New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-11-26
THE LITTLE BOOK.
THE TEMPLE CLASS!CS-SCOTT IN MIN
IATURE-AN EDITION OF THE SPEC
TATOR-PEMMICAN.

IAl hE-AN ELL Or LIE 81 En-
TATOR-PEMMICAN.
This is an age Of ingenuity in bookmaking.
when publishers make all sorts of experiments
III order 10 attract the eye well as the mind
OF the purchaser. 1t must be said TO their
credit that most Of these eXptdients are, at the
lates. accounting in good taste and wise. We
getting we'll past the use az crude decora-
ton. Books nowadays even some OF the cheap
est OF them. are artistic In form. In the front
rank we would place the Little Book OF
course, there have always been little books
nuggets for the million. as vaguely remember
having heard some Of them called in one of the
more noisy advertisements Of al earlier day.
But the Little Book of to-day Is not infrequent
~ as dignifed as any of its bigger brothers.
We may aude. for example. to the Temple
Classics. published b. the Macmillan Company.
This series suggests to Us that there may be,
perhaps, subtle correspondence between the
spirit Of any masterpiece and minute form OF
publication. 1t is true that more than one book
lover from Charles Lamb down. has ruminated
upon the fitness Of reading certain works In
certain shapes. II cannot read Beaumont and
Fletcher put in folio" SAYS Ella. The octave
editions painful to look at. have no SYM
pathy with them" and again he says that he
prefers the common editions OF Shakespeare
the editions of Rove and Tonson. to the First
Folio But there Is a curious distinction in
these matters. You may feel that neither Shake
speare nor Milton is tolerable in anything but
a broad and noble page. yet where book Of
middng size would be abhorrent. the frankly
abbreviated FORM the Little Book Of our dis
cussion. is unnixed JOY. That one may carry
such a book in the pocket is almost the least
important phase OF the matter. It is not the
convenience that uplifts the soul. It is the
ending chain OF happy opportunities springing
from that fundamental but prosaic fact. The
Little Book is centre Of associations. re-
source around which enchanting memories in
evita bly, cluster. Among the Temple Classics
which we have lately received are Walton's
Lives" Mores Utopia" selden's "TahleTalk."
Thackeravs "Esmond" Longfellows Song Of
Hiawatha" Millions Paradise Lost and his
miscellaneous poems If told that some
Of these things. like the Paradise Lost and the
Utopia" cry aloud for stately quartos, can
only reply that in these tiny volumes they are
quite as appealing they In any other
form. The typo. though small. is clear. the limp
covers invite the readers to spread them apart
and there is something so intimate in the revela-
tion ~ its contents by a book which is held al
most literally in the hollow of the hand. that
cannot conceive Of more companonable
piece Of printing.
II the Little Book is boon 70 the reader Of
austere Milton, or quaint Walton. or fantastical
Sir Thomas More, II is less n be priced by
the reader Of romance. There is the Temple
Edition o. the Waverley Novels. in which we
have just received from Charles Scrbners Sons
The Abbot and The Fortunes Of Nigel" We
stoutly maintain that Scott is nowhere more
captivating than in these miniature volumes
dainty ribbons to mark the place" and their
artistic little frontspieces. Scott is a writer 10
read out of doors Il evar there was one. and
what better could be asked for hours idl!ng
beneath spreading oaks on the borders OF one
OF his own Highland streams than one Of these
reprints. which seem 10 have been invented for
just such situation?
The edition Of Jane Austen in Twelve voi1nnes
OF which Little. Brown e. CO. send us the-first
two devoted. both of them. 10 'Serse and sensi-
bility pretends to OF the distinction Of the
Little Book. But while the frontispicces are
pretty and the binding Is also creditable, these
volumes have not the finish which the edition
noticed in these columns the other day pos
sesses. and it IS impossible TO ignore the lapse
from perfect work to sccond-bes: The best that
can be said for this venture is that It presents
Miss Austen In legible type and handy form
But the Little Book. we have shown is only
at its best when II is endearing and this edi-
ton leaves US cold.
Mr. Gregory Smiths edition OF The Specta-
tor tries SO hard to be a Little Book that we
are willing to accept It such The scale ex-
ceeds that OF the Temple Classics by only an
/ inch In one direction and half an inch in an
other, and certainly the style of the printing
with It's full-faced type, marginal dates and
Fabricated tite-rases. is in the last degree cosey
Here is work indeed. which is Of the very
quintessence OF photographed dimnutIveness
Whatever the dimensions in which The Spec
tator" has been printed In the past this formal
and no other is exquisitely harmonious with the
easy elegance, the genial gossip Of Addison and
Steele We may add that the sixth seventh
and eighth volumes which the Scribners send us
complete the edition
The Little Book has many uses. 1t can give
US a masterpiece intact. packing infinite riches
in a little room. and IL can also spare us infinite
trouble. condensing writings which no one would
care to read from beginning to end Thus the
edition Of Southeys Doctor" published by the
Pdtnams, is attenuated in senses than
; one The orisinA work to less than