SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TAINE'S WORKS 253 



In i860, Taine published on Addison (January), the Restoration (May), 

 and Carlyle (October-November). In 1861: Mill (March) and Tennyson 

 (April). After the summer he turned his attention to the i8th century (Decem- 

 ber, 1861, and January, 1862). In 1862: the Saxons (March), Reformation 

 (April-May), Modern Life (September), Byron (October), and Chaucer 

 (December). In 1863: Renaissance poets (January-March), Renaissance 

 theatre (April-May), Milton (April), Renaissance prose (June), Sheridan 

 (November); and the conclusion of the fourth volume, originally entitled 

 'Voyage en Angleterre' (October-November). 



At times Taine was discouraged by the magnitude of his undertaking. Thus, 

 he wrote to Suckau in January, 1 86 1 : 



Par contre-coup, cela m'a fait reflechir sur mon Histoire de la Litterature 

 anglaise; j'hesite a la faire, ce sera trop long, il faudra entrer dans des juge- 

 ments sur de trop petits personnages. Les idees generales se trouvent dans 

 les grands hommes, et Ton n'a qu'a les repeter, quand on recontre les petits 

 ou les genres accessoires. Peut-etre ne ferai-je qu'une suite d'articles sur les 

 grands hommes et les grands genres, une serie de specimens au lieu d'une 

 carte detaillee. Quel est ton avis? Je suis incertain, c'est I'etat que j'aime le 

 moins. . . . (V. & C, II, 207-208.) 



It took a strenuous effort of the will to bring his monumental work to 

 completion. 



Taine made two trips to England during the summers of i860 and 1862 to 

 gather background material for the History; some of the notes he took on these 

 occasions were later published in his Notes on England (187 1). 



1863 (end of December). — Histoire de la litterature anglaise, par H. Taine, 

 Paris: Hachette, 1863, 3 vols., xlviii-527 pages; 706 pages; 677 pages. (Though 

 bearing the date 1863, these volumes probably did not appear till January, 

 1864. — Cf Giraud, p. 179, Note.) 



The History had a long and complicated publishing history'. The 4th volume 

 (including the studies of Dickens, Thackeray, Macaulay, Mill, and Tennyson) 

 did not appear till October, 1864, and was also published separately as 'Les 

 Ecrivains anglais contemporains'. The 2nd edition (1866) was also in four 

 volumes. The 3rd edition (1873) was 'revue et augmentee' and appeared in 

 five volumes. The 8th, definitive edition, appeared in 1892, shortly before 

 Taine's death, with a bibliographical appendix and index, to which J. 

 Jusserand contributed. By 1900, in its loth edition. 



Despite its undoubted merits, the History was refused the Bordin Prize by 

 vote of the French Academy: Guizot and Sainte-Beuve defended it, and De 

 Falloux and Dupanloup opposed it. Because no other work of comparable merit 

 had been published, no prize was awarded at all that year (1864). 



English: History of English Literature, by H. A. Taine, translated by H. van 

 Laun, one of the masters at the Edinburgh Academy, with a preface by the 

 author, Edinburgh, 1871, 2 vols., xii-531 pages and 550 pages. 



The Dickens essay was included as an appendix (pp. 215-264) in Frederic 

 Beecher Perkins' Charles Dickens: a sketch of his life and works, New York: 

 G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1870, 264 pages. 



