NINETEEN THOUSAND SETS SOLD IN ENGLAND.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 29 August 1901, Page 4

NINETEEN THOUSAND SETS SOLD IN ENGLAND.

There have for some years been various collections of selected literature on the market, not a few o£ them excellent so far as they go; hut nothing on so large a senile has till now been attempted as that ■which the London Standard put on the market last year—the " Library -of Famcus Literature " —and of which over 19,000 sets were sold in a few months. The. work, which is in twenty handsome volumes, is stated on the title page to consist of " Selections from the World's Great Writers, Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern, with Biographical and Explanatory Notes, and Critical Essays by many Eminent Writers." The general editor is Dr. Richard Garnett, C. 8., of British Museum fame, and seldom has an editor had the assistance of so able a staff of colleagues as contributors. The "Library " has been prepared by the most comEetent hands, by men whose whole life as been a development of that keen judgment and critical insight necessary for the production of such a'"Library." Every walk of literature has been covered, and the result is a series of volumes reaching in the aggregate to no fewer than 10,000 pages of large clear type. The contents are as varied as is the literature itself, and its scope is truly conterminus with that of the world of letters. The coloured plates running through every volume, form one of the most notable features of the " Library." They have been gathered from rare sources, and comprise some of the most exquisite specimens of the antiquo art of book illumination which nourished centuries ago, when books were made by hand, and the transcription of a' single volume often represented the labour of years. What such a work really is and means may be more readily imagined than described.

Those who put in their applications at Once will receive their books promptly, as a -supply is carried in Wellington temporarily. The offer will remain open but a short time. Particulars a 3 to prices and terms will be found in another column.