One Thousand In England Will Give Perhaps As Good
A Return As The Ten Thousand In America.
But as regards the readers
there can be no such equalization:
The thousand copies cannot spread
themselves as do the ten thousand. The one book at a guinea cannot
multiply itself, let Mr. Mudie do what he will, as do the ten books
at a dollar. Ultimately there remain the ten books against the one;
and if there be not the ten readers against the one, there are five,
or four, or three. Everybody in the States has books about his
house. "And so has everybody in England," will say my English
reader, mindful of the libraries, or book-rooms, or book-crowded
drawing-rooms of his friends and acquaintances. But has my English
reader who so replies examined the libraries of many English cabmen,
of ticket porters, of warehousemen, and of agricultural laborers? I
cannot take upon myself to say that I have done so with any close
search in the States; but when it has been in my power I have done
so, and I have always found books in such houses as I have entered.
The amount or printed matter which is poured forth in streams from
the printing presses of the great American publishers is, however, a
better proof of the truth of what I say than anything that I can
have seen myself.
But of what class are the books that are so read? There are many
who think that reading in itself is not good unless the matter read
is excellent. I do not myself quite agree with this, thinking that
almost any reading is better than none; but I will of course admit
that good matter is better than bad matter. The bulk of the
literature consumed in the States is no doubt composed of novels - as
it is also, now-a-days, in this country. Whether or no an unlimited
supply of novels for young people is or is not advantageous, I will
not here pretend to say. The general opinion with ourselves, I take
it, is that novels are bad reading if they be bad of their kind.
Novels that are not bad are now-a-days accepted generally as
indispensable to our households. Whatever may be the weakness of
the American literary taste in this respect, it is I think a
weakness which we share. There are more novel readers among them
than with us, but only I think in the proportion that there are more
readers.
I have no hesitation in saying that works by English authors are
more popular in the States than those written by Americans; and,
among English authors of the present day, readers by no means
confine themselves to the novelists. The English names of whom I
heard most during my sojourn in the States were perhaps those of
Dickens, Tennyson, Buckle, Tom Hughes, Martin Tupper, and Thackeray.
As the owners of all these names are still living, I am not going to
take upon myself the delicate task of criticising the American
taste. I may not perhaps coincide with them in every respect. But
if I be right as to the names which I have given, such a selection
shows that they do get beyond novels. I have little doubt but that
many more copies of Dickens's novels have been sold, during the last
three years, than of the works either of Tennyson or Buckle; but
such also has been the case in England. It will probably be
admitted that one copy of the "Civilization" should be held as being
equal to five and twenty of "Nicholas Nickleby," and that a single
"In Memoriam" may fairly weigh down half a dozen "Pickwicks." Men
and women after their day's work are not always up to the
"Civilization." As a rule, they are generally up to "Proverbial
Philosophy," and this, perhaps, may have had something to do with
the great popularity of that very popular work.
I would not have it supposed that American readers despise their own
authors. The Americans are very proud of having a literature of
their own, and among the literary names which they honor, there are
none more honorable than those of Cooper and Irving. They like to
know that their modern historians are acknowledged as great authors,
and as regards their own poets, will sometimes demand your
admiration for strains with which you hardly find yourself to be
familiar. But English books are, I think, the better loved: even
the English books of the present day. And even beyond this - with
those who choose to indulge in the luxuries of literature - books
printed in England are more popular than those which are printed in
their own country; and yet the manner in which the American
publishers put out their work is very good. The book sold there at
a dollar, or a dollar and a quarter, quite equals our ordinary five
shilling volume. Nevertheless, English books are preferred, almost
as strongly as are French bonnets. Of books absolutely printed and
produced in England, the supply in the States is of course small.
They must necessarily be costly, and as regards new books, are
always subjected to the rivalry of a cheaper American copy. But of
the reprinted works of English authors the supply is unlimited, and
the sale very great. Almost everything is reprinted: certainly
everything which can be said to attain any home popularity. I do
not know how far English authors may be aware of the fact; but it is
undoubtedly a fact that their influence as authors is greater on the
other side of the Atlantic than on this one. It is there that they
have their most numerous school of pupils. It is there that they
are recognized as teachers by hundreds of thousands. It is of these
thirty millions that they should think, at any rate in part, when
they discuss within their own hearts that question which all authors
do discuss, whether that which they write shall in itself be good or
bad, be true or false.
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