Project Gutenberg's The Pomp of the Lavilettes, Complete, by Gilbert Parker

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Title: The Pomp of the Lavilettes, Complete

Author: Gilbert Parker

Last Updated: March 12, 2009
Release Date: October 18, 2006 [EBook #6217]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by David Widger

THE POMP OF THE LAVILETTES

By Gilbert Parker

INTRODUCTION

I believe that 'The Pomp of the Lavilettes' has elements which justify
consideration. Its original appearance was, however, not made under
wholly favourable conditions. It is the only book of mine which I ever
sold outright. This was in 1896. Mr. Lamson, of Messrs. Lamson & Wolffe,
energetic and enterprising young publishers of Boston, came to see me at
Atlantic City (I was on a visit to the United States at the time), and
made a gallant offer for the English, American and colonial book and
serial rights. I felt that some day I could get the book back under
my control if I so desired, while the chances of the book making an
immediate phenomenal sale were not great. There is something in the
nature of a story which determines its popularity. I knew that 'The
Seats of the Mighty' and 'The Right of Way' would have a great sale, and
after they were written I said as much to my publishers. There was the
element of general appeal in the narratives and the characters. Without
detracting from the character-drawing, the characters, or the story in
'The Pomp of the Lavilettes', I was convinced that the book would not
make the universal appeal. Yet I should have written the story, even
if it had been destined only to have a hundred readers. It had to be
written. I wanted to write what was in me, and that invasion of a little
secluded French-Canadian society by a ne'er-do-well of the over-sea
aristocracy had a psychological interest, which I could not resist. I
thought it ought to be worked out and recorded, and particularly as the
time chosen--1837--marked a large collision between the British and
the French interests in French Canada, or rather of French political
interests and the narrow administrative prejudices and nepotis