Originally published in 1976, this publication falls into three parts: The Verbal Index, The Word Frequency Table, and The Field of Reference. A scholar interested in the full range of connotation for the word
heart
in Conrad would look first to the word frequency table to see how often the word in question occurs in
Lord Jim
. If the word is indeed part of the vocabulary of the novel, he then would turn to its alphabetical listing in the verbal index and the line numbers in which it appears. Then turning to the field of reference, he could locate the lines cited and look at each occurrence of the word in context.
The authors feel that the data provided by these tables is of basic importance to both the editor and the literary critic.