The Project Gutenberg EBook of Muslin, by George Moore

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Title: Muslin

Author: George Moore

Release Date: January 10, 2005 [EBook #14659]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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MUSLIN

By

GEORGE MOORE

_Originally published under the title of 'A Drama in Muslin,' 1886._

_New Edition, September, 1915._

PREFACE

My excuse for modifying the title of this book is, that _A Drama in
Muslin_ has long seemed to me to be the vulgar one among the titles of
my many books. But to change the title of a book that has been in
circulation, however precarious, for more than thirty years, is not
permissible, and that is why I rejected the many titles that rose up in
my mind while correcting the proofs of this new edition. In _Neophytes_,
_Debutantes_, and _The Baiting of Mrs. Barton_, readers would have
divined a new story, but the dropping out of the unimportant word
'drama' will not deceive the most casual follower of literature. The
single word 'muslin' is enough. _Mousseline_ would be more euphonious, a
fuller, richer word; and _Bal Blanc_, besides being more picturesque,
would convey my meaning; but a shade of meaning is not sufficient
justification for the use of French titles or words, for they lessen the
taste of our language; we don't get the smack, and Milord's epigrams
poisoned my memory of _A Drama in Muslin_. But they cannot be omitted
without much re-writing, I said, and remembering my oath never to
attempt the re-writing of an old book again, I fell back on the
exclusion of _A Drama in Muslin_ as the only way out of the dilemma. A
wavering resolution was precipitated by recollection of some disgraceful
pages, but a moment after I was thinking that the omission of the book
would create a hiatus. _A Drama in Muslin_, I reflected, is a link
between two styles; and a book that has achieved any notoriety cannot be
omitted from a collected edition, so my publishers said, and