THE PENNY POETS / THE MASTERPIECE LIBRARY / THE MASTERPIECE LIBRARY: SERIES I
(Published by: "REVIEW OF REVIEWS" OFFICE or STEAD'S PUBLISHING HOUSE)
Series Note: This series had a joint name: "The Penny Poets" and "The Masterpiece Library" (or "The Masterpiece Library. Series I." as it came to be written on the covers of the later volumes that appeared).
The publisher of this series as listed on the front covers of most volumes as the "Review of Reviews" Office, London. On some of the volumes the publisher was listed as Stead's Publishing House, London.
A number of the volumes were also published by the "Review of Reviews" Office, Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia.
Some of the volumes were distributed by Librairie Larousse, 13-17 rue Montparnasse, Paris (6e), France, and a sticker affixed to the front cover to that effect.
The editor of all the volumes in the series was the newspaper and book editor and publisher and social activist W. T. Stead (1849-1912).
"Beginning in 1895, Stead issued affordable reprints of classic literature under such titles as Penny Poets and Penny Popular Novels, in which he "boil[ed] down the great novels of the world so that they might fit into, say, sixty-four pages instead of six hundred". His ethos behind the venture pre-dated Allen Lane's of Penguin Books by a number of years, and he became "the foremost publisher of paperbacks in the Victorian Age. (source)
Note:
(1) For information about "The Masterpiece Library. Series II.", visit the page on the "Twopenny Popular Novels" (also styled as: "Popular 2d. Library").
(2) For information about "The Masterpiece Library. Series III.", visit the page on the "Books for the Bairns".
Further reading:
• Joseph O. Baylen, "Stead's Penny Masterpiece Library", Journal of Popular History, 9(3), (1975), 710-725.
• Tom Lockwood, Stead's Penny Poets: Beyond Baylen.
See also:
• Penny Popular Novels/The Masterpiece Library ("Review of Reviews" Office)
• The Penny Library of Famous Books (George Newnes Limited)
Serial Number / Title / Author / Other Details
I.
The Lays of Ancient Rome and Other Poems
by Lord Macaulay
2nd edition.
n.d.
II.
Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field in Six Cantos
by Sir Walter Scott
1895.
III.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: Cantos I. and II.
by Lord Byron
2nd edition.
1895
IV.
James Russell Lowell: Selected Poems with "His Message, and How it Helped Me"
n.d.
V.
Robert Burns: Selected Poems and Songs
n.d.
VI.
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
1895.
VII.
Evangeline, and Other Poems
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
n.d.
VIII.
Lady Geraldine's Courtship and other Poems
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
n.d.
IX.
The Pleasures of Hope and Other Poems
by Thomas Campbell.
n.d.
X.
Paradise Lost (Abridged): Part I
by John Milton
n.d.
* * *
XI.
Stories from the Earthly Paradise
by William Morris
Told in Prose with Copious Extracts in Verse. By Permission of the Author.
n.d.
XII.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Part II): Poet's Tour through Belgium (the Field of Waterloo), the Rhine, Switzerland, Geneva and Mont Blanc, Italy, Venice, Florence and Rome
by Lord Byron
n.d.
XIII.
Poems of Liberty, Progress, and Labour: Part I
by John Greenleaf Whittier (The Quaker Poet)
n.d.
XIV.
The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
n.d.
XV.
Paradise Lost (Abridged.)
By John Milton.
n.d.
XVI.
Irish Melodies and Other Poems
by Thomas Moore
n.d.
XVII.
Selections from the Poems of W. Cullen
n.d.
XVIII.
The Story of St. George and the Dragon or, The Redcross Knight, from Spenser's Faerie Queene
2nd edition.
n.d.
XIX.
The Poems
by John Keats
n.d.
XX.
The Lady of the Lake
by Sir Walter Scott
n.d.
* * *
XXI.
Poems of J. Greenleaf Whittier (The Quaker Poet): Part II
n.d.
XXII.
