His
working library was very small in bulk, his habit being to cut out
from any book the pages which would be serviceable, and to fling
the rest away. So, we are told, the first Napoleon, binding
volumes for his travelling library, shore their margins to the
quick, and removed all prefaces, title-pages, and other superfluous
leaves. So, too, Edward Fitzgerald used to tear out of his books
all that in his judgment fell below their authors' highest
standard, retaining for his own delectation only the quintessential
remnants. Vols. III. and IV. appeared in 1868, V. in 1875, VI. in
1880, VII. and VIII. in 1887; while a Cabinet Edition of the whole
in nine volumes was issued continuously from 1870 to 1887. Our
attempt to appreciate the book shall be reserved for another
chapter.
CHAPTER IV--"THE INVASION OF THE CRIMEA"
Was the history of the Crimean War worth writing? Not as a
magnified newspaper report,--that had been already done--but as a
permanent work of art from the pen of a great literary expert?
Very many of us, I think, after the lapse of fifty years, feel
compelled to say that it was not.
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