The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-04 00:00:00

Established 1820.

LITERATURE IN FRANCE.
(From the Times.)
We are gradually becoming inoculated by the French
and German taste for cheap bibliopolism. Perhaps our
fresh issues of books of sterling and recognised merit
are almost as cheap as they could be made, consistently
with careful production, with the supply of a service-
able paper, and with the excessive duty to which that
article (of downright necessity) is in this country ridi-
culously subject. But the prices of all new books
amon4st us, are perfectly enormous compared with
those which prevail on the Continent. Every one who
has been to Germany, knows what the fair of Leipsic
produces. In France the business of publication is car-
ried on with perhaps still less expense to the public ; im-
mense editions are sold, and author and bookseller are
both of them well remunerated. Facts in these cases
are the only arguments. During the last eighteen
months a serios of little works, entitled " Physiologies,"
as " Physiologic du Tailleur," " Phyt•iologie de l'Etudi-
ant," " Physiologic de I' Homme a Bonnes Fortunes," has
issued from the Parisian press—not very voluminous cer-
tainly, but excellent in quality, and copiously illustrated
by Gavarni and all the most eminent caricaturists of
France. For these little works, for which a crown at
least would be charged in London, with probably some
lying nonsense in the trade puffs about " unprecedented
cheapness," a single franc is charged in Paris. Let the
London trade look to this. If they are not prepared
to treat the public with liberality, with what face do
they complain of want of encouragement ? So long as
they publish their books at unpurchaseable prices, that
they should break by dozens is only a natural conse•
quence. A " Bibliotheque Francaise" is now being
published in Paris, in thirty volumes, presenting, for
three or four francs a volume, the works of the most
celebrated writers of France, illustrated by learned
notes and a selection of the racist esteemed commen-
taries. The publisher (it is no fulsome falsehood to
call him " spirited") deals with nothing but clufs-
d'ceuvre, and has literally realized his promise that" leur
extreme modicite de prix " would place these volumes
in a state of the most satisfactory completeness, " a la
portee de toutes les fortunes." There is a splendid
work called "Le Jardin des Plantes," with richly
coloured engravings of the highest excellence, zoologi-
cal, floricultural, and botanical, portraits of Cuvier,
Buffon, and the other naturalists of France, views and
plans of the gardens, &c., now going through the
press in thick and voluminous parts, for 30 centimes
(3d.) each ! If it must be our fate (which seems ex-
tremely probable) to be speedily outstripped in informa-
tion and intelligence by our neighbours of the Outre-
Manche, let the shame rest upon monopolising money-
grinding booksellers. Let not penny magazines and cyclo-
ptedias for the diffusion and confusion of " useful know-
ledge" be flung in our teeth as an answer to these remarks.
They are no answer; letterpress and illustrations are both
the work of inferior men,incapable of awaking the popular
mind or inspiring popular interest. But the illustrations
of animal and vegetable nature to which we have alluded
above ..re the productions of the first artists of France ;
and elegance and exactitude of outline are rendered
complete by the most magnificent colouring after na-
ture—what a contrast to the stark and staring woodcuts
by which foreigners are so much diverted in our " penny
literature I"

In addition to the vast fecundity of the Parisian press
in novels, romances, and tales interminable, bristling in
.feuilletons, and packed into library volumes, there is
likewise a translation-factory from the English kept
pretty briskly at work. The lingual steam-engine is
driven by M. Defauconpret, who has translated the
works of Sir W. Scott for the Cabinets de Lecture. This
gentleman has also translated several copies of Cooper's
novels, and some of Captain Marryat's—the prefer-
ence of selection being unquestionably accorded to
them in consequence of' their " naval" character—a
school of art in which France is extremely backward.
These translations, as may well be coccelved, are truly
Frenchified affairs ; even the very names being cu-
riously and ridiculously metamorphosed ; thus we have
" Monsieur le Midshipman Easy" for one title, " Le
Marin a Terre" (" The Middy Ashore") for another,
and the last issued figures as " Joseph Rushbroock.'
But no Frenchman ever yet could spell an English name.
The most noticeable thing about these publications
is the remarkably cheap price at which they are sold.
Each volume is charged only 3%f., whilst the pal-
triest translated trash that goes into our circulating
libraries here is impudently priced at half a guinea
a volume. The most splendid works of original
fiction, witness Eugene Sue's " Mathilde," are pub-
lished at the same price as Defauconpret's translations.
Observe how by this liberal arrangement author and
public (and the bookseller himself in the long run) are
benefited. Cheap reprints of " standard" English
works, from French presses, abound ; and Galignani's
establishment has been cut out in some directions, and
forced in others to reduce its expensiveness, by which it
rivalled even London humbug. There is scarcely a
short book of acknowledged merit in the circle of Eng-
lish literature that you cannot purehaEe, reprinted in
Paris by Frenchmen, yet with great accuracy, for Bd.,
10d., or, at the very utmost, 15d. In this most asto-
nishing activity of the publishing world a very marked
preference is given to English literature, the German
being little cultivated.

Mr. John Locke, who is mentioned as a Can-
didate for the Common Pleadership, in the event of a
vacancy. was a candidate eight years ago, when no va-
cancy occurred, and was supported by Sir Peter Laurie,
then Lord Mayor, and a very large proportion of the
Corporation. Mr. Bodkin and Alr. Sydney Taylor were
also candidates on that occasion.

ALWAYS " POORLY."---" I feel quite unwell,
and will take a little brandy and water," sail a member
of a Temperance Society, who had promised to use no
ardent spirits, except as medicine. "I am very unwell,
my dear ; a little more brandy." Here is the brandy,"
,nys the wife •, " and I wish the society further off, for
you hav(i not Ind it well day duce you jowed it,"