New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-12-19
LITERATURE IN LONDON.
d upNpy lanes JR-THE PUBLISHERS.

Iho" ii'h "' IoNDoN, December o.
A critic. not without acuteness. writing III i".
Pail Mall Gazette is of opinion that inc
of Lady 4" is the very best piece OF "oIA MI 80
lanes II. has done Or rather, would be OF that
n;nion If n. did not feel that Mr.. James had Drioeu
h;s Fnglisb iudges so shamefully The bribery con-
;sts i'm Aattery Mr. James is a most terrible nat
trr of IFS and of our country declares this ausere
Rriton The austeTe Brton repeats, indeed "haU
has been said by ten thousand other BIltohs Oh
equally stiff fibre that no true Englishman really
cares straw for foreign praise or blame. But theh
Mr. Jamess fiattery is dangerous because 1t Is III
sinuating indirect, unconscious even. tie natters
the English by depreciating the non-English; by
putting pleasant Englishmen in subtle JuXtapOsl-
ton to unpleasant people of other nationalltles'
This is terribly seductive to the BrIton austere
though he be; and the more so when the unpleasant
persons are-alas that one mus say So" as they
are almost wholly in his books, Americans" Ana
then follows a catalogue of the pleasant aud I'M
pleasant, of the English sheep and the American
goats 1t reaya pretty formidable list not less so
because drawn up by an Englishman One is used
10 hearing American critics complain OF MI
Jomes's hard treatment of his own cOuntrymen.
But it is new-at any rate, il is new to me-tO lind
an Englshman taking up our cause. Matters
must have cone pretty far before we could have
become objects of foreign cOmmiseration.
Nor is all this mere payluDess on the part OF our
British COUSIN. lie afiirms in all seriousness that
he cannot help thinking MIR James unfair toward
his countrymen. Nobody would say that MIR. James
would be- consciously unfair; even to his own
countrymen. 1t is more just TO suppose that his
long residence abroad has deprived hun OF those
opportunities for close observation and accurate
study of the good American which he would have
enioyed at home Now that he has returned to his
,frlxr hYY,n 10 mr.
American portraits in his next book--ess fattering
to the Briton and more just to the American.
But let me put these perous topics on one
side Perh apps it does not matter very deeply TO us
whether Mr.James rubs a little too much black into
his dclineat0ns of American heroes and herOincs.
Everybody knows that Mr. James is 4 cosmopoli-
tan; that he is American By origin and European to
q considerable extent by choice and by culture. He
will do more for us by adding to our literary repu-
tation abroad than he will do against us by deli
catoly etched caricatures of types winch are Amer-
can like himself in or gin, and essentially I'M
American IN their departures from virtue ana goOd
manners. There hardly be much difference
of opinion says our tattcred Briton, ''as to the
great if not unmxed merit of this Portrait OF
Lady We do not know living English novelist
who could have written it," Nor yet an American,
might he have added nor even many French.
Most of tn English criticism upon Mr.. James is of
n rather puzzled kind. Whatever the writer |
quote may think there differences of opinion in
ENGLAND about the merit of this book There has
been some d;sparagement oft due, should say for
the most part to the critics uncertainty OF mind as
TO the authors aims and to a feeling of strangeness
III his method. The average Engiishman criticiSes
Mr. James much as he criticises N. Daudet. He
does not know what Mr.. James would be at, any
more than he knows about the ideal of literary ex-
cellence NJ Dauiet sets before himse If.
European is hardly the word to apply to Mr.
James In so far as he is not American, lie is esscn
tally French He has studied in French schools
quafed from French springs, and is saturated with
the spirit of modern French literature The average
Eng,ishman knows little or nothing of French art
whether of construction or criticism. He seldom
judges of book OF picture with reference to fixed
principles He gives you his Impressions and since
the same work may leave very various impressions
on various mental retlnas the confusion and con-
tict of English critic SIN easily enough accounted
for Mr. James, fancy, does not greatly care TO
be told that 10 living English novelist could have
written his books. He would be much more inter-
ested to know that a singularly competent Judge
places him on a level with the first living French
novelists-with Daudet himself, and with Daudet
at his best. The comparison has reference
more particularly to the quality of the work
ulanSllp
necessary to point ont that Mr.. James has imposed
limits upon himself from which the great French
novelist of the day is free.
Ii is pretty clear that the English publisher has
discovered new public. When Me@srs. Smith q
Elder announced a sixpenny edition of Sir Theo
dore Martins Life of the Prince Consort,' it
said. rather hastily, that revolution in the book
trade was impendlng-that there were TO be no
more high-priced publications. Much the same
remark was made when six-shiing and two
shilling editions of books first issued.
The publishers themselves were afraid of the
cheap spectre. They believed that nobody
would buy an expensive and well-printed
book when he might, by waiting a twelve
month, buy a less dear one, Imprinted. In the
case of novels, nobody does buy them in three
volumes at a guinea and half. They published
for the circulating library, as everybody knows.
But it feared that with serious books the same
thing would happen. The late Mr.. Mill had some
difficulty in inducing his publishers to allow the
public to buy his Logic" and political Econ
omy" in single volumes at quarter the price of the
octave editions. Messrs LongEaans were Of opinion
the cheap books would spoil the market for the
dear ones. But they did not. Mr.. TrevelyaGs
"Life of Macaulay," in two octave volumes at
thirty six shillings had sale of mauy thousands
OF Mr. MOrley's Life of Golden" in the same
FORM four thousand have already been sold "The
Life Of Macaulay" has since been published in a
cabinet edition, two volumes, crown octave, which
was followed by a popular edition in one
volume. The Life of Golden" will doubtless by
and-by be procurable, in like manner, for five or
six shillings But the public did not in either case
refuse to buy the DO k in its more costly and read
able and desirable form These two instances may
serve as samples of the course of business a
whole.
The same sort Of thing may be expected to happen
in the case of the sixpenny broadsdes which are
now coming into favor. There is a market for them
but the market for the book in its better shape
will be little if at all affected. | doubt whether
they will ever much diminish the sale of the six and