Henry James : a reference guide, 1975-1987 /

This most recent bibliography of secondary materials related to Henry James joins G.K. Hall volumes by Linda Taylor (CH, Jan'83), Kristin McColgan (CH, Dec'79), and Dorothy Scura (CH, Dec'79), which together present thorough coverage of James scholarship from 1866 to 1987. Presenting more than 2,300 items, including books, chapters in books, dissertations, articles, and introductions to reprints of James's works, this volume totally overlaps and significantly expands another bibliographic effort, John Budd's Henry James: A Bibliography of Criticism 1975-1981 (CH, Sep'83). Funston's scope is worldwide, including publications from Europe, South America, the Soviet Union, Japan, and China; however, her cut-off date of 1987 is a bit early for a 1991 publication. Also, although the four volumes in this series of James bibliographies are exhaustive, functional, and reliable, they fail to achieve a valuable scholarly presence because the annotations are strictly descriptive and lack any evaluative commentary. In this day of instant online bibliographic access, published bibliographies should offer more guidance for the researcher. Funston's introduction, like the others in the series, is disappointing in its brevity and its failure to provide more than a sketchy and broad documentation of trends in James scholarship. The arrangement of the volume by date of publication is difficult for users, especially since index entries which contain many citations become a jumble of dates and entry numbers. The subject index is extensive and quite useful, including such entries as "deconstruction," "ghost," "impressionism," "Jung," "marriage," "phenomenology," "possession." Recommended for most academic libraries. -J. A. Adams, SUNY at Buffalo