"My Novel"

A country-house comedy opens into a novel about rural England, family feeling, and the making of stories themselves. When Mr. Caxton teases the sulky Pisistratus into writing a novel to ease his losses, the talk turns into a playful debate about originality, realism, and the kind of fiction that still matters. His answer is simple: draw from life already known, from squires, parsons, and the changing countryside, where humor and social observation can do the work of invention. That vision comes alive in a village scene where a parson and a squire quarrel over a parish stock, a donkey, and the claims of mercy versus punishment. From there the story widens to the quiet dignity of Widow Fairfield's cottage, the innocent honesty of Leonard Fairfield, and the tender, practical world of Parson Dale. Into this rural web enter the mysterious Italian exile Dr. Riccabocca and his devoted Jackeymo, while the background of the Hazeldean family adds questions of inheritance, class, and divided loyalties. At the same time, the novel opens onto a broader social world through Audley Egerton and Harley L'Estrange, privileged friends moving toward public life, duty, and the burdens of rank. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.