As the second volume of a four‐part series this is almost impossible to review as a single item. This volume contains simply title entries from F to K with no introduction or supplementary matter to explain background or matter in the entries themselves. Recourse to the publisher's Web site makes things a little clearer: the aim is to “help scholars and students of the period find their way quickly to the source of unacknowledged or incompetently ascribed reprintings of literary prose”. The reason behind using this first wording is to try and ensure identification of reprints from an age when “plagiarism was customary” (plus ça change, one is tempted to remark).
Having pointed out the difficulty of reviewing a single volume in this way, I do have to say that there is plenty of fascinating browsing here, heightened by the editing in some cases: “Hortensio, the father of a numerous …” what exactly? “In the island of Ceylon, in the Indian Ocean, a number of invalids …” recover? Die? Play cricket? “Harpax, who had enriched himself by the most …” the mind almost boggles. Open any page at random and you will find intriguing openings to essays quoted: “Has your ladyship read the Lovers?” “In France all stage players are refused interment in consecrated ground …” “It is observable of the fair sex that they are too apt to join a bad pronunciation to a shallow understanding …” Try publishing that one today.
Proper consideration of this series must await its completion. Despite the lack of almost any detail to elucidate this single volume I must, in the meantime, note it as the source of considerable and intriguing diversion, potentially leading to a fortune spent on inter‐library‐loan requests.
