To return to the subject, the price at which the house of Murray issued the “Letters of Queen Victoria” was not “extortionate,” having regard to the astounding expenses of publication.  But why were the expenses so astounding?  If the book had not been one which by its intrinsic interest compelled purchase, would the “authors” have been remunerated like the managers of a steel trust?  Would the paper have been so precious and costly?  Would the illustrations have so enriched photographers?  And would the amanuensis have made L350 more out of the thing then Mr. Murray himself?  The price was not extortionate.  But it was farcical.  The entire rigmarole combines to throw into dazzling prominence the fact that modern literature in this country is still absolutely undemocratic.  The time will come, and much sooner than many august mandarins anticipate, when such a book as the “Letters of Queen Victoria” will be issued at six shillings, and newspapers will be fined L7500 for saying that the price is extortionate and ought not to exceed half a crown.  Assuredly there is no commercial reason why the book should not have been published at 6s. or thereabouts.  Only mandarinism prevented that.  Mr. Murray’s profits would have been greater, though “authors,” amanuenses, photographers, paper-makers, West-End booksellers, and other parasitic artisans might have suffered slightly.

FRENCH PUBLISHERS

[23 May ’08]

It has commonly been supposed that the publication of Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” resulted, at first, in a loss to the author.  I am sure that every one will be extremely relieved to learn, from a letter recently printed in L’Intermediaire (the French equivalent of Notes and Queries), that the supposition is incorrect.  Here is a translation of part of the letter, written by the celebrated publishers, Poulet-Malassis, to an author unnamed.  The whole letter is very interesting, and it would probably reconcile the “authors” of the correspondence of Queen Victoria to the sweating system by which they received the miserable sum of L5592 14s. 2d. from Mr. John Murray for their Titanic labours.

October 23, 1857.

“I think, sir, that you are in error as to Messrs. Levy’s method of doing business.  Messrs. Levy buy for 400 francs [L16] the right to publish a book during four years.  It was on these terms that they bought the stories of Jules de la Madeleine, Flaubert’s ‘Madame Bovary,’ etc.  These facts are within my knowledge.  To take an example among translations, they bought from Baudelaire, for 400 francs, the right to publish 6000 copies of his Poe.  We do not work in this way.  We buy for 200 francs (L8) the right to publish an edition of 1200 copies....  If the book succeeds, so much the better for the author, who makes 200 francs out of every edition of 1200 copies.  If M. Flaubert, whose book is in its third edition, had come to us instead of to Messrs. Levy, his book would already have brought him in 1000 francs (L40); during the four years that Messrs. Levy will have the rights of his book for a total payment of 400 francs, he might have made two or three thousand francs with us....  Votre bien devoue,