CHAMBERS'S CYCLOPEDIA OF ENGLISH LITERATURE A SELECTION OF THE CHOICEST PRODUCTIONS OF ENGLISH AUTHORS, FROM THE EARLIEST TO THE PRESENT TIME, CONNECTED BY A CRITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. EDITED BY ROBERT CHAMBERS, ASSISTED BY ROBERT CARRUTHERS AND OTHER EMINENT GENTLEMEN Complete in two imperial octavo volumes, of more than fourteen hundred pages of double column letter-press, and upwards of three hundred elegant illustrations. Price, cloth, $5,00. THE work embraces about one thousand authors, chronologically arranged and classed as Poets, Historians, DramAtists, Philosophers, Metaphysicians, Divines, etc., with choice selections from their writings, connected by a Biographical, Historical, and Critical Narrative; thus presenting a complete view of English Literature, from the earliest to the present time. Let the reader open where he will, he cannot fail to find matter for profit and delight. The selections are gems-infinite riches in a little room; in the language of another, "A WHOLE ENgLish Library FUSED DOWN INTO ONE CHEAP BOOK!" The AMERICAN edition of this valuable work is enriched by the addition of fine steel and mezzotint Engravangs of the heads of SHAKSPEARE, ADDISON, BYRON; a full-length portrait of DR. JOHNSON, and a beautiful scenic representation of OLIVER GOLDSMITH and DR. JOHNSON. These important and elegant additions, together with superior paper and binding, render the AMERICAN superior to all other editions. EXTRACTS FROM COMMENDATORY NOTICES. From W. H. Prescott, Author of "Ferdinand and Isabella." "The plan of the work is very judicions.... It will ,ut the reader in the proper point of view for surveying the whole ground over which he is travelling.. . Such readers cannot fail to profit largely by the labors of the critic who has the talent and taste to separate what is really Deautiful and worthy of their study from what is superfluous." "I concur in the foregoing opinion of Mr. Prescott."- Edward Everett. "It will be a useful and popular work, indispensable to the library of a student of English literature."— Francis Wayland. "We hail with peculiar pleasure the appearance of this work, and more especially its republication in this country at a price which places it within the reach of a great number of readers.”—North American Review. "This is the most valuable and magnificent contribution to a sound popular literature that this century has brought forth. It fills a place which was before a blank. Without it, English literature, to almost all of our countrymen, educated or uneducated, is an imperfect, broken, disjointed mass. Every intelligent man, every inquiring mind, every scholar, felt that the foundation was missing. Chambers's Cyclopædia supplies this radical defect. It begins with the beginning; and, step by step, gives to every one, who has the intellect or taste to enjoy it, a view of English literature in all its complete, beautiful, and perfect proportions."— Onondaga Democrat, N. Y. "We hope that teachers will avail themselves of an early opportunity to obtain a work so well calculated to impart useful knowledge, with the pleasures and ornaments of the English classics. The work will undoubtedly find a place in our district and other public libraries; yet it should be the 'vade mecum' of every scholar."-Teachers' Advocate, Syracuse, N. Y. "The design has been well executed by the selection and concentration of some of the best productions of Eng lish intellect, from the earliest Anglo-Saxon writers down to those of the present day. No one can give a glance at the work without being struck with its beauty and cheapness."- Boston Courier. "We should be glad if any thing we can say would favor this design. The elegance of the execution feasts the eye with beauty, and the whole is suited to refine and elevate the taste. And we might ask, Who can fail to ge back to its beginning, and trace his mother tongue from its rude infancy to its present maturity, elegance, and rich ness?"-Christian Mirror, Portland. "This Cyclopædia is executed with great fidelity and tact. We know no work which we can recommend note highly."Neal's Saturday Gazette, Phila. "It is a good selection from the most renowned English writers, and has been fitly described as "a whole Eguisa library fused down into one cheap book." The Boston edition combines neatness with cheapness, engraved portraits being given, over and above the illustrations of the English copy."—N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. "Welcome! more than welcome! It was our good fortune some months ago to obtain a glance at this work, and we have ever since looked with earnestness for its appearance in an American edition." -- New York Recorder. "The industry, learning, and ability of Mr. Chambers are securities for the excellence of the work, and we com mend it to every man of taste and letters as worthy of his patronage.” — New York Observer. "This is an elegant reprint of the Edinburgh edition, and certainly presents a specimen of typography and en graving of which we may be proud."— Ladies' Repository, Boston. "This publication winnows the grain from an interminable mass of literary chaff; and, in this regard, is most welcome to such a labor saving age as that in which we live. No man of taste should fail of possessing a work which is evidently a classic."-Morning Signal, Cincinnati. "It embodies a large amount of historical and biographical facts, and illustrates more perfectly than any other single book. A work like this cannot fail to prove convenient and interesting to the man of letters; while, to the ordinary reader, it opens a store of information which he will not be likely to obtain from any other source We hope it may be widely circulated in this country, and contribute something to the cultivation among our people of a taste for the literature of their mother tongue, and an acquaintance with the charactor of its best masters."