Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-12-28
Books Hardly Wanted.

As to the average Englishman, he simply hates
buying books, will wait weeks for novel which
he is crazy to read, worries Nude with prepos-
ferrous demands, drives his fellow-members of
the Book Club frantic with selfish recommends
ton, and sometimes, in his eagernes to borrow
performs acts of incredible meanness We have
known authors asked to lend their own copies by
men of ten times their incomes. while publishers
grow hard their fights to prevent acquaintance
ofall kinds getting their books without payment.
Even the subscriptions to libraries are paid re-
luctantIy. The custodians of large serious H.
braries know perfectly we'll that it is next to inn
possible to prevent dozen families from using
a single subscription. and Messrs Nudes books
are lent from hand to hand with the coolest ana
hardest defiance Of ordinary justice. The total
result is that the midde-class Englishman. as
rule. does not buy books, and. except. the afore-
said classic and professional books, he possesses
scarcely any. The professional books he must
have. and he buys them without qualins, as he
buys office chairs or foolscap as part OF the ex-
penses of his business; and he hasa feeling that
not to have few classics, especially Shakes
peare. Milton and few other poets. is little
bOOrish; but there his voluntary buying ends.
In second-rate towns booksellers could not
live but for their stationery. and in one case we
know, leading bookseller did not receive Or
ders, apart from Bibles. prayer-bOOks and books
for presents. for 100 volumes year.
Would demand begin if books were cheaper
We doubt it greatly. In the first place, the
cheapness of the books would not diminish but
perceptlbiy increase their dsfavor as litter"
There would be more of them, and they would
be, must be- much worse bound. Cheap books may
De strongly bound but no possible change in the
art of binding or the practice of publishing can
give us fve-shilling volumes bound with the
handsome leather backs dear to housewives and
to book lovers. They will take up more room,
II anything, than before, and demand. conse-
quently. even an increased watchfulness. And
then will they be cheap? The Briton knows In
stinctively that if he begins buying books he will
never stop; that if he gives way to the idea that
they are cheap, mamma may want them, and the
girls Will want them, and the boys will insist on
them: and four books at 5s. make a pound, the
price of two stalls for the theater and-and-
and Messrs Nude will send you 800 volumes
SIX weeks-for 3 guineas year. No reduction
OF price will compete with that and the Eng
iishman who reads novels all the evening. but
never is quite certain that they are not deieteri-
Gus, viii, even, at S., avoid buving them; and
for his serious books. read them first. to see if
they are worth buying, and then not buy. At
least, that Is our impression, as it is evidently
that OF the publishers, who we fear every now
and then get sharp lessons from experience
We have a book before us as we write, in two
octave Volumes strongly and indeed, attract
lveiy bound, perfectly printed, and on good paper
1t is a charming memoir, readable by ali edu-
Gated men, and received on it's appearance with
chorus of approval. Its wholesale price it 4s
3D. a volume. and we venture to say with conf
dence that 1900 copies of it were never sold;
and that if the price had been reduced to g. 3D.
probably less than it's COST the sale would not
have been increased by SO per cent Publishers
are subject to conditions, like other human be-
ings; and one of their conditions in this coun-
try is that the English are not as yet book
buying people. They are educated up to the
point of reading, but not of paying an appreci-
fnr no, if,,r
sessing books. There is climatic buy and wine
and books must be hired-The Snectator.