French Books in England
should like to correct certain rather misleading statements made by your reviewer on Livres de France. First, we undertake to supply five or ten books yearly not, as suggested, for any fixed sum, but at the French price and in the original paper cover. The saving effected is precisely the difference between the publication price and the price in England, i.e. 20-30 per cent. But our aims are by no means confined, as appears to be your reviewer's impression, to selling " selected choices at prices below those generally ruling "; this is indeed the aspect of the scheme which least deserves his qualification of " ambitious." The society was born of the conviction that, if present-day French writers are to be introduced to a wider English public, that public must be given facilities comparable with those of the French reader; it seeks above all to keep the English reader widely informed by means of a literary magazine, specialised publication-lists and a bibliographical research-service, and enables him to obtain any French book at special conditions.
Fpr our basic supply, which is merely one aspect of our activity, we have been glad to take advantage of the recently created Franco-British Book Selection Committee, sponsored by the University des Annales of Paris. It is the new work recommended monthly by this committee of eminent writers and critics to the English public in general that is supplied automatically to our members. From October this committee is also to recommend an English book to French readers; and there are strong hopes that an organisation comparable with ours will shortly be set up in Paris to diffuse contemporary English literature in French- speaking countries, where the same problems of choice and information exist. The main preoccupation of these two societies will be to strengthen the intellectual bonds between our two countries. We like to think that they will achieve rather more important results than the reducing " by upwards of ten per cent." the price of a few selected books.—Yours truly, J. R. DODEMAN. Librairie Francaise, 127 Regent Street, W.I.
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