ballantrae.
New Arabian Nights.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Sue. Wandering Jew.
Thackeray. Henry Esmond.
Newcomes.
Pendennis.
Vanity Fair.
Tolstoi. Anna Karenina.
War and Peace.
Trollope. Barchester Series
Turgenev. Spring Floods.
Ward. Robert Elsmere.
Weyman. Gentleman of France.
Under the Red Robe.
Wilson. Noctes Ambrosianæ.
Zola. The Downfall. It is perhaps desirable, before quitting the subject of Household Libraries, to devote a little attention to a department which is generally overlooked, either because it is not considered sufficiently important, or from motives of mistaken delicacy. Sir Walter Scott, with the plain, honest frankness which characterized him, describes what arrangements he made at Abbotsford to make this part of his house attractive, by papering it with amusing caricatures; but very few others, save occasionally architects or builders, ever give the apartment in question a thought. This is rather regrettable, as it makes explanation somewhat difficult to any pioneer who desires to grapple with the subject, but it is as well to be frank and deal plainly with the matter. Well, then, the Bibliotheca Latrina, as this department of the Household Library may be called, has a considerable claim to attention, and its furnishing with books should be undertaken along with the rest of the house. Considering the peculiar characteristics of the apartment in question, and the large amount of desultory reading which takes place in it, the books procured must necessarily be of a slight and unsustained kind. A capital class of book, eminently suitable for the purpose, will be found in small collections of anecdotes like Joe Miller, Chambers, Seton, Laird of Logan, and dozens of others which need not be named. Books of aphorisms, like MacNish or Smith's Tin Trumpet; short moral reflections, like those of La Rochefoucauld; or amusing works, like Beresford's Miseries of Human Life, (an admirable book which ought to be reprinted at once); and all short and pithy collections, such as proverbs, epigrams, etc., might with perfect propriety find a place in the Bibliotheca Latrina. In this, as in other departments of the Household Library, ultimate selection of books must be left to the individual tastes and preferences of householders; but the object of this paragraph will be gained if it succeeds in preventing the claims of the Bibliotheca Latrina from being entirely overlooked.