Indexes Praised and Indexes Censured are extracted from Indexes Reviewed, a regular feature in The Indexer.

These extracts from reviews do not pretend to represent a complete survey of all reviews in journals and newspapers. We offer only a selection from quotations that members have sent in. Our reproduction of comments is not a stamp of approval from the Society of Indexers upon the reviewer’s assessment of an index.

Allen Lane: Warped passages:­ unravelling the universe's hidden dimensions, by Lisa Randall (2005, 512pp, £25).  Reviewed by John Gribbin, Sunday Times Culture, 26 June 2005.
It might also be a good idea to find a competent indexer - this one has come up with a classic.  The entry ‘Large Hadron Collider (LHC)’ says ‘see under CERN’.  The entry for ‘CERN’ includes (you guessed) ‘See also LHC’.

Atlantic Books: Dirty words: the story of sex talk, by Mark Morton (368 pp, £12.99). Rev. by Michel Faber, The Guardian, 30 July 2005.

There is no index, so the chances of finding that elusive synonym of gamahuching a second time are slim.

Basic: A well-ordered thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the shadow of the periodic table, by Michael Gordin (364 pp, $30). Rev. by Simon Schaffer, London Review of Books, 7 July 2005.

(Gordin seems equally devoted to extensive annotations, which spread over sixty infuriatingly unindexed pages of tiny type and contain much of the body of his argument.)

CABI Publishing: Applied animal endocrinology, by E. J. Squires (2003, 234 pp). Rev. by F. M. Anne McNabb, Poultry Science, 83(6), June 2004.

Unfortunately, the index seems to consist of only section subheadings so a great deal of the wealth of information in this book cannot be found through the index.

Cambridge University Press: The Cambridge history of twentieth-century English literature, ed. by Laura Marcus and Peter Nicholls (2005, 886 pp, £95). Rev. by John Sutherland, Times Literary Supplement, 4 March 2005.

The CHT-CEL has great virtues, some minor shortcomings, and, for a work of reference, one major blemish. The index is a disaster, so much so as to be horribly hilarious. Who, for example, would not want to read Morrison Blake’s And When Did You Last See Your Father?, D. H. Lawrence’s The Planned Serpent, Richard Hoggart’s The Abuses of Literacy, or Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot? Denys Thompson (Leavis’s erstwhile collaborator) is, one discovers, the author of The Making of the English Working Class. There is some impostor called ‘E. P. Thomson’ [sic] lurking a few entries down. Maxim Gorky wrote The Early Years of Thomas Hardy and The Later Years of Thomas Hardy. Oscar Lewenstein wrote The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Giles Cooper wrote The [sic] Lord of the Flies, ‘O. C. Dublin’ wrote Juno and the Paycock and ‘the Rosenbergs’ wrote Ragtime. There is much more, but not all of it funny. By my estimate, over half the references in the volume escaped the witless indexer’s eye. Just as well. What is appended to this volume is an outrage on the editors’ industry, the contributors’ scholarship and the imprint’s reputation. The publisher should immediately re-index and post the corrected, downloadable, apparatus on the CUP website.

Cambridge University Press: Principles of medicine in Africa (3rd edn), ed. by E. Parry et al (1,442 pp, £120).

Westminster Publishing: Textbook of tropical surgery, ed. by R. Kamel and J. Lumley (1,332 pp, £193.50). Rev. by Imre Loefler, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 97, November 2004.

What of the indexes? It is seldom one encounters a book that is well indexed. To find an entry only to be told to ‘see under’ something else is a bitter experience, exceeded in bitterness only if one cannot find at all what one is looking for. Editors of textbooks ought to attend to this matter, for bad indexing can compromise useability. The medical volume is the better indexed [by SI member Jill Halliday]. In the surgical book one finds the usual fare awaiting the index user: under Donovanosis one finds ‘see Leishmania donovani’; under Leishmania donovani one finds ‘granuloma inguinale’, which has nothing to do with Leishmania. Further under Leishmania donovani the index lists ‘granuloma venereum’, an entity that has nothing to do with either Leishman or Donovan.

