Published March 1891 at 5/-. 1,000 copies were printed in February 1891, of which 528 were bound in March 1891. According to GM in a 26 April 1900 letter to Mrs. Virginia Crawford only 700 copies had been sold. It is not known if this figure includes the 200 copies taken by Scribner's before they printed their own edition.

Some copies also were taken by Mudie's, who possibly received them in sheets and had the sewing reinforced by overcasting along the edges of the spine before having them cased in their own binding.

One such copy has a Mudie label pasted on the front cover over an earlier label with somewhat different wording. The cutdown [6 1/5 in; 6.5 in; 16.51 cm x 4⅛ in; 4.13 in; 10.48 cm] sheets are early ones as page number 180 is perfect. The binding is dark blue cloth with front and back covers plain and the spine unevenly stamped in gilt:

[thin rule]

MOORE’S

IMPRESSIONS

ETC

[thin rule]

[with another thin rule at bottom]

Description

Height: 6 ⅞ in; 6.88 in; 17.46 cm

Width: 4 1/2 in; 4.5 in; 11.43 cm

[ ]4, A-X8, Y4, Z1 (tipped in); pp [viii], 346, comprising:

half title, verso blank, pp [i-ii];
title page, verso blank, pp [iii-iv];
author’s note, verso blank, pp [v-vi];

Since their first appearance in the Reviews these papers have all been revised, and in some cases entirely rewritten. The article on Balzac, first printed in the ‘Fortnightly,’ has been increased to nearly three times its original length. ‘Mummer-Worship’ has been redeemed from certain emendations introduced Into it by Mr. Quilter. For these discarded trifles the curious are referred to the pages of the ‘Universal Review.’ Other articles have been printed from the ‘Magazine of Art’ and the ‘St. James’s Gazette.’

The “discarded trifles” of “Mummer-Worship” are four paragraphs, not too different from the rest of the article. The first is omitted from the text, as printed here, after the continued paragraph on p 157; the second before the last paragraph on p 163; and the other two following the continued paragraph on p 176.

table of CONTENTS, verso blank, pp [vii-viii];
text pp [l]-346, with

Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty,

at the Edinburgh University Press.

at foot p 346;

followed by inserted 12-page catalogue of publisher’s announcements (6 3/8 in; 6.38 in; 16.19 cm x 4 in; 10.16 cm);
white endpapers;
all edges untrimmed;
bound in red or dark green cloth, back cover plain, gilt decorations across top and bottom of front cover
same decorations at top and bottom of spine which is gilt lettered

IMPRESSIONS

AND

OPINIONS

GEORGE

MOORE

DAVID NUTT

Publisher’s name in decoration at foot of spine.

There are three states of the first edition:

As above, with page number 180 perfect and with the final page of inserted publisher’s announcements listing but a single title, Poliphili Hypnerotomachia, edited by Andrew Lang, and noted as being “In the Press.”
As above, with page number 180 perfect, with the final page of inserted announcements listing four titles, the final one being Impressions and Opinions, and with the Lang title dated 1890 and priced at £1 1s. The only review copy noted is of this state.
As above, except the final gathering is a folding, Z2 (tipped in), with Z2 being a blank leaf; the figure 1 is missing from page number 180, and copies of this state are most frequently bound in red, though sometimes seen in green.

In addition to these three states there is another which can be called an “advance” or “pre-publication” state. According to a note in the Speaker, 18 April 1891, “The first edition of Mr. Moore’s new book [Impressions and Opinions] had to be recalled on account of a printer’s error.” This was the misprint AUTHOR OF ‘A HUMOROUS [sic] WIFE’ on the title page. These copies are lettered

ESSAYS

GEORGE

MOORE

on the spine. At least three of these copies survive, each with an undated presentation inscription on the title page, one of which is pictured in This Book-Collecting Game by A. Edward Newton, who had two copies in his collection. Both were sold at the Newton Sale at the Parke-Bemet Galleries, New York, 16 May 1941. One, bound in blue, is inscribed to “W. Henley from George Moore,” and the other, bound in yellow, is inscribed “To Madge and Ellen Dixon from their friend George Moore.” A third copy, bound in blue and inscribed “To Frank Harris from his friend George Moore,” was sold in the H. Bertram Smith sale at the same galleries, 10 December 1941. As two of the recipients, Henley and Harris, were journalists, it seems

probable that these copies were rushed through the press and hastily bound for review purposes. Another copy lettered ESSAYS on the spine and without the publisher’s name in the gilt decoration at the bottom, listed in The Modern Library Collected by Viscount Esher at Watlington Park (privately printed 1930) and now in The Gilcher collection at Arizona State University, does not have the error on the title page. It is bound in green, has page number 180 perfect, but has no inserted advertisements, and presents a puzzling problem as the final gathering is a folding [Z2 (tipped in)] as in the third state noted below.

[Formatted as an ordered list to facilitate reading.]

