[_23 May '08_]
It has commonly been supposed that the publication of Flaubert's "Madame
Bovary" resulted, at first, in a loss to the author. I am sure that every
one will be extremely relieved to learn, from a letter recently printed in
_L'Intermédiaire_ (the French equivalent of _Notes and Queries)_, that the
supposition is incorrect. Here is a translation of part of the letter,
written by the celebrated publishers, Poulet-Malassis, to an author
unnamed. The whole letter is very interesting, and it would probably
reconcile the "authors" of the correspondence of Queen Victoria to the
sweating system by which they received the miserable sum of £5592 14s. 2d.
from Mr. John Murray for their Titanic labours.
October 23, 1857.
"I think, sir, that you are in error as to Messrs. Lévy's method of doing
business. Messrs. Lévy buy for 400 francs [£16] the right to publish a
book during four years. It was on these terms that they bought the stories
of Jules de la Madeleine, Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary,' etc. These facts are
within my knowledge. To take an example among translations, they bought
from Baudelaire, for 400 francs, the right to publish 6000 copies of his
Poé. We do not work in this way. We buy for 200 francs (£8) the right to
publish an edition of 1200 copies.... If the book succeeds, so much the
better for the author, who makes 200 francs out of every edition of 1200
copies. If M. Flaubert, whose book is in its third edition, had come to us
instead of to Messrs. Lévy, his book would already have brought him in
1000 francs (£40); during the four years that Messrs. Lévy will have the
rights of his book for a total payment of 400 francs, he might have made
two or three thousand francs with us.... Votre bien dévoué,
"A.P. MALASSIS."
* * * * *
We now know that Flaubert made £16 in four years out of "Madame Bovary,"
which went into three editions within considerably less than a year of
publication. And yet the house of Lévy is one of the most respectable and
grandiose in France. Moral: English authors ought to go down on their
knees and thank God that English publishers are not as other publishers.
At least, not always!