Carolrhoda: A monkey baby grows up, by Joan Hewett (2004, 31 pp, $6.95). Rev. by Nancy Call, School Library Journal, October 2004.

There is no need for the seven-entry index that appears on the copyright page. [One wonders what the entries were.]

Clueb Editrice: Selected essays on the history of set theory and logics (1906-1918), by Philip E. B. Jourdain, ed. by Ivor Grattan-Guinness (1991, xlii + 352 pp). Rev. by John C. Simms, Modern Logic, 8(3/4), May 2000-October 2001.

The ‘author’ index lists those persons who are mentioned by Jourdain, but does not cite mere citations of works, and, corollarily, does not list those persons who are mentioned merely by citing their works. I found this restriction to be an inconvenience. For example, Christine Ladd-Franklin is cited once in the index, but I know that her work appears elsewhere as well, and I would like to know where without having to skim through the whole book.

I found the subject index woefully inadequate. Every time – and I mean that literally – I wanted to look a subject up, it wasn’t there. A skimpy index is not unusual, but this one is, in fact, not even three full pages long, and considering the wealth of material contained in Jourdain’s papers, it’s not surprising that it fails to be very satisfying. Moreover, neither index covers the introduction. Because Grattan-Guinness’s introduction is valuable in its own right, I find this to be a nontrivial inconvenience…. I would have preferred an unrestricted index, combining both authors and subjects…

Facts on Demand: Find it online – the complete guide to online research, by Alan Schlein (2004, 564 pp, £11.43). Rev. by Penny Crossland, Freepint Bookshelf, http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf.

A different weakness, from my point of view, is the lack of a clear index. It would have been helpful for it to be divided into subject areas.

Facts on File: The Facts on File companion to American drama, ed. by Jackson R. Bryer and Mary C. Hartig (2003, 562 pp, $71.50). Rev. by Betty S. Evans, School Library Journal, June 2004.

The index is less than comprehensive and somewhat sloppy; absent are titles of plays and the names of playwrights mentioned in the text of broader entries. Finally, the text and the index have a confusing alphabetical scheme.

Gale/Macmillan: Nutrition and well-being A to Z, ed. by Delores C. S. James (2004, $175). Rev. by Joyce Adams Burner, School Library Journal, October 2004.

The index has occasional lapses. [Such as?]

Grolier: The Civil War (10 vols) (2004, $309). Rev. by Mary Mueller, School Library Journal, June 2004.

The set index, also in every volume, is adequate, but coverage is not always complete for topics mentioned within the body of entries. [Adequate?]

Grolier: Grolier student encyclopedia (17 vols) (2003, $249). Rev. in School Library Journal, June 2004.

Prominent see-also references and a set index at the back of each book seem helpful at first glance, but may bewilder and frustrate inexperienced encyclopedia users. Youngsters interested in monkeys will have to use the index, which refers them to three different volumes. If they persevere, they will be rewarded with a few pages under ‘Primates.’ Under lightning, the index leads students to nothing more than a captioned etching of Ben Franklin and his famous kite under the subject heading ‘Science’.

Robert Hale, Cumbria: the Lake District and its county, by John Wyatt (£50). Rev. in Conserving Lakeland, Summer/ Autumn 2005.

The book is not totally free of blemishes. Proofreading seems to have been hurried and patchy and there is more than a suspicion that one or two photographs have been printed back to front. For a book of 600 pages of information, description and opinion, the index could also be improved. When the reader has read this book from cover to cover it will still be on the shelf as a work of references for years to come. But for works of reference, a well-compiled index is no luxury - it is an essential.

Hamish Hamilton: Matisse the master: the life of Henri Matisse: the conquest of colour, 1909-1954, by Hilary Spurling (2005, 512 pp, £25). Rev. by Norbert Lynton, Times Literary Supplement, 1 April 2005.
It [the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence] is hard to find in the index because the two books' indexes follow different systems.  Professional indexers can be quick and efficient but tend to beaver away in solitude, caring little for the publication as a whole. [An odd accusation! The first volume of Spurling’s biography of Matisse, The Unknown Matisse, was published in 1998.]