Julius Caesar: A Comedy in Three Acts
by William Shakespeare
n.d.
XXIII.
Pope's Essay on Man and Other Poems
n.d.
XXIV.
Poems Grave and Gay
by Tom Hood
n.d.
XXV.
The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner with Christabel and Other Poems
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
n.d.
XXVI.
Matthew Arnold: His Poetry and Message
n.d.
XXVII.
Poems by Walt Whitman
n.d.
XXVIII.
Selections from Shelley
n.d
XXIX.
Poems of Clough
n.d.
XXX.
Legends of Mirth and Marvels
by Thomas Ingoldsby, Esq.
n.d.
* * *
XXXI.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel and Other Poems
by Sir Walter Scott
n.d.
XXXII.
Wordsworth: Selected Poems
n.d.
XXXIII.
Selections from Cowper including a Complete Collection of all his Poems Relating to Animals
n.d.
XXXIV.
Dryden's Poems: Selections and Extracts
n.d.
XXXV.
Selections from the Poems of Robert Southey
n.d.
XXXVI.
Legends and Ballads
n.d.
XXXVII.
Wordsworth's Poems (Part 2)
XXXVIII.
Poems from Mrs. Hemas and Eliza Cook
n.d.
XXXIX.
Paradise Regained and Other Poems
by John Milton
n.d.
XL.
Gray, Goldsmith and Collins: Selections
n.d.
* * *
XLI.
Irish Ballads and Songs
Selected by Martin MacDermott
n.d.
XLII.
As You Like It: A Comedy in Five Acts
by William Shakespeare
n.d.
XLIII.
____
XLIV.
____
XLV.
The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year
by John Keble
XLVI.
The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
n.d.
XLVII.
The Scholar-Gipsy and Other Poems
by Matthew Arnold
n.d.
XLVIII.
Adventures of Britomartis: The Lady Knight of Chastity. From Spenser's Faerie Queene.
n.d.
XLIX.
Simple Poems for the Schoolroom and the Scholar. For Reading and Recitation in Junior Classes.
Selected and arranged by Robert S. Wood (Author of Macmillan's Word-Structure and Structure Series; and Editor of "Famous National Songs" -- No. 65 of the Penny Poets.)
n.d.
L.
Some Australian Poets: Selections from the works of Adam Lindsay Gordon, Henry Clarence Kendall, and James B. Stephens.
n.d.
* * *
LI.
____
LII.
Poems of Robert Browning: I. Dramatic Poems; II. Pippa Passes.
n.d.
LIII.
The Poet's Christmas: A Collection of Carols, Poems and Plays for Christmastide. With a Plea for a Village Drama.
by W. T. Stead.
n.d.
LIV.
____
LV.
____
LVI.
____
LVII.
____
LVIII.
____
LIX.
____
LXX.
____
* * *
LXI.
____
LXII.
____
LXIII.
-- 63A
Some Tales from Shakespeare
by Charles and Mary Lamb
Part I. This part contains: The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and Twelth Night.
n.d.
-- 63B.
Some Tales from Shakespeare
by Charles and Mary Lamb
Part II. This part contains: As You Like It, Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Cymbeline.
n.d.
LXIV.
____
LXV.
National Songs for the School and the Home: Words and Music (Tonic Sol-Fa)
Edited by Robert S. Wood, Author of Macmillan's Word-Structure and Composition and Editor of "Poems for the Schoolroom and the Scholar".
n.d.
LXVI.
Tennyson's "In Memoriam" and Other Poems
n.d.
LXVII.
____
LXVIII.
____
LXIX.
King Henry VIII
by William Shakespeare
n.d.
LXX.
____
* * *
LXXI.
____
LXXII.
____
LXXIII.
____
LXXIV.
Tennyson'S Lyrical, Patriotic, and Narrative Poems, Selected, Classified and Grouped for School and Home Reading and Memorising.
by Robert S. Wood, Author of "Macmillan's Composition and Word-Building Series," and Editor of "Stead's School and Scholar Series."
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