Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/393

Vizetelly but when reduced to a shilling had an enormous sale. In 1855, when the repeal of the newspaper stamp became imminent, Vizetelly, in conjunction with Bogue, projected a new twopenny paper, ‘The Illustrated Times,’ the staff of which included Sala, Yates, Augustus Mayhew, and Mr. Greenwood, and among its artists, Hablot Browne, Birket Foster, and Gustave Doré. Its success was well assured, though not brilliant, when Vizetelly sold his share in it in 1859 for upwards of 4,000l. to Ingram. Early in 1858 he had started a cheap popular serial called ‘The Welcome Guest,’ which he sold about the same time. He now took service under Ingram, and in 1865, the ‘Illustrated Times’ having been suppressed in the interests of its rival, he became Paris correspondent of the ‘Illustrated London News’ at a salary of 800l. a year.

The next seven years were spent mainly in Paris and the neighbourhood. Vizetelly remained in the city throughout the siege, of which he afterwards gave a diverting and animated account in his ‘Paris in Peril’ (London, 2 vols. 1882; this was written in conjunction with his son Ernest). In the meantime he had turned to good account the considerable amount of leisure he enjoyed in Paris, in his ‘Story of the Diamond Necklace’ (London, 1867; two editions again in 1881). He next turned to the well-worn subject, ‘The Man with the Iron Mask,’ producing in 1870 a free translation of the elaborate work of Marius Topin; he gave an unqualified support to Topin's theory, the inadmissibility of which was demonstrated three years later by Jung. A regular frequenter of the convivial gatherings in the neighbourhood of Leicester Square, which Sala celebrates in his ‘Life and Adventures,’ Vizetelly became a considerable authority on wines, and in 1873 he served as a wine juror at the Vienna exhibition. He acted in a similar capacity at Paris in 1878. In the interval he produced a brief manual on the subject, entitled ‘The Wines of the World’ (London, 1875, 8vo). This slight sketch was followed by three able monographs, ‘Facts about Sherry’ (1876), ‘Facts about Champagne’ (1879), and ‘Facts about Port and Madeira’ (1880), each containing a great deal of new and practical information. In 1872 he visited Berlin for the ‘Illustrated London News,’ and, from information gleaned upon this and subsequent visits, produced ‘Berlin under the New Empire’ (London, 1879, 2 vols. 8vo), a good example of the author's journalistic flair, containing much information, and well seasoned with pungent extracts from periodical literature. Not the least valuable of his literary enterprises was the edition of Anthony Hamilton's ‘Memoirs of Grammont’ (London, 1889, 2 vols. 8vo), the notes of which embody much curious research.

In the meantime Vizetelly had resigned his position as special correspondent and set up as a publisher at 42 Catherine Street, Strand, whence he removed in 1887 to Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. He devoted his attention in particular to translations from Flaubert, Droz, Daudet, Cherbuliez, and other French writers, and from the Russian of Gogol, Dostoieffsky, and Tolstoi, but he also published works by his friends Sala and Grenville Murray [q. v.], by Mr. George Moore and others, and in 1886 he began publishing in half-crown monthly volumes ‘An Unexpurgated Edition of the Best Plays of the Old Dramatists,’ which, as ‘The Mermaid Series,’ achieved a well-earned success. Vizetelly also specialised in the sensational stories of Gaboriau and Du Boisgobey, and in reproductions of the French illustrated books of the latter half of the eighteenth century. In 1884, stimulated apparently by the stupendous sale of a crude American translation of ‘Nana,’ he began the issue of the romances of M. Zola. Translations of ‘Nana’ and ‘L'Assommoir’ were followed in 1885 by ‘Germinal’ and ‘Piping Hot’ (‘Pot-Bouille’). The demand increasing, translations of seven works by the same author appeared in 1886, of three in 1887, and of two besides ‘The Soil’ (‘La Terre’) in 1888. A strong protest was raised against the literal transcript of revolting details. On 31 Oct. 1888 Vizetelly surrendered to his recognisances to answer for an indictment charging him with publishing an obscene libel (‘The Soil’). The solicitor-general (Sir Edward Clarke), (Sir) Henry Poland, and Mr. Asquith prosecuted on behalf of the treasury. The former having characterised the work as without a rival for ‘bestial obscenity,’ and the jury refusing to listen patiently to the recital of twenty-one passages selected by the solicitor-general to establish the case, Vizetelly, by the advice of counsel, pleaded guilty to publication, and undertook to withdraw M. Zola's works from circulation. The recorder fined him 100l. The defendant issued pendente lite an erudite selection of ‘Extracts principally from English Classics, showing that the legal suppression of M. Zola's novels would logically involve the bowdlerising of the greatest Works in English Literature’ (London, September 1888, 4to; twelve copies printed; Brit. Mus. P.C. 29 a 45). In spite of the unmistakable warning he had received, Vizetelly