- Providence low nal GOULD AND LINCOLN, PUBLISHERS BOSTON. CONTAINING A COPIOUS AND CHOICE SELECTION OF ANECDOTES OF THE VARIOUS FORMS OF Br KAZLITT ARVINE, A. M., AUTHOR OF "CYCLOPEDIA OF MORAL AND RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES." With numerous Illustrations. ANL 725 pp. Octavo. Price, cloth, $3,00. THIS is unquestionably the choicest collection of anecdotes ever published. It contains three thousand and forty necdotes, many of them articles of interest, containing reading matter equal to half a dozen pages of a common 12mo, volume; and such is the wonderful variety, that it will be found an almost inexhaustible fund of interest for every class of readers. The elaborate classification and indexes must commend it, especially to public speakers, to the various classes of literary and scientific men, to artists, m chanics, and others, as a DICTIONARY, for reference, in relation to facts on the numberless subjects and characters introduced. There are also more than one hundred and fifty fine Illustrations. NOTICES OF THE PRESS. "Any one, after possessing this work, would deem it an indispensable companion. It can be taken up when but a few moments are to spare, and one or more anecdotes read; and when one has the mind well stored with a choice collection of anecdotes, he has an assistant to successful conversational efforts which no consideration would induce him to part with."- Christian Freeman. "A well-pointed anecdote is often useful to illustrate an argument, and a memory well stored with personal incidents enables the possessor to entertain lively and agreeable conversation. This book will be an armory from which to draw the arrows of wit and satire on occasion."-N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. "It is a compilation of rare value and interest. The subjects and characters embraced in it are so various that every taste may be gratified; and the information it contains in regard to literary characters, artists, &c., is invaluable."- East Boston Ledger. "A publication which every body should possess; what will form a magnificent collection of anecdotes touching literature and the fine arts."- Albany Spectator. “It is brimfull of amusing scenes, enlivening anecdotes, puns, and jokes, interspersed with reminiscences of remarkable nien." - New Bedford Daily Evening Standard. "This is a most valuable work for all public speakers and writers. To the general reader few books will be fot nd more entertaining and instructive." Saco Democrat. "It forms a large dictionary of well-selected anecdotes on all the important subjects connected with literature and art, topically and alphabetically arranged, and numerously illustrated." — Farmer's Cabinet. "One of the most entertaining things that has come under our observation for many a day."— N. H. Sentinel. "One of the most complete things of the kind ever given to the public. There is scarcely a paragraph in the whole book which will not interest some one deeply; for, while men of letters, argument, and art cannot afford to do without its immense fund of sound maxims, pungent wit, apt illustrations, and brilliant examples, the merchant, mechanic, and laborer will find it one of the choicest companions of the hours of relaxation. Whatever be the mood of one's mind, and however limited the time for reading, in the almost endless variety and great brevity of the articles he can find something to suit his feelings, winen he can begin and end at once.' It may also be made the very life of the social circle, containing pleasant reading for all ages, at all times and seasons."- Buffalo Commer cial Advertiser. "A publication of which there is little danger of speaking in too flattering terms; a perfect Thesaurus of rare and urious information, carefully selected and methodically arranged. A jewel of a book to lie upon one's table, to match up in those brief moments of leisure that could not be very profitably turned to account by recourse to any connected work in any department of literature."— Troy Budget. "No family ought to be without it, for it is at once cheap, valuable, and very interesting; containing matter compiled from all kinds of books, from all quarters of the globe, from all ages of the world, and in relation to every corporeal matter at all worthy of being remarked or remembered. No work has been issued from the press for a number of years for which there was such a manifest want, and we are certain it ealy needs to be known to meet with an immense sale."- New Jersey Union. "The work will be useful to all classes, not only the scholar but the general reader. As a book of reference it will be invaluable, and no person who desires to possess information in regard to the world of letters, science, and art, should be without it." - Daily News, Newport, R. I. "This is not a mere story teller, a compilation of long yarns' and anecdotes, but a really valuable compend of sketches of great men and literary curiosities. It is a little library in itself, and contains a fund of rich anecuotes that is useful and entertaining to all readers. It seems like the conversation of some wise old friend, who has lived forever, and been a playmate of all great and good men."— Fountain and Journal, Gardiner, Me. "Well calculated to interest every class of readers, serving as an agreeable entertainment and source of useful information, when the mind needs to be relapsed from the fatigues of study or the pressure of business and care.”Manchester Messenger. "The author has displayed admirable taste in his selections, and has taken due care to avoid every thing of an njurious tendency. His work is adapted to afford agreeable, entertainment, and at the same time to impart much Iseful information "- Zion's Advocate. "A most comprehensive work, embracing anecdotes of distinguished men, from the earliest times down to those now living and moving among us. Such a book has a use beyond the pleasure a first and desultory perusal may afford; the anecdotes, having an alphabetical arrangement, may be readily referred to as occasion may require, 'to point a moral or adorn a tale."" - Kennebec Journal. "It is well printed, furnished with numerous illustrations representing persons and places of note, and contains a vast fund of anecdotes. The industry of the compiler in accumulating and arranging such a mass of literary matter, must have been amazing." -Lawrence Courier |