Book Review of:

             How Quaint the Ways of Paradox!:
        An Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan Bibliography
                by Philip H. Dillard.
      (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1991.  $25.00.
                   208 p. ISBN 0810824450)

{About a year ago, Norman Vogt was talking to S/A Cole about the
great idea he had:  to put together an annotated bibliography of
available G&S materials.  Great minds must think alike, because a
few months later, the following work was published.  Norman Vogt
has very kindly agreed to review the book for the Nonsense, and
here is his review:}

     Gilbert and Sullivan aficionados welcome almost any new
material published about their favorite duo.  This newly
published bibliography by Philip Dillard, an assistant professor
at Southern Utah University, is a compilation of many sources by
and about Gilbert and Sullivan.  Many of us are on a constant
lookout for anything we can get our hands on so we should be
thrilled that one among us has taken on such an arduous project. 
The book fills a long-felt void in G&S scholarship, as nothing
like this has been done in over sixty years.  Townley Searle's
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert:  A Topsy-Turvy Adventure (1931), an
attempt at a complete bibliography of W.S. gilbert and Mary R.
Bristow's privately published bibliography A Gilbert and Sullivan
Bibliography (1968), are the only two bibliographies that come
close to Dillard's and there are such striking differences in
these two works (:the scope of Searle and the incompleteness of
Bristow, for example) that no real comparisons can be made.

     The bibliography contains 1056 entries including books,
journal articles, conference papers, dissertations, chapters in
books, librettos and music scores.  The book is arranged in
categories such as analysis and criticism, biography and history,
concordances, handbooks and dictionaries, as well as sections on
juvenile books, collected and individual works and musical
scores.  Recordings per se are not included, but discographies
are covered.  As far as the reviewer was able to ascertain, the
sources include nothing published after 1989, though the
introduction gives barely a clue to the scope of the work.  The
works represented cover the entire length of G&S's respective
careers.  The bibliography is in part comprehensive and
representative and the coverage is generally quite excellent. 
This broad coverage will be helpful to any researcher and in fact
to anyone looking for a wide range of materials on Gilbert and
Sullivan in one quick and easy-to-use source.  The bibliography
is annotated, but I'm afraid that Savoyards will find the non-
critical, non-analytical and rather journalistic annotations a
bit unstimulating, in style at least.  No mention is made of any
of the major American or British Gilbert and Sullivan newsletters
which can provide some of the most interesting and stimulating
ideas and opinions of G&S experts and some of the best
discographies.  This is somewhat disappointing, but not severely
limiting to the work as a whole.  Anyone doing any kind of G&S
research will find this bibliography extremely helpful.  We
should be thankful for Mr. Dillard's love of G&S and his desire
and ability to compile such a valuable work.

[This article appeared in Issue 33 (March 1992) of Precious
Nonsense, the newsletter of the Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan
Society.  Posted by permission of Sarah Cole, Society Secre-
tary/Archivist.  For information on Society membership write to: 
The Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan Society, c/o Miss Sarah Cole,
613 W. State St., North Aurora, IL 60542-1538.]