have, however, rather a strong fancy that it
appeared in some London paper of the same character as the Reasoner, not very
long after July 1, 1865, but I have no copy.
    I also wrote about this time the substance of what ultimately became »The
Musical Banks,« and the trial of a man for being in a consumption. These four
detached papers were, I believe, all that was written of »Erewhon« before 1870.
Between 1865 and 1870 I wrote hardly anything, being hopeful of attaining that
success as a painter which it has not been vouchsafed me to attain; but in the
autumn of 1870, just as I was beginning to get occasionally hung at Royal
Academy exhibitions, my friend, the late Sir F. N. (then Mr.) Broome, suggested
to me that I should add somewhat to the articles I had already written, and
string them together into a book. I was rather fired by the idea, but as I only
worked at the MS. on Sundays it was some months before I had completed it.
    I see from my second Preface that I took the book to Messrs. Chapman &
Hall, May 1, 1871, and on their rejection of it, under the advice of one who has
attained the highest rank among living writers, I let it sleep, till I took it
to Mr. Trübner early in 1872. As regards its rejection by Messrs. Chapman &
Hall, I believe their reader advised them quite wisely. They told me he reported
that it was a philosophical work, little likely to be popular with a large
circle of readers. I hope that if I had been their reader, and the book had been
submitted to myself, I should have advised them to the same effect.
    »Erewhon« appeared with the last day or two of March 1872. I attribute its
unlooked-for success mainly to two early favourable reviews - the first in the
Pall Mall Gazette of April 12, and the second in the Spectator of April 20.
There was also another cause. I was complaining once to a friend that though
»Erewhon« had met with such a warm reception, my subsequent books had been all
of them practically still-born. He said, »You forget one charm that Erewhon had,
but which none of your other books can have.« I asked what? and was answered,
»The sound of a new voice, and of an unknown voice.«
    The first edition of »Erewhon« sold in about three weeks; I had not taken
moulds, and as the