LORD BEACONSFIELD’S NOVEL.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2169, 7 February 1881, Page 2

LORD BEACONSFIELD’S NOVEL.

The London correspondent of the Melbourne “ Argus” thus writes :—“ Endymion” has at last appeared, to the great disgust of all the novelists. Where is the money to come from with whioti the libraries are to buy other folks’ novels when of my Lord Beaoonsfield’s fiction Mr Mudie takes 3000, and Messrs W. H. Smith and Son 1700 copies. Even the Q-rosvenor Library, whose efforts at rivalry are by no means so gigantic as they promised to be, is said to have made an effort in the case of “ Endymion,” and taken seventy-five copies. All sorts of rumours, however, are in circulation respecting this amazing work, the one most generally believed being that 10,000 copies have been already bespoken, and that the noble author has received £IO,OOO for it. Ten thousand is a nice number for the memory to have to deal with, and rolls trippingly from the tip of the tongue; but the fact is, if 5000 copies have been disposed of among the great libraries, there will not be a thousand got rid of elsewhere, through some very rich people will doubtless have the fancy for giving 31s 6d for the privilege of possessing the work. Moreover, even if 10,000 copies were sold, and no more, the publisher would be “ sold” too, who gave the sum in question for the book. Like everything else, in short, in connexion with Lord Beaconsfield, the state of the market as respects “ Eudymion ” is vague, mysterious, and immense. The fact that the Queen has corrected the proof-sheets does not give it a fancy price in my eyes, though the circumstance is undoubtedly interesting as proving how far, when " statesmen ” are not engaged with “ sovereigns ” in governing the universe, they can prosecute the art of flummery. Special arrangements have been made with Baron Tauchnitz, by which hie continental edition of this work will be published contemporaneously, so that it is probable there will be a good deal of importation by that excellent and fashionable class of persons who hold smuggling to be improper, but think nothing of breaking the law to cheapen their books.