HarperCollins: Walter Sickert: a life, by Matthew Sturgis (2005, 768 pp, £30). Rev. by Richard Shone, The Spectator, 12 February 2005.

In a book of this scope and length, a few mistakes are inevitable. Here there are too many; a more attentive editor would have corrected wrong or misspelt names and excised occasional repetitions. The index is not as impressive as it looks.

Hutchinson: Hide and seek with angels: a life of J. M. Barrie, by Lisa Chaney (2005, 402 pp, £20). Rev. by Philip Hensher, The Spectator, 11 June 2005.

It comes as no surprise to learn that Barrie never consummated his marriage. (Unintentionally, but rather appropriately, his wife has no entry at all in the index to this book.)

Kyle Books, One pot wonders, by Conrad Gallagher ($19.95). Rev. by Kate Shatzkin, Baltimore Sun, June 2005.

The book is a little hard to follow. Looking for a way to dress up potatoes? You'll find Garlic Mash in the saucepan chapter, Roasted New Potatoes With Coarse Salt and Rosemary under roasting pan and Twice-Baked Potatoes With Crabmeat and Walnuts under baking sheet. The index doesn't help unless you're looking for ‘Garlic Mash’ under G.

Lorenz: Organic kitchen and garden, by Ysanne Spevack, Christine Lavelle and Michael Lavelle (2004, 512 pp, £24.99). Rev. by Andrew Blackford, Kitchen Garden, February 2005.

One thing that does let the book down from the usability aspect is the index. Finding precisely what you are looking for can be frustratingly hit-and-miss. Look up ‘potatoes’, for instance, and you will be given seven page references, but no clue to what’s on them; and under ‘disease’, 19 page references, but you still won’t know where to find potato blight. ‘Blight’ itself doesn’t appear in the index.

Manson Publishing: Self-assessment colour review of hepatobiliary medicine, by Roger Chapman and Henry C. Bodenheimer (2003, 193 pp, £16.95). Rev. by James Neuberger, Hospital Medicine, 65(2), February 2004.

There are a few minor criticisms. There are no references if the reader wants to read more, and the index could be more useful – primary sclerosing cholangitis is under ‘c’ for cholangitis.

Monarch Books and the Bible Society: Good news for the world: 200 years of making the Bible heard: the story of Bible Society, by Roger Steer (2004, 462 pp, £8.95). Rev. by Ken Bakewell, Librarians’ Christian Fellowship Newsletter, 88, Winter 2004.

The index is inadequate, with some omissions and some strange headings like ‘War, First World’ and ‘War, Second World’.

John Murray: Betjeman: the bonus of laughter, by Bevis Hillier (746 pp, £25). Rev. by J. Mordaunt Crook, Times Literary Supplement, 3 December 2004.

There is one technical flaw in this enjoyable volume. The reference notes have not been incorporated into the index. Without such a key, even an avid reader will miss a great many nuggets.

Oxford University Press: A commentary on Horace: Odes, Book III, by R. G. M. Nisbet and Niall Rudd (2004, 389 pp, £70). Rev. by Denis Feeney, Times Literary Supplement, 8 October 2004.

Puns are marked and pursued, although, oddly, there is no index entry for ‘pun’ or ‘wordplay’, just as in Volume One; in Volume Two there is an entry for ‘pun’, with a dozen listings.

Oxford University Press: A new history of Western philosophy, Vol. 1: Ancient Philosophy, by Anthony Kenny (2004, 341 pp, £17.99). Rev. by Anthony A. Long, Times Literary Supplement, 15 April 2005.

In Kenny’s (frankly inadequate) index the only entry for ‘political philosophy’ refers, strangely, to Heraclitus.

