Just good enough to show how badly it's managed.' Milvain began to expatiate on that well-worn topic, the evils of the three-volume system.
'A triple-headed monster, sucking the blood of English novelists.
One might design an allegorical cartoon for a comic literary paper.
By-the-bye, why doesn't such a thing exist ?--a weekly paper treating of things and people literary in a facetious spirit.

It would be caviare to the general, but might be supported, I should think.

The editor would probably be assassinated, though.' 'For anyone in my position,' said Reardon, 'how is it possible to abandon the three volumes?
It is a question of payment.

An author of moderate repute may live on a yearly three-volume novel--I mean the man who is obliged to sell his book out and out, and who gets from one to two hundred pounds for it.

But he would have to produce four one-volume novels to obtain the same income; and I doubt whether he could get so many published within the twelve months.