LADY BRASSEY AND ENGLISH PUBLISHERS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1061, 15 April 1882, Page 4

LADY BRASSEY AND ENGLISH PUBLISHERS.

A few weeks ago a distinguished and | ' enterprising authoress took a step ; which was received with considerable : alarm by that very conservative body, | . the publishing trade. Lady Brassey I .brought out an edition of " lhe I Voyage of the Sunbeam,” with abuiid- I i ant illustrations, at the price of six- I j pence. The form r was hardly that; of a book, but rather that of one of I ' the weekly newspapers, but the type was legible enough, and everything, i we believe, was obtained in the six- I penny form that had been contained in tiie original volume. 'Hie old established firms did not like it at all : they thought it a vulgarisation of literature, and they prophesied failure, i The event has falsified the prophecy, for it is said that over 100,001) Sunbeams have already been sold ; and it docs not appear that those who ought to be able to judge, admit the vulgarisation ; for last week the example of Lady Brassey was followed by Sir Theodore Martin, with the sanction of the Queen, and the first sixpenny part of “ Life of the Prince Consort ” is already in the bauds of thousands of readers. The five volumes are to appear practically unabridged, in five parts ; and the public will be able to buy for half a crown what has till j now cost them four pounds. Such I an event marks an epoch in the history I of the book trade in this country ;and j it may well have a wide and far-reach-ing influence. —-London Times.