Enough has been said, I think, in the former preface as to the object aimed at in the notes. I have tried to make that object clear: I am far from thinking that it has always been attained, even in this revised work. Some of the excuses for incompleteness that held good for the first steps into an almost untrodden field have no doubt ceased to have the same force. I have had time to explore new ground, and to survey anew that already occupied. On the other hand the years that have slipped away since the former book have been filled by many duties that left little time for literary work. Yet, though I am unable to say with confidence that this work is bibliographically exhaustive, I trust that, for practical purposes, for the purposes for which it is intended, it may be found reasonably complete. For the achievement of even this result I can by no means claim all the credit. My obligations to my numerous helpers are very great indeed, as will appear from the Acknowledgements. One further point needs to be dwelt upon—the non-inclusion of works of fiction written in the Irish language. I cannot do better in this connection than quote from the preface to a former work[1] in which this same point came up for explanation:—“I have not included books in the Irish language. My reasons for this are threefold. In the first place my own knowledge of Irish is not yet sufficient to enable me even to edit satisfactorily notes of books in Irish.... In the second place I do not think that a bibliography of works in Irish should be made a mere appendage or sub-section, as it would inevitably be, of a work such as the present. Lastly, it may well be doubted whether the time be yet come for doing this work in the way that it deserves to be done.” This last reason is partly based on the fact of the great mass of Irish literature still remaining in MS., a quantity probably much greater than what has been printed and published. The publication of the National Library’s bibliography is mentioned in the Appendix on Gaelic literature as an additional reason for my omission of books in Irish. Nevertheless, the omission of books in the Irish language from a Guide to Irish Fiction remains an anomaly, one of the many anomalies produced by the historic causes that have all but destroyed the Irish language as the living speech of Ireland. DUBLIN, _September_, 1915. [1] _A Guide to Books on Ireland_, Part I. (Hodges & Figgis), 1912. PREFACE TO A READERS GUIDE TO IRISH FICTION (1910). The present GUIDE TO IRISH FICTION is intended by the Author as the first part of a work in which it is hoped to furnish notes on books of all kinds dealing with Irish subjects.