Oxford University Press: When flesh becomes word: an anthology of early eighteenth-century libertine literature, ed. by Bradford K. Mudge (2004, 332 pp, hbk £51.99, pbk £17.99). Rev. by Elizabeth J. Scott-Baumann, Times Literary Supplement, 28 January 2005.

… the omission of the author on the title page of each work, or even in the index, is baffling.

Palgrave Macmillan, Trespassing boundaries: Virginia Woolf's short fiction, by Kathryn N. Benzel and Ruth Hoberman (2004, 304 pp, £45). Rev. by Sarah M. Hall, Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain Bulletin, no. 19, May 2005.
One tiny editorial quibble: it is a mistake, I think, to index 'A Haunted House' and similar titles under 'A' ('An' and 'The' are not treated likewise), but since all Woolf's works are listed under a common heading, not a grave one.

Plexus: Never apologise: the collected writings of Lindsay Anderson, ed. by Paul Ryan (460 pp, £19.99). Rev. by Tom Sutcliffe, ed. by Paul Ryan (460 pp, £19.99). Rev. by Tom Sutcliffe, The Spectator, 11 December 2004.

It is also frustrating that Ryan’s index has no keyword references, such as ‘alienation’ (Brechtian). With critical writing, an index can provide alternative paths.

Scarecrow: Victorian horizons: the reception of the picture books of Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway (2001, 296 pp, £57). Rev. by Diana Dixon, CILIP Update, 3(1), January 2004.

Scholars will be disappointed by the limitations of its index.

SPCK, Crime, by T. J. Gorringe (£14.99). Rev. by Ken Bakewell, The Reader, 101(4), Winter 2004.

The comments about biblical criminals might be useful in sermons though no biblical characters are included in the inadequate index. An index of scriptural references would also be useful.

Sun Microsystems Press: Networking concepts and technology: a designer’s resource (400 pp). Rev. by Luigi Benetton, http://www.itbusiness.ca

On the other hand, it's hard to understand the poor-quality index, glossary, and table of contents that mar the book's value. Navigational aids are just as important in books as they are on Web sites. Using Sun.com as an example, I find a clear set of links on the home page, well-organized site maps and a search function. These tools let me find what I want quickly on this content-rich site.
I can't say the same about this book. Network designers who want to find specific answers quickly will be disappointed with the skimpy 2½ page index (followed by three pages of publisher's ads) near the end of this 400-page tome.

Thames and Hudson: The history of stained glass, by Virginia Chieffo Raguin and Mary Clerkin Higgins (2003, 288 pp, £24.95). Rev. by Jill Channer, Cornerstone (magazine of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings), 25(4).

T&H deserves a special award for what must surely be the most inadequate and appalling index ever to undermine a publication of this kind ... the completely random, utterly inconsistent and often just plain wrong selection of artists' names and references to places renders the whole exercise literally useless. The captions to the copious illustrations (which are not all in focus) and the crazy credits are equally bizarre. Combined with serious sloppy editing, the most serious oversight is the lack of any linkage with the inexplicable un-numbered illustrations.

Viking: The letters of Lytton Strachey, ed. by Paul Levy (2005, 496 pp, £30). Rev. by Victoria Glendinning, The Guardian, 28 May 2005.

… Levy’s editing is grandly minimalist. Most names are left unannotated (and some are not even indexed)…

Rev. by Peter Parker, Times Literary Supplement, 29 April 2005.

‘Anrep’ is mentioned twice before we are told that he is the mosaicist Boris Anrep, though these earlier occurrences are not recorded in the book’s scrappy and unreliable index.

Yale University Press: Angels and monsters: male and female sopranos in the story of opera, by Richard Somerset-Ward (2004, 326 pp, £25). Rev. by Jonathan Keates, Times Literary Supplement, 24 and 31 December 2004.

A sloppy index ascribes Linda di Chamounix to Bellini and unforgivably conflates Rosine Stoltz, Donizetti’s first Leonore in La favorite, with Teresa Stolz, Verdi’s ideal Aida.