Literary Criticism and Literary History

[This page is still in progress. Much of Lang’s literary criticism is, of course, found in periodical essays and reviews rather than in book form (and much of that is scattered among his “At the Sign of the Ship” articles in Longman’s), though some of his books of essays reprint earlier work from periodicals.]

Advice

• How to Fail in Literature (Field & Tuer, the Leadenhall Press 1890)

Appreciations

• Letters to Dead Authors (1886)
• Letters on Literature (1889)
• Old Friends: Essays in Epistolary Parody (1890) [This Internet Archive scan is from 1892. There is also a LibriVox recording available.]
• New and Old Letters to Dead Authors (1906). More information about the book is available here.
• Poets’ Country (1907) editor, with Churton Collins, W. J. Loftie, E. Hartley Coleridge, Michael Macmillan

Criticism/Essays

• Essays in Little (1891) [The Internet Archive scan is from the 1901 New York Charles Scribner’s Sons edition.]
• Adventures Among Books (Longmans, Green, and Co., 1905)
• The Puzzle of Dickens’s Last Plot (London, 1905)
• Does Ridicule Kill? (Portland, Maine: Thomas B. Mosher, 1910) For more information on this book, click here. For more information on Thomas Mosher’s publications, see the page on his magazine of reprints, the Bibelot. 

Editions

• Molière’s Les Précieuses Ridicules, Edited with Introduction and Notes by Andrew Lang, M.A. (Clarendon Press, 1884)
• Ballads of Books [Edited by Andrew Lang], (Longmans, Green, and Co., 1888). As Lang states in his preface: “This collection, ‘Ballads of Books,’ is a recast of the volume of the same name, edited by Mr. Brander Matthews, and published by Mr. Coombes (New York, 1887). An editor must be meddling, and I have altered Mr. Mathew’s work in some respects. The poems are now arranged by the dates of their authors . . . . Mr. Matthews’s dedication is preserved, and this English edition comes to a Poet and a Book-collector with good will from both the American and English editors” (vii)
• Le Morte Darthur by Syr Thomas Malory: The Original Edition of William Caxton Now Reprinted and Edited by H. Oskar Sommer, Ph.D., vol. 3: Studies on the Sources, with an Introductory Essay by Andrew Lang, M.A. (David Nutt, 1891)
• Waverley Novels (by Walter Scott, edited with introductory essays and notes, by Andrew Lang), 48 volumes (Nimmo 1893–94). I was able to find scans of the following volumes (note that many are only one volume of a multi-volume work by Scott; only the first volume of such novels has an introduction by Lang): Vol. 1, Waverley [with a long general introduction]; Vol. 2, Guy Mannering, the Astrologer; Vol. 7, The Antiquary; Volume 8, Rob Roy; vol. 9, Old Mortality; vol. 13, A Legend of Montrose; vol. 14, The Bride of Lammermoor; vol. 16, Ivanhoe; vol. 18, The Monastery; (vol. 19—second volume of The Monastery—no Lang intro]; vol. 20, The Abbot; vol. 24, The Pirate; vol. 26, The Fortunes of Nigel; vol. 29, Peveril of the Peak, vol. 2 [no intro by Lang], vol. 3 [same]; vol. 40, Woodstock, Chronicles of the Canongate; The Fair Maid of Perth; Count Robert of Paris; Redgauntlet; The Talisman; Quentin Durward Please let me know through the Contact section if you are able to find open-access scans of the other novels. HathiTrust may have some if you have access, and the U.S. sometimes has a larger number of GoogleBooks scans available.
• The Lyrics and Ballads of Sir Walter Scott (J. M. Dent, 1894)
• Robert F. Murray (Author of the Scarlet Gown), His Poems: With a Memoir (Longman’s, Green, and Co., 1894) (Lang’s introduction goes until page lxxi.)
• The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, Edited with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary by Andrew Lang, assisted by W. A. Craigie, (Methuen,1896)
• Selections from Coleridge (1898)
• Selected Poems of Robert Burns, with an Introduction by Andrew Lang (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.) [The Internet Archive scan is dated 1896. The introduction is fifty pages.]
• The Works of Charles Dickens in Thirty-four Volumes (Gadshill Edition, London: Chapman and Hall, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons), editor, 1897–1909[?]: In the works that follow, the links to represented titles are to the first volume of that title: if only a second volume was available, I did not include it, as Andrew Lang’s introductions are in the first volume, but note that volume seven in this series, for instance, would be volume two of Martin Chuzzlewit: Oliver Twist, vol. 3; The Old Curiosity Shop, vol. 10; Martin Chuzzlewit, vol. 6; Dombey and Son; Bleak House, vol. 16; Hard Times, Little Dorrit (vol. 1), vol. 19; vol. 25 (1907) [The Internet Archive scan is New York, Charles Scribner and Sons]; American Notes and Pictures from Italy, vol. 28; Christmas Stories, vol. 1, vol. 31; The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Master Humphrey’s Clock, vol. 33)
• The Poems and Ballads of Sir Walter Scott, Bart (1900) editor, volume 2, volume 3, volume 4, volume 5, volume 6 [The Internet Archive Scans are from the International Edition and printed in Boston.]
• Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy (1910)

History / Impressionistic Criticism

• A History of English Literature: From “Beowulf” to Swinburne (Longmans, Green, and Co.,1912) [The Internet Archive scan is the 1921 New Impression]

Periodical Articles of Interest (General: Preliminary)

• “Anonymity?” (Part I), New Review 1 (Nov. 1889): 513-531 and to “Anonymity?” (Part II), New Review 2 (Mar. 1890): 265–76. [Lang was one of several contributors to each part.]
• The “At the Sign of the Ship” articles in Longman’s Magazine (1882–1905) almost all include implicit or explicit literary criticism.
• “Literary Plagiarism.” Contemporary Review 51 (June 1887): 831–40. (Jan.–Jun. 1887 is available from Internet Archive.)
• “Literature and the Drama.” (Four articles in the New Review between Feb. 1892 and June 1893. Lang wrote the “literature” part.)
• “Mythology and Fairy Tales.” Fortnightly Review 19 O.S./13 N.S. (May 1873): 618–31.
• “Realism and Romance.” Contemporary Review 52 (Nov. 1887): 683–93. (July–Dec. is available from Internet Archive.)
• “The Science of Criticism (No. II).” New Review 4 (May 1891): 403–08.
• “Theological Romances.” Contemporary Review 53 (June 1888.): 814–24. [Mainly on Robert Elsemere]

Periodical Articles of Interest (On Specific Authors or Titles: Preliminary–many more are available.)

• “Charles Dickens.” Fortnightly Review 70 O.S./64 N.S. (Dec. 1898): 944–60.
• “Emile Zola.” Fortnightly Review 37 O.S./31 N.S. (Apr. 1882): 439–52.
• “Kalevala; or, the Finnish National Epic.” Fraser’s 85 O.S. / 5 N.S. (June 1872): 667.
• “Mr. Carlyle’s Reminiscences.” Fraser’s 103 O.S. / 23 N.S. (Apr. 1881): 515.

For more of Andrew Lang’s periodical criticism, see the list of all periodicals to which Lang contributed. See particularly articles in the Contemporary Review, the Cornhill, the Daily News (see Lost Leaders), the Fortnightly Review, Fraser’s, Harper’s, Longman’s, Macmillan’s, The Morning Post, The National Review, The New Review,  and The Saturday Review.

Please do contact me if you think an important piece of criticism is missing.