THE LIBRARY OF ROMANCE,
EDITED BY
LEITCH RITCHIE,
Author of "Schinderhannes, the Robber of the Rhine," "Heath's Picturesque Annual," "Turner's Annual Tour," "London Nights' Entertainments," &c.
This new and important undertaking has now received a four months' trial; and the result is a determination, on the part of the proprietors, to carry on the series with redoubled spirit and energy. The patronage of the public, and the prompt, manly, and generous support of the periodical press throughout the country, leave them no excuse for carelessness or timidity; and they pledge themselves, therefore, without hesitation, to spare neither personal labour nor expense in redeeming the promise of the Prospectus, by producing a series of works of fiction "greatly cheaper than the cheapest, and fully as good as the best that have preceded them."
A reduction of more than two-thirds in the price of an original novel (effected in the Library of Romance) is of itself an important consideration, in times when economy is a matter both of fashion and necessity; but there are other circumstances connected with the form of the work which are equally deserving of public attention. Hitherto it was as necessary to extend a work of fiction to three volumes as a tragedy to five acts. The publisher was a kind of literary Procrustes, and compelled the Attic wayfarers who fell into his hands to be all of one size. This would have been comparatively a slight evil, or no evil at all, if the scale had been a moderate one; but it may be conceived what pulling and stretching were necessary in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, and how long, and lean, and lank, and shapeless, the victims looked after the operation. We, too, have a standard of our own; but it is short enough to be reached by any author of respectable dimensions. Compression, therefore, will be our chief labour; and, generally speaking, the sufferer himself will have most cause to rejoice.
It has been suggested to the proprietors by the Circulating Libraries, that the volumes of the Library of Romance are inconveniently long, and should be rendered capable of being divided into two, so as to enable them to supply their subscribers with the usual quantum of reading at a time. This appears to be nothing more than reasonable; and it has, therefore, been determined that in future each volume shall be divided into parts, or books, so as to admit of its being bound up, at the option of the possessors, into separate volumes. To effect this more easily, the work will be sold to the Libraries in sheets as well as bound.
Library of Original Romance.
EDITED BY LEITCH RITCHIE, ESQ.
A uniform Series of Original Tales, Novels, and Romances, written expressly for this work, by the most popular and distinguished living Authors of the Age, now publishing in Monthly Volumes, uniform with the Waverley Novels, each volume complete in itself, and equal in quantity to two volumes of a common Novel.