This novel was written in the days of the three-decker, and it went out to sea as such.

Every novel of mine written until 1893 was published in two or three volumes, and the sale to the libraries was greater than the sale to the general public.

This book was begun in 1892 at the time when the Pierre stories were being written, and it was finished in the summer of 1893.

It did not appear serially; indeed, I made no attempt at serial publication.

I had a feeling that as it was to be my first novel, it should be judged as a whole and taken at a gasp, as it were.