File:Review of reviews and world's work (1890) (14780472021).jpg

Identifier: reviewofreviewsw40newy (find matches)
Title: Review of reviews and world's work
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors:
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Publisher: New York Review of Reviews Corp
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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for the supply of cities in theimmediate vicinity of Los Angeles. Thedate set for the completion of the aqueductis the spring of 1913. FAMOUS FRENCH PUBLISHING HOUSES. I ^O have published the Waverley Nov-els, or \anity Fair, or the worksof Charles Dickens, or the ComedieHumaine of Honore de Balzac, or VictorHugos Les Miserables is a distinctionwhich the world at large has only half ap-preciated. While the first and great debtthat posterity owes is to the geniuses whoconceived and wrote those masterpieces, thereis a secondary debt owed to the men whose courage and judgment led them to presentthose masterpieces to the world in materialform. This passage occurs in a fore-word to an article in the Bookman, by Mr.Alvan F. Sanborn, on the publishing housesof France; and there is no doubt its asser-tion is well founded. In his article Mr,Sanborn includes an account of the negotia-tions whereby the young Belgian AlbertLacroix came to publish Hugos Les Mis- LEADING ARTICLES OF THE MONTH. 141
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THE HOUSE OF LAROUSSE IN THE RUE DEMONTPARNASSEj PARIS. erables. Lacroix had heard that Hugo hadjust finished it, and he swore solemnly toVerboeckhoven, his partner, Les Mise-rables shall be mine. He sent a letter tothe author, professing a willingness to ac-cept any condition and to subscribe to anydemands. Hugos son Charles, who hap-pened to be in Brussels, acted as go-between.The negotiations were proceeding rapidlywhen Hugo expressed a wish to see Lacroixand invited the latter to visit him. The in-terview is thus described: Immediately after lunch the poet set aboutdictating to the publisher a contract remarkablefor its precision and prudence. Lacroix was nota little troubled as he wrote: he bound himselfto di.sburse sums of which he did not possessthe first sou. Where should he find the 125,-000 francs to be paid on the delivery of themanuscript? ... It only remained for thecontracting parties to place their signatures atthe bottom of the document. As he was aboutto sign, Albert

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