Captivating Mary Carstairs
Excerpt
This book, representing the writer’s first effort at a
long story, has
something of a story of its own. First planned in 1900 or
1901, it was
begun in 1905, and finished at length, in a version, three years
later.
Through the two years succeeding it underwent various
adventures,
including, if memory serves, two complete overhauling. Having
thus
reached by stages something like its present form, it was, in
August,
1910, favorably reported on by the publishers; but yet another
rewriting
preceded its final acceptance, a few weeks later. Meanwhile,
I had
turned to fresh work; and, as it chanced, “Queed” was
both begun and
finished in the interval while “Captivating Mary
Carstairs” was taking
her last journeys abroad. Turned away by two publishers, the
newer
manuscript shortly found welcome from a third. So it befell
that I, as
yet more experienced in rejections, suddenly found myself with
two
books, of widely different sorts and intentions, scheduled
for
publication by different publishers, almost simultaneously.
As this
seemed to be more books than society required from an unknown
writer, it
was decided to put out the present story—which is a
“story,” as I
conceive the terms, and not a novel—over a pen
name.
