THE " GET-UP " OF " THE UNFORTUNATE DUKE."
(To nit EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR-1 SIR, —I have been asked by the representative of Messrs. Collier and Co. to address to you a letter relieving them of " the stigma " of the " get-up" of my story, " The Unfor- tunate Duke," the matter of which you have been pleased to commend in your last issue. They had no part in the production. The crime is all my own. I bound the book in sober cloth, with a plain gold line, because I prefer it to the inartistic extravagances usually associated with the modern novel. I designed the page to bold a reasonable amount of matter; and I prefer a good printing paper to the coarse and fragile uncalendered sheet of wood-pulp in common use that bulks largely and is cheap. These fancies of mine are apparently repugnant to the public taste, which is supposed to delight in book-covers emblazoned with extravagant portraits of some insipidity from the front row of the ballet. Whatever view may be taken of my taste, however, I must accept the responsi- bility of my error, for no publisher of my acquaint- ance would risk the production of any novel devoid of any reference to the psychology of concupiscence, or that failed to make the motive of sex the central motive of the drama. The fact that my predilection for a presentable page has closed the door of the very largest purveyor of books because it involves a cover one quarter of an inch larger than the ordinary shows how very foolish I am. You, Sir, have dealt with the inside of my covers on the higher plane of criticism, and I am obliged for the distinction. It is some- thing to have been observed floating in the ocean of current literature, and I am sure you will understand my motive if, when I address the public again, I should persist in my evil courses, and avoid the neurotic in theme and the garish in [Though we thoroughly appreciate the spirit of Mr. Wicks's letter, we hold our reviewer's observations on the " get-up" of the book to be justified. A novel may look like a novel and yet not have a garish cover.—ED. Spectator.]
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