BOOKS OF THE WEEK
Ease of Reference
By J. D. SCOTT COOD reference books are the sign of a self-conscious —i.e., of a truly civilised—culture, and England excels LI in them. To create a successful one is to become a Debrett, a Burke, Bradshaw, Vacher, Dodd, Crockford, Ruff, Liddell & Scott, or Wisden; it is to achieve a domesticated immortality. The go6d reference book is exactly suited to its purpose, packed with relevant information, containing nothing irrelevant, commanding universal assent. Of -all books it is the least easy to review, since its true quality emerges only in a long series of minor crises; it is a literary Jeeves whose very essence is to rally round. However, let us try. Cassell's,1 as we may come to call it if we like it, is divided into two volumes and three parts: the first part consists of general articles, the second of biographies of writers up to modern times, and the third of biographies of contemporary writers. What is presented to us in this form is a universal encyclopaedia, covering everything from Eskimo Literature and the literary language of the New Kingdom of Egypt (1570 BC) to Mr. T. S. Eliot, Mr. Forster, Mr. Auden, and other con- temporaries who, by comparison, are inconspicuous to the point of invisibility. Every entry is initialled, and there is a key to the initials, so that to that extent at least you know where you are. It is the middle section which comes nearest to the ideal as I have described it above: all the samples I have taken have shown concision, lucidity, accuracy, and that dry informativeness which is the especial mark of encyclopaedic excellence. This is more than can be said for the section of biographies of contemporaries. It is mildly surprising that Winifred Holtby, Miss Margaret Mitchell, and Messrs. Frank Sargeson, Guthrie Wilson and John Gunther should be included at the expense of (for example) Sir Lewis Namier, Professor E npson, Denton Welch, and Messrs. Roy Campbell, B. Traven, Denis de Rougement, Cyril Connolly and L. P. Hartley; but it is more serious that in so many entries information should have been replaced by vapid value-judgments. The entries about the Sitwells are an example. (This substitution of value- judgments for facts has crept unfortunately into the middle section too; if I look up George Douglas Brown it might be to see the date when he took up residence in London, which I don't' find; it is certainly not to be instructed by the inaccurate views of a Mr. George W. Coutie.) It is, however, in the first section that this fault is most obtrusive. While some of the articles—for example Peter Opie's on Nursery Rhymes—are models of what this kind of writing should be, others, such as Professor Satires on the Novel, are far too diffuse and personal. Mr. William Saroyan on the Short Story reaches an extreme; this article is far indeed from being dry.
On the whole, this encyclopaedia is a worth-while book, Proper in its method, valuable in its catholicity,. but damaged 'bY an uneven choice of contributors and a tendency towards Jejune literary chit-chat. Is Landor the best epigrammatist in English ? Sir George kostrevor Hamilton in Cassell's says he is; if so the Oxford Wctiotzary of Quotations does him less than justice, displaying Dryden more powerful, Pope more pointed, Prior more graceful, and Shelley more profound. Here, now issued in a more convenient second edition", is a reference book which falls
Cassell's Encyclopaedia of biterature. Edited by S. H. Steinberg. (2 vols. 4 gns.) The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. (O.U.P. 2 gns.) Everyman's Dictionary of Shakespeare Quotations. By D. C. Browning. (J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. 15s.) World History. By J. C. Revill. (Longmans, Green & Co. 30s.)
short of the ideal only in falling short of an impossible complete- ness. It makes no judgments, but only offers material for judgments to be formed. The publishers are rightly proud of their index; it takes up almost half the volume and in its combination of comprehensiveness and refinement it is a remarkable piece of work. A few points seem to have escaped the relentless scholarship of the compilers, and as this is the Quiz season I shall leave you one or two to puzzle over.
(1) Who first wrote: (a) Little drops of water, little grains of sand (b) The pride that apes humility ? (2) What, if anything, upon famous occasions, did (a) Wellington, (b) Cambronne say to, or about, the Guards ?
On a rough calculation the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations gives some 2,500 pieces of Shakespeare, mostly brief. Every- man's Dictionary of Shakespeare Quotations' gives perhaps twice as many, and mostly longer. A synopsis of each play is followed by quotations from it act by act and scene by scene, so that the attentive reader is given a sense of the coherence of the play as a whole. The index is good, although less full than that of the Oxford Dictionary. Both are books of pleasure as well as reference, delectable alps for the ruminants of literature.
World History' is a book of continuous narrative, but is also, as the publishers rightly say, " by reason of its wide scope and detailed index . . . a reference book of almost encyclo- paedic character." It is full of information about everything from the emergence of man to the United Nations, concisely and lucidly presented, necessarily dogmatic, yet unopinionated; the well-written product of an educated mind. The genealogical tables and bibliography are full and valuable.
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