This is another in the series of Magill Bibliographies which, since their inception in 1989, are now assuming impressive numbers. Laurence W. Mazzeno, its compiler, is Vice President for Academic Affairs at Ursuline College in Ohio, and he has already produced two earlier bibliographies in this series, one on Victorian poetry and the other on the Victorian novel. As will be gathered from his title, Professor Mazzeno’s coverage is from Aphra Behn to Walter Scott. To those of us on this side of the Atlantic his use of the term “British novel” seems unusual. Perhaps he wanted to be punctilious in not offending the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh, but in fact we normally refer to the “English novel” since the books were all written in the English language, or variants of it.
His arrangement of the 20 chosen novelists is alphabetical rather than chronological, so he starts with Jane Austen and ends with Horace Walpole. Perhaps a chronological approach might have been more acceptable to students of the history of English literature, but there can be few or no criticisms of his coverage. Nearly 50 novels have been selected, including most of Jane Austen, a goodly number of Scott’s, and the most celebrated works of Fielding, Richardson, Smollett and Sterne. Women writers are represented by Aphra Behn, Jane Austen, Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley.
Mazzeno’s method is to select and annotate some general studies of each novelist, and then to list reviews of their novels by later critics. The art of annotation is a neglected one, but Mazzeno’s abstracts are admirable for being at the same time concise yet informative. Annotators could learn much from his style. His introduction should be read carefully. He admits that the bibliography must of necessity be highly selective, which it is, and the introduction also provides an annotated list of general works relating to the development of the English novel between 1680 and 1832. Author and subject indexes are appended. Students of the English novel of this period should take every opportunity to peruse this Magill bibliography.
