From C.-F. Reinwald¹ 13 October 1877

Paris

13 Oct. 1877

Cher Monsieur

Nous avons eu l’honneur de recevoir votre aimable lettre du 7 Oct. et nous voyons avec plaisir que la traduction et l’exécution typographique de votre ouvrage “Cross and Self fertilization” a repondu à votre attente, et que vous en êtes satisfait.² Nous sommes entièrement à votre disposition pour d’autres exemplaires que vous desireriez envoyer à des personnes de votre choix.

Nous avons l’avantage de vous remettre avec cette lettre un cheque de £20.— pour le Percentage au droit d’auteur pour notre traduction des Insectivorous Plants, dont nous croyons être près de 700 Exemplaires de vente a l’heure qu’il est.³ Nous espérons bien dans quelque temps pouvoir également vous envoyer le Percentage pour le nouveau Volume de Cross- and Self-fertilization, mais les circonstances politiques actuelles ne font nullement avantageuses pour nos affaires de librairie, de manière que nous ne pourrons rien préciser à l’égard du temps qu’il faudra pour vendre 700 Expl.⁴

Quant aux Climbing Plants, ce petit volume, ne se vend, comme bien vous le pensez, qu’avec lenteur, et la nouvelle édition des Emotions est naturellement dans le même cas.⁵

Vous avez eu la bonté de nous envoyer un exemplaire de votre dernier ouvrage

The different forms of flowers.

Ce volume contient 15 gravures sur bois et si nous pensions à faire traduire ce volume en français il faudrait avant tout acheter ces clichés à M. Murray, auquel nous allons écrire pour en connaître le prix.⁶

Quoique nous ayons le plus grand envie de faire traduire également ce nouveau volume en français, les complications actuelles de notre gouvernment et des chambres nous forcent de différer cette publication jusqu’à un moment plus tranquille, en nous occupant en attendent de la recherche d’un bon traducteur.⁷ Nous ne perdons pas de vue ce dernier point et nous espérons pouvoir vous donner bientot des nouvelles à cet égard.

Veuillez agréer en attendant, cher Monsieur, l’expression de mes sentiments les plus distingués | C Reinwald & C

To Charles Darwin E^sq, Down Beckenham | Kent

Footnotes

1

For a translation of this letter, see Appendix I.

2

CD’s letter has not been found. Reinwald’s firm had published Édouard Heckel’s French translation of Cross and self fertilisation (Heckel trans. 1877).

3

Edmond Barbier’s French translation of Insectivorous plants (Barbier trans. 1877) had been published in May 1877 (see letter from C.-F. Reinwald, 9 May 1877).

4

In May 1877, a constitutional crisis arose in France when the republicans and royalists in the Chamber of Deputies clashed over the position of the church within French society; the conservative president dissolved the republican cabinet and appointed a royalist government to oversee elections (R. L. Fuller 2012, p.23). A general election to the Chamber of Deputies of the Third Republic was scheduled for 14 and 28 October 1877 (Fortescue 2000, p. 34).

5

The French translation of Climbing plants (R. Gordon trans. 1877) and a second French edition, revised and corrected, of Expression (Pozzi and Benoît trans. 1877) had been published in 1877.

6

CD’s publisher, John Murray, usually allowed foreign publishers the use of the clichés of the illustrations of CD’s works in return for a small fee (see, for example, Correspondence vol. 24, letter to Eduard Koch?, 6 February 1876).

7

Édouard Heckel (see n. 2, above) translated Forms of flowers; it was published in 1878 (Heckel trans. 1878).

Bibliography

Climbing plants: On the movements and habits of climbing plants. By Charles Darwin. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green; Williams & Norgate. 1865.

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Cross and self fertilisation: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1876.

Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.

Forms of flowers: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877.

Fortescue, William. 2000. The Third Republic in France, 1870–1940: conflicts and continuities. London: Routledge.

Fuller, Robert Lynn. 2012. The origins of the French nationalist movement, 1886–1914. Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland & Company.

Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.

Translation

From C.-F. Reinwald¹ 13 October 1877

Paris

13 Oct. 1877

Dear Sir

We have had the honour of receiving your kind letter of 7 Oct. and we are pleased to see that the translation and typesetting of your work “Cross and Self fertilization” has met your expectations, and that you are satisfied.² We are entirely at your disposal to provide other copies that you might want to send to anyone you choose.

We take the opportunity of sending with this letter a cheque for £20.— for the percentage of author’s rights for our translation of Insectivorous Plants, of which we believe there are close to 700 copies sold up to this time.³ We also hope to be able to send you within a short time the percentage for the new volume of Cross- and Self-fertilization, but current political circumstances are in no way favourable for our bookselling trade, so that we will never be able to tell how long it would take to sell 700 copies.⁴

As for Climbing Plants, this little volume only sells rather slowly, as you expected, and the new edition of Emotions is naturally in the same situation.⁵

You have kindly sent us a copy of your last work

The different forms of flowers.

This volume has 15 woodcuts and should we consider having it translated into French, it would be necessary first of all to buy these clichés from Mr Murray, to whom we are going to write to find out their price.⁶

Although we have the greatest desire to have this new volume translated into French, the current problems of our government and the chambers forces us to postpone this publication until a quieter time, while busying ourselves in the meantime with the search for a good translator.⁷ We are not losing sight of this last point and we hope to be able to give you news on this soon.

In the meantime please accept, dear sir, the asurance of my highest consideration | C Reinwald & C

To Charles Darwin E^sq, Down Beckenham | Kent

Footnotes

1

For a transcription of this letter in its original French, see Transcript.