New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-13
NOTES ON BOOKS.
srur SUNDERLAND AND BECKFORD LIE
BRARIES,

uho" ~ LONDON, November 20,
The differences TO be drawn from the extraordinary
snccess of the Sunderland Library sale are various
One is that really fine books are scarcer than ever
before; those which not very fine bringing such
enormous prices The Sunderland copies are mostly
Int the ghosts ard skeletons and mummes OF once
SPLENDID volumes. There are exceptions but this is
The rule. Many of the yellum printed books are IN
GOOD condition internally; occasionally large
clean copv of some famous book or paper occurs
Int n great proportion of them are cut down. OF
stained or imperfect or otherwise OhJecuohaDie'
And vet the bidding goes on. There are buyers VINO
Il they cannot have good books VIII have pau ones
md the number of such buyers seems 10 DE s'eauiS
increasing Australia has appeared as compe'l'or
with Manchester, and Arkansas commits herself IN
q trustful spirIt TO Mr.. Quaritch That remarkable
dealer is still one of the largest buyers, II not tle
largest. He might have had the whole library for
5000. or a little more. lie offered +le'O0o.
Tbree-fourths of il have now been dispersed under
the hammer of Messrs. Puttick d Simpson for
G46,000.
The two events of the sale just concluded the
third portion of the library, were the competition
for the Petrarch and the early editions OF kaOeaS'
In the case of the Petrarch is not the book when
has fetched the 81 $50 for which it was Knocked
down The edition Is from Venetian press. dated
14ss. in folio, and worth no great sum, But IL was
illustrated with six cOpper-plate or slveI-pate ell
cravings said to be the work OF B0ttlcehl' WHO'S
ever they were, the engravlngs are extremely nhe'
and what IS more. extremely rare But three other
impressions from the plates are known; one lmpel-
feet one IN the British Museum without margins
and moor. the third undescribed These may be
said 20 be in the eye of the connoisseur unique and
therefore in one sense, priceless Mr. Ellis ana NJ
Thiboudeau were, / believe bidding on commas
sjons Mr. Quaritch's view is that all commissions
ought TO be sent 10 him, and private buyers who
nregIme TO ntrus them to his rivals are to be pun
sbey by paving far more than the book Is worth OF
by losing ii altogether.
For the two earliest editions of Rabelals $50 ana
$3.50 were paid and six others were sold at lesser
BIT still large prices These will perhaps ma thelr
w. TO France. where Rabelas is now in fashion.
TIN 2abolais Club in England of which mention Is
now sNl then made in the papers,daes tyet concern
ifsaf W the literature or biblograDhy of It's hero
Mt Ch&rl,S q. Leland was the founder of 1t, ana
beIeve thYfo~a IN his mind was the promotion OF
good-lei4nYsnl'i 81 a RabelaiSan manner by good
eating ana ofIh'iNd. 1t does not emulate the
Chaucer Soc'tty ~ p'hasBihr texts illustrative
lnedlted manuscripts nof'lle Browning Society by
readings and calculations of r.. esoter1c mysteries
IF its namesake. still less docs apocar to concern
itself with the formation of a RaGIais library on
the model OF the Shakespeare Library which our
friends in Birmingham founded, burnt, elid re-
founded A writer FOR the daily press remarks Nith
confidence that tie Radicals Club Is IN, first CLUB
ever formed by Englishmen IN honor Of a French
man. If he means conyivlal club he is perhaps
right. If he means a society formed for the study
and illustration of an author he has forgot en- the
NillCn Society, which autedated the Radicals Ciub
by some years and is STILL suppose. III existence.
1t has at any rate issued two TRANSACTIONS of VilOn
one full and free the second expurgated for the
general reader. Mr. John Payne is the hor OF
both and it has even been said that MIR. John
PAYNE is the Vlon Society," for which and for pri-
vae distribution the first of these editions purports
TO have been printed. He it is who Is now trans
iatng literally and entirely into English the full
text of the Arabian Nights, whereof one volume
has appeared, and is presumably kept under lock
and key by Its owners.
The catalogue of the second portion Of the Beck
ford Library has been published by the aucuoneeTs,
Messrs Sotheby & Wilkinson. ond tie sale Will
begin December II. Between these ana the sun
deIland books the contrast Is marked The sun
derland books were once fine. ana have detenorated
by ignorant neglect or downright bad usage MI
Beckford's hooks valuable to begin with, have
been doubled iu value by judicious binding and
scrupulously careful treatment. The exceptions to
this remark are perhaps two, and first the notes
The anthor of Vathek, as all the world now knows
made the hy-leaves of precious volumes
commonplace books. In a neat and patient hand
be set down the reflections which the text sug-
eested to him. and he has sometimes injured the
book II happens, however that the amateur, who
commonly abhOrs every mark OF pen or pencil i'll
printed tome has taken a fancy TO Mr. BeckfOrd's
lucubrations. They pretty commonly critical
often satirical, seOrnfu and occasionally abusive
in the highest degree. SO that although the con-
dition OF the book is longer pure the selling
l., h t,,,4.s
than without. In the present catalogue some of the
more characteristic or eccentric of Mr.. Beckford's
commeats are quoted Here is one on Gibbons De-
cline ana Fall-the conclusion and summary of ten
us. pages In Beckfords hand:
THE time is not far distant, Mr.. GibbOn, when
your almost ludcrous self-cOmpacency your nu-
merous and sometimes apparently wIlful mistakes.
your frequent distortion of historical Truth 10 pro-
woke a gbe, or excite a snoer at everything most
sacred and venerable. your ignorance oithe Oriental
languages. your limited and far from acutely crit
ical knowledge Of the Latin and the Greek, and in
the midst of all the prurent and obscene gossip of
your notes. your affected moral purity perliing up
every now and then from the corrupt mass like art-
fetal roses shaken of in thcdark by Prostitute
on heap of manure, your hcartlcss scepticism,
your unclas,cal londness for mere,rcious ornament
your tumid dcton. your mOnotOuOus jingle of
periods, viii be still more exposed and secuted than
they have been. Once fairly kicked of from your |
lofty, bedizened stills you will be reduced your
just level and true standard w b."
Gibbon will survive Mr. BeckfoTds scourge, which !
is laid with more effect on lesser backs-Mr. Gait
for instance, who wrote Letters from the Levant"
and at times verses. Says BeckfOrd:
"A specimen of Mr.. Galt's own poetry about as |
harmonious the screeching and grating of the |
wheels of Portuguese dray. One might as well |
make sense of such sounds and fancy them artcu- |
late as comprehend the meaning of our author's |