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Editor’s Note
The primary source for the text on this site is an undated reprint of the editions of 1823 (the seventh edition of the original Curiosities, and the first printing of the ‘Second Series’) or, more likely, those of 1824 (reprinted, corrected versions of the same).
By the 1820s, the Curiosities had settled into something very much like their final form. When comparing them with their equivalents in the ‘definitive’ posthumous edition of 1849, one sees that there were relatively few amendments to the body of the text after 1823, but that a great many supplementary footnotes had meanwhile been added. The work’s earliest editions were, however, quite different—both structurally and superficially. In its eighteenth-century incarnations, the book’s title was given as Curiosities of Literature, Consisting of Anecdotes, Characters, Sketches and Observations, Literary, Critical and Historical, and it was divided into four thematic sections: Literature and Criticism; Historical Anecdotes; Miscellanea and Philological Observations. The implicit presence of the first three of these categories can still be felt, even in the last editions of the work, whereas the fourth (and smallest) of them was allowed to wither away almost to nothing. The younger D’Israeli’s style is missing something of the easy amiability it would later attain, but, to his credit, he is readier to acknowledge his sources, and one sees how often the older D’Israeli would appear to have been an author, where he had in fact been a translator and editor.
Earlier this year I acquired copies of the 1793 Curiosities, specifically the third edition of the first volume, and the second edition of ‘volume the second.’ These volumes include many (mostly very brief) articles which were later omitted. I will continue this web-log by publishing these ‘lost’ articles. To keep the presentation of this older text consistent with what has been published here so far, I will be obliged to alter its punctuation somewhat.
Posted by misteraitch at May 16, 2006 09:23 AM
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Posted by: Dwayne M at May 16, 2006 03:49 PM