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Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), 15th September 1890, Edition 1 of 1, Page 1114

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    • OO3STTE35TTS
    • St. Dunstan's House, E.C. September 15, 1890.
  • Adverts (1)
  • Text (5)
  • Transcript

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      P ¦ . , ; . . . . ; - . ; Y „ • ' . _ _J...

      P ¦ . , ; . . . . ; - . ; y „ ' . _ _ J 1114 The Publishers' Circular Sept . i 5 , l 8 9 o

      Ad00405

      T ^ E PaBmSME ^ S' C ^ GQDA ^ IFO : R / OCTOBER 1 WILL CONTAIN AS COMPLETE LISTS OF FORTHCOMING BOOKS AS CAN BE OBTAINED . Publisliers will greatly oblige and assist us by sending in their Advertisements and Lists of Announcements as early as possible , so that they may be duly mentioned in the Iiiterary Intelligence .

      Oo3stte35tts

      OO 3 STTE 35 TTS

      Literary Intelligence 1114 Books And Rum...

      LITERARY INTELLIGENCE 1114 BOOKS AND RUMOURS OP BOOKS 1115

      NOTES AND NEWS 1116 CONTINENTAL NOTES ..., 1119 BOOKSELLERS OF TO-DAY . —X .

      MR . R . D . DICKINSON 1119 GRIEVANCES OF RETAIL NEWSAGENTS 1120 BOOKSELLERS IN THE COLONIES 1121

      TOPOGRAPHY OLD AND NEW 1121 LITERARY RECREATION 1122 THE ILLUSTRATING OF BOOKS 1122

      THE AUTOGRAPH CRAZE IN FRANCE 1123 THE MANSION HOUSE LITERARY CONGRESS .... 1123 CHANGES IN THE FIRM OF HARPER BROTHERS .. 1123

      WHAT BECOMES OF IT ? 1124

      TRADE CHANGES 1124 IN MEMORIAM n 24

      REVIEWS , < fec H 25 INDEX TO BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 1 & 13 1129

      BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN FROM SEPTEMBER 1 TO 30 1130 AMERICAN NEW BOOKS \ U 2

      NEW BOOKS AND BOOKS LATELY PUBLISHED .. 1134 MISCELLANEOUS 1047 BUSINESS CARDS 1156

      BUSINESS FOR SALE 1157 SITUATIONS WANTED 1157 ASSISTANTS WANTED 1157

      BOOKS FOR SALE 1158 BOOKS WANTED TO PURCHASE 1158

      St. Dunstan's House, E.C. September 15, 1890.

      St . Dunstan ' s House , E . C . September 15 , 1890 .

      Rjlhe Literary Moralist Has Been More Th...

      rjlHE literary moralist has been more than J- usually busy of late , and as a matter of

      course he has been stern and admonitory . We have already referred to some of the severe

      strictures that have been passed on the conduct of those who provide light reading for the

      young , and it now appears that those who cater for adults are equally deserving of censure .

      Fiction should seem to be in a very bad way indeed , and , from some of the statements

      that have been going round , it might almost be imagined that authors and publishers are

      banded together in one unholy league to damage their own reputations and deprave the public

      taste . Mr . Besant must be wrong in attributing business shrewdness to publishers .

      We trust we respect the moral censor who so freely expends his time and energy in

      discharging the beneficent function of literary guardian . His services are valuable , perhaps

      indeed they are indispensable . But his zeal renders him hasty and impulsive , so that he

      too rarely possesses his soul with that patience which enables the critic to take a

      comprehensive and dispassionate view of the entire domain of literature . ' He that tries to

      recommend an author by select quotations , ' says

      Johnson , ' will succeed like the pedant in

      Hierocles , who , when he offered his house to

      sale , carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen / He who tries to judge of literature

      from a handful of books will achieve precisely the same kind of success . The single-brick

      method is apt to lead to confusion ; unfortunately wit is the favourite method of the censor .

      And as to quality it is an easy and striking thing to say that fiction is degenerating . According

      to some perspicacious people it has been steadily descending the moral scale , since first

      the art of lying , to borrow an apt expression tr from om Mr Mr . . Oscar Osnar Wil Wilde de , came came into into vogue vogue

      , in England . Kichardson was lofty ; some have i ventured to call him bbh sublime ; certainly

      l ^ t ^ m v ^^ p —_ n V ^ h ^ HflB ^ f ^ h ^^^ Ht - ^^^^ ^ f ^ ^^ m * va ^« ^^ ^^ ^™ ^^ ¦¦ ^^^¦ — ^ «— - ¦ ' ¦ " ~ - — —* g ^ v he was highly ^^ moral . But Fielding , though a magistrate magistrate , was was a a low low ro rosrue gue . and and the tne taint taint he no

      introduced , into fiction has , been developing ever since . It is clearldiscernible in the

      works of Scott : what could y be plainer than some of the scenes in his novels 1 and since

      con \ Scott j \ -riiaXOU sistentl ' s day . M . VM , y J . t on \ he SM . M . throug process UJUlVU ^ iA h of the UI . deterioration V writings .. »« . — —jj ~ of Dickens has gone ,

      Thackeray to attempt , and to George controvert Eliot . that We are view not of going the

      case : it would be idle . But for o urselves we are of ' and opinion assuredly that ' things we think are all the the present other

      generation way , has a right to congratulate itself on

      the healthy tone of its fiction . Badjiov ^

  • Citation
    • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), Sept. 15, 1890, page 1114, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15091890/page/4/