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THE

BIBLIOGRAPHER'S MANUAL

OF

ENGLISH LITERATURE

CONTAINING

AN ACCOUNT OF RARE, CURIOUS, AND USEFUL BOOKS, PUBLISHED IN OR RELA.
TING TO GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, FROM THE INVENTION OF PRINTING;
WITH BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICES, COLLATIONS OF THE BARER
ARTICLES, AND THE PRICES AT WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN SOLD.

BY

WILLIAM THOMAS LOWNDES.

NEW EDITION, REVISED, CORRECTED AND ENLARGED; WITH AN APPENDIX
RELATING TO THE BOOKS OF LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

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HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1864.

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V. 2

Library
School

NOTICE TO THE THIRD PART.

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AMONG the additions to the present Part, DEFOE has received considerable attention, and the list of his writings is at least more complete than any yet published, although still open to critical questioning. I take occasion to make especial allusion to this article, because it gives me an opportunity of replying to an attack, which, though insignificant in itself, assumes form by being admitted into an influential journal. I am accused of having dealt unfairly with the public, in announcing 'the Works of Defoe,' and then stopping short at seven volumes. To which I reply that I never announced, and never dreamt of publishing, the entire Works of Defoe, even were it possible to ascertain exactly what they are. I merely announced The Novels and Miscellaneous Works,' as the principal title will shew, and as had been done before in Lewis's edition; and this announcement I have fulfilled. I have not only published all the Novels and several of the Miscellaneous Works, but have never even relinquished my intention of proceeding, although in the face of almost certain loss. My present list of Defoe's Works, constructed on a novel plan, will not only shew the extent and uncertainty of what is attributable to him, but also how many abortive attempts, for want of public encouragement, have from time to time been made to republish them. The fact is, that although Defoe ranks as a Classic, and is a household word with the English public, the only one of his works they currently buy is 'Robinson Crusoe;' all the rest find but a slow and unrequiting 574162

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