2657. RB to Edward Moxon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 135–136.
Pisa, Collegio Ferdinando.
Feb. 24. 47.
My dear Moxon,
Many thanks for your note with its good news. I delayed answering it in the expectation of a note from Procter, whom I had asked (as I told you) to lend me his eyes .. for I don’t trust mine implicitly when they look on home-interests thro’ this lazy Italian air .. he does not write, however, so I must: I & my wife think your account a very satisfactory one—and we have commissioned Mr Kenyon to receive what you promise us—that is to say, so much of the £75 and odd, as shall remain when you have deducted the proper sum for those advertisements you advise .. I suppose, £15 will be quite enough for them so that we take £60 with the best will in the world—(all your advertisements are in such good taste, that one needs say nothing about dropping Esq’s and “Mr”s and “Mrs”—and putting simply R.Bg and E.B.Bg)– With respect to what you recommend to me, in the matter of a new edition, [1] nothing can be more sensible: only, observe—I use the words people put into my mouth when they begin to advise me—they will have it that the form, the cheap way of publication, the double-columns &c—that these do me harm, keep reviews from noticing what I write,—retard the sale—and so on. For myself, I always liked the packed-up completeness and succinctness, and am not much disposed to care for the criticism that is refused because my books are not thick as well as heavy. But the point which decided me to wish to get printed over again, was—the real good I thought I could do to “Paracelsus,” “Pippa” & some others—good, not obtained by cutting them up and reconstructing them, but by affording just the proper revision they ought to have had before they were printed at all. This, and no more, I fancy, is done for them—but you know infinitely best what our policy is—“our”—for if we keep together, there is not such a thing as your losing while I gain. When you speak of postponing this till my return to England, you may be thinking of a speedier return than is probable—I shall certainly stay another year, if not longer, in Italy. And by Christmas, providence helping, my wife & I want to print a book as well as our betters,—after what we think a new & good plan—all which it would be premature to allude to at present. To return to the matter in hand, therefore—thank you heartily for your kind wishes, and prompt attention to my note: surely, after all, the account is not unfavourable—if all these “Luria’s” can sell, without a single notice except from the “Examiner”, things will mend some day, we may hope. I say nothing of my wife’s poems and their sale—she is, there as in all else, as high above me as I would have her. She sends her best respects & regards to you—(for I must leave off). And do you, dear Moxon, believe me, ever with great sincerity, yours,
R Browning.
I look out in the Times for your notices .. & hope this novel of Knowles’ [2] will profit you.
Address, on integral page: Edward Moxon Esq. / Dover St. / Piccadilly.
Publication: LVC, 1st Ser., I, 15–18.
Manuscript: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library.
1. See letter 2655 for EBB’s reference to Moxon’s suggestion that the new edition of RB’s works be delayed until the Brownings returned to England.
2. An advertisement in The Times of this date announced that James Sheridan Knowles’s novel, George Lovell, was “just published.” It was reviewed in The Athenæum for 27 February 1847 (no. 1009, pp. 223–224), which said that “it is written earnestly rather than eloquently.” The marked file of The Athenæum, now at City University (London), identifies H.F. Chorley as the author of this review.
___________________
