The Martian: A Novel

TRILBY. Illustrated by the Author. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 75; Three‑quarter Calf, $3 50; Three‑quarter Crushed Levant, $4 50. PETER IBBETSON. With an Introduction by his Cousin, Lady ( Madge Plunket ). Edited and Illustrated by George du Maurier. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50; Three‑quarter Calf, $3 25; Three‑quarter Levant, $4 25. ENGLISH SOCIETY. Sketched by George du Maurier. With an Introduction by William Dean Howells. Oblong 4to, Cloth, Ornamental, $2 50. Published BY HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
TRILBY. Illustrated by the Author. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 75; Three‑quarter Calf, $3 50; Three‑quarter Crushed Levant, $4 50. PETER IBBETSON. With an Introduction by his Cousin, Lady ( Madge Plunket ). Edited and Illustrated by George du Maurier. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50; Three‑quarter Calf, $3 25; Three‑quarter Levant, $4 25. ENGLISH SOCIETY. Sketched by George du Maurier. With an Introduction by William Dean Howells. Oblong 4to, Cloth, Ornamental, $2 50. Published BY HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.

When so great a man dies, it is generally found that a tangled growth of more or less contentious literature has already gathered round his name during his lifetime. He has been so written about, so talked about, so riddled with praise or blame, that, to those who have never seen him in the flesh, he has become almost a tradition, a myth—and one runs the risk of losing all clew to his real personality.
This is especially the case with the subject of this biography—one is in danger of forgetting what manner of man he was who has so taught and touched and charmed and amused us, and so happily changed for us the current of our lives.
He has been idealized as an angel, a saint, and a demigod; he has been caricatured as a self‑indulgent sensualist, a vulgar Lothario, a buffoon, a joker of practical jokes.
He was in reality the simplest, the most affectionate, and most good‑natured of men, the very soul of honor, the best of husbands and fathers and friends, the most fascinating companion that ever lived, and one who kept to the last the freshness and joyous spirits of a school-boy and the heart of a child; one who never said or did an unkind thing; probably never even thought one. Generous and open‑handed to a fault, slow to condemn, quick to forgive, and gifted with a power of immediately inspiring affection and keeping it forever after, such as I have never known in any one else, he grew to be (for all his quick‑tempered impulsiveness) one of the gentlest and meekest and most humble‑minded of men!