 This was a two volume condensation of the "Penny Cyclopaedia" specifically regarding the British Empire, published 1850-51.The novelist Herman Melville is known to have used the "Penny Cyclopædia" while writing "Moby-Dick" and other novels, and scholar Paul McCarthy has suggested that the encyclopedia's coverage of moral insanity and monomania may have influenced Melville's characters in "Moby-Dick" and other writings.Vol.