“Balzac” expanded from “Some of Balzac’s Minor Pieces” published in the Fortnightly Review, October 1889.
“Turgueneff” originally published in the Fortnightly Review, February 1888.
“A Great Poet” originally published in the Hawk, 25 February 1890.
“Two Unknown Poets” originally published as “Notes and Sensations” in the Hawk, 23 September 1890.
“‘Le Rêve’” originally published as “M. Zola ‘On the Side of the Angels’” in the St. James’s Gazette, 2 November 1888.
“Le Revers d’un Grand Homme” originally published in the Hawk, 28 January 1890.
“An Actress of the Eighteenth Century” originally published in the Hawk, 22 July 1890.
“Mummer-Worship” revised from its original publication in the Universal Review, September 1888.
“Our Dramatists and Their Literature” originally published in the Fortnightly Review, November 1889, and here augmented with the addition of “Is ‘Judah’ Literature?” from the Hawk, 26 August 1890, and “The Secret of Immortality” from the Hawk, 29 April 1890.
“Note on ‘Ghosts’” originally published as “Le Théâtre Libre” in the Hawk, 17 June 1890.
“Théâtre Libre” originally published as “The New Théâtre Libre” in the Hawk, 24 June 1890.
“On the Necessity of an English Théâtre Libre” originally published as “The New Théâtre Libre” in the Hawk, 8 July 1890.
“Meissonier and the Salon Julian” originally published in the Fortnightly Review, July 1890, and here augmented with an added passage of “From the Naked Model” published in the Hawk, 24 December 1889. The unsigned article, “Cheap Tripping to Parnassus” in the Bat, 28 December 1886, has striking similarities to this article and may have been its genesis.
“Art for the Villa” originally published in the Magazine of Art, July 1889.
“Degas” originally published in the Magazine of Art, November 1890.
“The New Pictures in the National Gallery” incorporates passages, revised, from “Buy the Troyon” in the Hawk, 4 March 1890.

The English Catalogue lists an edition of Impressions and Opinions, Walter Scott, London, April 1895, but no copy with a Scott imprint has been located. Stereotyped plates of the first edition (with page number 180 perfect as in first and second states of first edition, but with single quotation marks present at the beginning of final two lines on page 85, and the figure 6 present in page number 256, all of which are missing in the three states of the first edition) were used for the first American edition:

A15-a2 First American edition

Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1891. There were 1250 copies printed, of which 356 were destroyed in 1903, according to a 15 December 1919 letter from the publisher to GM.

A15-b Second English edition, revised

Title Page

IMPRESSIONS

AND OPINIONS

GEORGE MOORE

LONDON

T. WERNER LAURIE, LTD.

CLIFFORD’S INN

1913

Launch

Published February 1913 at 6/-

Description

Height: 7 7/8 in; 7.88 in; 20 cm

Width: 5 1/8 in; 5.13 in; 13.02 cm

[a]2 (tipped in), [b]4, A-P8, Q4; pp [2], x, 248, comprising:

blank leaf not paginated;
half title with publisher’s device in lower right corner, and three-line notice of Spring Days in single-rule box on verso, pp [i-ii];
title page, verso blank, pp [iii-iv];
PREFACE pp v-viii;
table of CONTENTS, verso blank, pp ix-[x];
text pp 1-247;

Printed at

The Edinburgh Press,

9 and 11 Young Street.

in center p [248];

white endpapers;
top edges trimmed, fore and bottom edges untrimmed;
bound in green cloth matching the 1912 edition of Spring Days (A13-b);

Some copies of later impressions bound in a lighter green cloth.

back and front covers plain,
spine gilt stamped

IMPRESSIONS

AND

OPINIONS

GEORGE

MOORE

T. WERNER

[dot] LAURIE [dot]

LTD

Some copies have publisher’s name on spine:

WERNER

LAURIE

Text revised from first edition (A15-a) with the following additions and substitutions:

[Formatted as an ordered list to facilitate reading]

“Preface” previously unpublished.
“My Impressions of Zola” revised from original publication in English Illustrated Magazine, February 1894, replacing “ ‘Le Rêve’.”
“Une Rencontre au Salon” originally published in the Fortnightly Review, November 1912, replaces “Art for the Villa.”

Sheets of this edition, with cancel half title and title-leaves, were used for:

A15-b2 Brentano Uniform Edition

Brentano Uniform Edition, New York, 1913.

Bibliographical Comment

When revising his works for inclusion in the Heinemann Uniform Edition GM “decided that Impressions and Opinions could not be admitted into the canon.” He had already included “Degas” in the Carra Edition of Modern Painting (A17-b4), and “Mummer-Worship,” “My Impression of Zola” (retitled “A Visit to Medan”), “An Actress of the Eighteenth Century,” and “Le Revers d’un Grande Homme” were salvaged for inclusion in the 1926 and subsequent editions of Confessions of a Young Man (A12-2d2 et seq.). Also “Balzac” served as the basis of chapter III, and “A Great Poet” and “Two Unknown Poets” were the inspiration for chapters XII and XIII of Conversations in Ebury Street (A46). For more perspective see the prefatory “Note” to the 1926 and subsequent editions of Confessions of a Young Man (A12-2d2 et seq.).

Source: Curated by George Moore Interactive LLC (georgemooreinteractive.org) — Shared for research, educational, and personal use.