PATER AT POPULAR PRICES

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1449, 25 May 1912, Page 9

PATER AT POPULAR PRICES

. „ : The intimation -that Pater's "Kenaissancc," which hitherto, like all the Patei books, has been obtainable only at an aristocratic price, is now to be had for a shilling is (says the "Manchester Guardian") a sensational one, and is a strik . ing instance of the faith of the publish6rs in the growing good taste 0 f the reading public. That that faith will bo justified there can lie little doubt, but it i; worth noting that the "Bonaissanep." although from the beginning it took it( place as a' classic in all intellectual circles, was twenty-five years old before it became, in the ordinary sense, a populai book. It was published in 1873, and it; cpoch-making character was at once re'cognised, but four years passed before a second '.edition..'was called for; eleven ■years elapsed before the issue of a third: periods of five and six years divide the ' two "following editions, and it was onlj with the issue.of the,fifth, in 1899, thai tho book may' be said to have "got or the run," since which- date reimpressions have been steadily called for after ever.v interval of a- year or eighteen months. Its hold on the public is now absolutely secure, and no doubt there will be nn ade quale market, for this cheap edition. The''impression made by. the physical appearance of the book is'a curious one, With the change of price has come the necessary chango of "format," and one misses the dark blue binding for so man) decades associated with tho Pater series, while the old thoughts amd images look strange upon paper of an unfamiliar tout and texture. The traditional fonn ol . vhe books lias so long been associated with it that between it and their contents one had como to conceive of a pre-ostablisned and indissoluble harmony. Yet thai form was. not as Pater at first wished tc Tiave if. • ,He wished to revert to tlif „ fashion of an earlier generation, and had a fancy to see his "Renaissance" > r paper boards with a paper title-label. II was Macmillan who gently chaffed him out of tliis. "My friend Mr. Macl>ho=e, of Glasgow," he .wrote.."published 'Olrig Grange,' in this fashion at first, and ha! been obliged to abandon it, for cloth. Kt still uses paper.labels—and gives a duplicate labol to be stuck 011 when tho old gets' dirty! This is droll, to say the least of it." Then he adds, "I still possess books which are;done.up in smooth cloth with paper labels, and value them ■historically—just as I would value' Adam's original figdeaf. jf I could find it." Fin. oily, he sends him a book which, in resp»ct of material and style, «ems to lia-«

determined the Pater type; "I send you by this post a book in a stylo of binding which 1 devised fur Iho author, anil which ho liked. His tastes wero 'artistic.. Ho is an intimato friend of Mr. Burno Jones and others who think in that lino. Also the paper of tlio book is made to imitate tlio old wire-wovo paper,

which can only now bo got in this mock rib, which is really rather pleasant to my own eye." Thero is only one reflection that occurs to cloud tho satisfaction with which ono greets this new venture. It is that it proves that the hope of a Pater that shall be complete and yet attainable, at a cost proportioned to a purse of limited resources is as far oil' as ever. Messrs. Macmillan would not have put upon (ho market nn edition at a shilling if they contemplated issuing tho complete works at, say, three-and-sixpence per volume, and a complete issue of tho books at a shilling each is out of tlie question. Let ns liopo that they will do the next best thing, and give us all tho outstanding books in this new form. "Marius the Epicurean" would make two Duo volumes; "Imaginary Portraits," with tho three essays from "Miscellaneous Studies" thrown in-"Auollo in Picarcly." "Tho Child in the House," Mid "Emerald Uthwart would make another, while "Appreciations," with the paper on "/Esthetic Poetry," which lias never been reprinted since 1876, restored, would complete the series.