The Three-volumed Novel

Some time ago the burning question among publishcrs in London was as to the three-volume novel: Should it continue to exist, or should it be extinguished to make room for the onevolume book at a quarter of the price? That question having been fairly settled against the three-volume forin, now comes a new one, concerning cut or uncut pages for books. The people who write against the uncut form are usually busy newspaper men, who have no time to wield the paper knife. One of these says: "From the standpoint of political economy the present old-fashioned system is utterly wrong and particularly so in novéis, which are meant to be read by busy people and not treasured by bibliomaniacs. A few weeks ago Mr. Heinemann published a novel, of which over 100,000 copies are now in circulation. The book was sent out with its leaves uncut. It takes at least a quarter of an hour for each new reader to cut those leaves. This means. that no fewer than 25,000 preoious hours of the public time have necessarily been occupied in the profitless work of cutting the pages of that one book alone. The bookbinder's guillotine would do the work in a fiftieth part of that time. And the bookblnder is earning hls living."