NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY,
Volumes shortly to be Published,
BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON
Volumes III. and IV., profusely illustrated, completing this standard
work.
TRAVELS IN TARTARY AND CHINA,
During the years 1844, 1845, and 1846, by MM. HUC and GABET, Missionaries
of the Congregation of St. Lazarus.
With Illustrations from Dagurreotypes and Drawings of Native Artists.
MEMOIRS OF EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR
DELUSIONS,
By CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D,
With Illustrations from scarce Prints, and other authentic sources.
TO THE READING PUBLIC.
THE Age in which we
live is essentially of a practical character, and the predominant principle
influencing all classes is a marked desire for cheapness. Cheapness,
however, is too often found without excellence, and hence this proposition
to supply a deficiency at present existing in the popular literature of
this country.
The volumes of the "NATIONAL
ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY" are widely different in character, and each volume
contains at least 320 crown octavo pages, illustrated according to the
requirements of the subject matter, by from 50 to 100 illustrations, and
strongly bound in ornamental cloth boards. Thus, for thirty
shillings a-year, in the course of a short period, a Library of great extent
and interest may be formed, which will furnish materials for instruction
and amusement during the course of a long life.
The chief advantages
which this series of works present, over all others— more especially the
closely printed double column editions, and the new fashioned, though equally
objectionable, Shilling Books, with their numerous errors, thin paper,
and flimsy binding—are the following :
1. A carefully Revised
Text.
4. A new and legible Type.
2. Judicious Explanatory
Foot Notes.
5. Good Paper and Printing.
3. Engravings really
illustrating the Text. 6. Strong
neat Binding.
A portion of the Works
intended to be published under the title of the "NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED
LIBRARY" will consist of carefully edited reprints of such writers
as present a true vitality in their pages, including many of those
great masterpieces of the human mind, which having survived beyond the
generation for which they were written, are now universally recognised
as worthy to flourish so long as the English language is spoken, and an
acquaintance with which is indispensably necessary to all who pretend to
a taste for English Literature.
The series will also
comprise original works, especially written by competent authors, upon
all subjects of general interest, extending to those arising out of political
movements, or from social advancement, which so frequently engross the
national attention. These latter topics will be promptly treated of, that
the purchasers of this Library may be placed at once on a level with those
who devote themselves to the gathering such information. In issuing the
series, there will be no formal arrangement, but volumes on General Literature,
History, Biography, Travels, Popular Science, and Fiction will follow each
other : the whole comprising such a variety of illustrated works as shall
form a complete and compendious Library for the Reading Public.
Many among those to
whom this prospectus is addressed must have observed that one great feature
of the present period is the conveyance of instruction by appealing to
the eye. It will be readily understood that whole pages of narrative and
long abstruse descriptions may be condensed into an illustration to be
comprehended at a glance. Pictures fix indelibly on the mind circumstances
that might otherwise escape the memory ; and a liveliness of attention
is thus excited, and a relief afforded to the mental faculties which is
as agreeable to adults as to children. There can be no doubt that the pencil
is destined for the future to perform as prominent a part in our popular
literature as the pen, or that the diffusion of knowledge has already been
greatly augmented by its powers.
In carrying out their
undertaking it has been the endeavour of the projectors to bestow upon
Half-crown Volumes for the many the same typographical accuracy, and the
same artistic ability, hitherto almost exclusively devoted to high-priced
books for the few. Supported by the co-operation of the Reading Public,
no pains will be spared to provide every English home with a complete treasury
of knowledge and entertainment in the volumes of the "NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED
LIBRARY."
The following
images of title pages, and the only page providing a date for this work,
are presented here for reference.
