Should there be a Library of Britain?

Yes and it should be as broad as possible.

At the end of his forthcoming history of the British novel, which I will review properly closer to its release in September, Philip Hensher proposes that Britain needs something similar to the Library of America series or the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade—an editorial collection of the great novels of the British tradition, offering a complete works, with properly established texts, in smart but affordable editions. As he says, the Library of America has already resorted to publishing writers like Barbara Tuchman, whereas a British edition could run to many hundreds of volumes without getting to that point.

The Longman’s annotated poets series achieves something like this for poets (though we might wish for editions with slightly less annotation), but for the novelists we only have the Penguin and Oxford classics series, which are paperback; there are very fine hardcover Everyman editions, but they have significant omissions. The purpose of this new series would be to provide all of an author’s works. As far as I can tell, for example, Sir Charles Grandison is only available in the Cambridge Edition of Richardson’s works, which is burdensomely full of annotations, whereas, once upon a time, it was available in the slightly more manageable Clarendon editions. Everyman does not even publish all of George Eliot’s novels. (Jared Henderson pointed out to me that Library of America no longer has Moby Dick in print!)

If this project were undertaken, I would like to see pocket books, such as the old Chatto editions of Proust, or the Everyman editions of Clarissa, but the Library of America format, a larger hardback with three or four novels per volume, has some advantages. And of course, I would like to see useful introductions, such as Johnson once wrote for the English poets series.

Most importantly, a true Library of Britain would go beyond fiction: bring me the works of Izaac Walton, Samuel Johnson, and the essays of J.S. Mill (another astonishing omission in current editions). Bring me Hazlitt, Browne, and DeQuincey. Let there be volumes of Donne’s sermons, Burke’s speeches, Swift’s pamphlets. Bring me the essays of George Henry Lewes, V.S. Pritchett, Francis Bacon. Bring me Ruskin, Pater, and Wilde. The prose of Milton ought to be among the early editions. And Addison, the splendid Addison. We must publish Cato’s Letters, Adam Smith, Cobbett and Wollstonecraft too. A.V. Dicey, Walter Bagehot, and many others could earn a volume. Let there be a life-writing series, with Froude Keynes; histories, as well. The Book of Commmon Prayer, and Edward VI’s two prayer books must be included. We might even add the great writers of cookbooks, like the very fine Elizabeth David. I would like to see volumes of important legal judgements, not only the glittering works of Lord Denning, but the great cases of English history like Entick v Carrington, Donoghue v Stevenson, Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company, Liversidge v Anderson, and so on. “In this country, amid the clash of arms, the laws are not silent.” Now that is good English prose!