PREFACE TO THIS EDITION

Has a novelist a right to alter his novel after its publication, to

condense it, to add to it, to modify or to heighten its situations, and

otherwise so to change it that to all outward appearance it is

practically a new book? I leave this point in literary ethics to the

consideration of those whose business it is to discuss such questions,

and content myself with telling the reader the history of the present

story.

About ten years ago I went to Russia with some idea (afterwards

abandoned) of writing a book that should deal with the racial struggle

which culminated in the eviction of the Jews from the holy cities of

that country, and the scenes of tyrannical administration which I

witnessed there made a painful and lasting impression on my mind. The

sights of the day often followed me through the night, and after a more

than usually terrible revelation of official cruelty, I had a dream of a

Jewish woman who was induced to denounce her husband to the Russian

police under a promise that they would spare his life, which they said

he had forfeited as the leader of a revolutionary movement. The husband

came to know who his betrayer had been, and he cursed his wife as his

worst enemy. She pleaded on her knees that fear for his safety had been

the only motive for her conduct, and he cursed her again. His cause was

lost, his hopes were dead, his people were in despair, because the one

being whom heaven had given him for his support had delivered him up to

his enemies out of the weakness of her womanly love. I awoke in the

morning with a vivid memory of this new version of the old story of

Samson and Delilah, and on my return to England I wrote the draft of a

play with the incident of husband and wife as the central situation.

How from this germ came the novel which was published last year under

the title of "The Eternal City" would be a long story to tell, a story

of many personal experiences, of reading, of travel, of meetings in

various countries with statesmen, priests, diplomats, police

authorities, labour leaders, nihilists and anarchists, and of the

consequent growth of my own political and religious convictions; but it

will not be difficult to see where and in what way time and thought had

little by little overlaid the humanities of the early sketch with many

extra interests. That these interests were of the essence, clothing, and

not crushing the human motive, I trust I may continue to believe, and

certainly I have no reason to be dissatisfied with the reception of my

book at the hands of that wide circle of general readers who care less

for a contribution to a great social propaganda than for a simple tale

of love.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024