The Great Metropolis Author:James Grant Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IIL LITERATURE. London the emporium of literature—Works of fiction— Poetry—History—Statistics—Philosophy—Works on the subject of health—Biography a... more »nd Autobiography —Voyages and Travels—Public taste for light reading —Divinity—Extent to which books sell—Cheap repub- lications of standard works—Embellished works—Supposed number and circumstances of persons who live by their literary labours—The success of works not always dependent on their merits—The precarious- ness of the literary profession—Privations of Authors —The expedients resorted to by Authors to attract attention. London, as every one is aware, is the great emporium of trade, commerce, wealth, and fashion : it is still more so of literature. Thither authors flock from all parts of the country, even from its remotest points, to publish their works. Not only is it thought there is a want of respectability in books which issue from the provincial press, but it is taken for granted—and in most cases justly—that they have not the same chances of success as if emanating from the metropolis. London has, undoubtedly, many advantages in this respect peculiar to itself. It is, for example, the only place which has a regular communication with all other parts of the country. It has, too, as the metropolis, a name which no other town can by possibility ever acquire. Itnot only now is, but ever must continue, the great depot of literary works ; the place whence, where- ever they may be written, they must emanate. In speaking, therefore, of the literature of the metropolis, I may be considered as speaking, in a great measure, of the literature of Great Britain generally. About twenty years ago, the literary tide set in in favour of fiction. The extraordinary success of the Waverley Novels stimulated a host of write...« less