INTRODUCTION. THE FLOOD OF BOOKS AND BOOKS THAT SURVIVE. "The multitude of books has now become almost overwhelming. Many of these are comparatively worthless; and it is quite possible for a man to go on reading for a lifetime and never light upon the great standard works. It is absolutely necessary, therefore, that every earnest reader should be able to discover the best books, and study them properly after they have been discovered. This is precisely the task which the present work undertakes." SO WROTE David Pryde in the Preface to the original edition of his book. True at that time, the statement is becoming still more true as the years pass. The multitude of books is already quite "overwhelming." Men and women devotedly read current books without ever-or very seldom -lighting upon the great standard literatures. Thousands who are keeping themselves studiously familiar with books which newspapers chronicle as "best sellers" fail to read a Waverley novel, or a novel by Jane Austen. They seldom, if ever, have heard of "The Ode on Intimations of Immortality." They know not Landor's name. It is about ten years since the number of books annually published in this country reached 5,000, and in Great Britain reached 7,000. The totals are now probably in the neighborhood of 10,000 for each country, so that we have a grand total of 20,000 for all English-speaking peoples. While many among these 20,000 are necessarily credited to both countries, and so are counted twice, we should have, after all deductions were made, a sufficiently formidable residuary total-at least 15,000 books published each year in the English language. For languages other than English, the returns have been even more formidable. In Italy ten years ago a total of 9,500 was returned; in France, 13,000; in Germany, 23,000; |