Abstract
THE idea of this “contribution towards systematic bibliography” is excellent, and has been excellently carried out. When interest in a subject has been excited, the first question of the student, of course, is, Who are the best and most recent authorities on the matter? The question is by no means always easily answered, for as yet there are few good subject-indexes, and the most valuable of them are not within the reach of everyone. The present volume may almost be said, for ordinary practical purposes, to have solved the problem. Mr. Sonnenschein has not attempted anything so ambitious as a philosophic classification of the sciences. He has worked out his scheme on what he properly calls “a common-sense plan,” grouping books first into large classes, then breaking them up into sections, sub-sections, and paragraphs— “with the result of obtaining all the literature of one subject in one list, and that of outlying subjects close at hand.” He begins with theology, next takes mythology and folk-lore, then philosophy, society (including many different branches), geography, history, archæology, and so on, until all important departments of knowledge have been included. No one who has occasion to use the book will have the slightest difficulty in understanding the principle, or in finding the particular subdivision presenting the facts of which he is in search. The new edition contains the titles of twice as many books as the first edition (50,000 as against 25,000); and, so far as we have been able to examine them, they seem to have been admirably selected. Here we have to do only with the scientific part of the work; and, considering how vast is the material from which Mr. Sonnenschein had to choose his lists of scientific treatises, he may be congratulated on the manner in which his task has been accomplished. For the most part, he refers only to books that are in print, and easily obtainable. The very best books he has “asterisked,” and in every case he gives the dates of the first and last editions, with the price, size, and publisher's name. Two separate indexes—one, a list of authors, with the titles of their works; the other, a list of subjects—add greatly to the value of the compilation.
The Best Books: A Contribution towards Systematic Bibliography.
By William Swan Sonnenschein. Second Edition. (London: Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1891.)
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The Best Books: A Contribution towards Systematic Bibliography. Nature 44, 5 (1891). https://doi.org/10.1038/044005a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/044005a0