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The Uncollected Letters of Algernon Charles Swinburne.

Article Excerpt
The Uncollected Letters of Algernon Charles Swinburne. Ed. by Terry Meyers. Vol. I: 1848-1874; vol. II: 1875-1889; vol. III: 1890-1909. London: Pickering & Chatto. 2005. xxvi+vi+vi+1264 pp. 295 [pounds sterling] (the set). ISBN 1-85196-774-5.

Since publication of the last of the six volumes of Cecil Lang's monumental The Swinburne Letters (New Haven: Yale University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1959-62), many new letters by Swinburne have come to light. Some of these have been published separately in studies of other Victorian figures or in small batches in learned journals such as Notes & Queries, but most have not. Scholars of Victorian literature and Swinburneians in particular will therefore warmly welcome this invaluable new collection, expertly edited by Terry Meyers, which brings together all these new discoveries, frequently supplementing them with relevant and often illuminating letters from Swinburne's various correspondents. Meyers is well qualified for this editorship, having published many scholarly articles on Swinburne, and as the compiler of the Swinburne entry for The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), an excellent resource for anyone working on the poet. His collection most usefully augments Lang's, which he assumes readers will consult in the first instance...