Eric Larsen

xx ..........

THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Third Novel in a Tetralogy

by Eric Larsen

..........·..........·..........·..........·..........·..........·

1) .....THE NOVEL:

Click on the cover

to buy a copy of The End of the 19th Century and have, hold, and possess it forever in book form or to download and read it as a pdf file.

2)...... HISTORY OF THE NOVEL:

..........I finished the book in 1997, and that year marked the beginning of a decade or so of high praise followed invariably by rejection. I had an agent—for the first four or five submissions—and so those first rejections came to the agent, who forwarded them to me. From the beginning, the book was seen by publishers as too difficult for the American reading public. Here, if you'd care to read it, is a slightly redacted—to protect equally the innocent and the well-intended—version of the novel's first rejection. However disappointing, I think it's an honorable rejection—and in that way not much different from most of the others that were to follow, each one more dispiriting to me than the last.

..........This one,, for example, while not a rejection—it's just the praise part—nevertheless resulted in gloom, for reasons that you can read about here if you choose. Neither the reading public, it seems, nor the publisher's sales staff, were up to the task of considering the book as sufficiently readable—whatever might be meant, exactly, by "readable," a matter I once addressed at some length here.

..........The struggle continued, as you can see in a rejection letter that's so full of praise for the book that's being rejected that the editor doing the rejecting remarks on being "deeply disappointed in myself" and comments on having been "mesmerized in reading" the book.

..........Yet another praise-filled rejection arrived, not unique but nevertheless memorable. There came a time when even I myself wrote to a wavering editor who seemed in need of a bit of guidance, either in understanding what the book was trying to do or in deciding what to do with it.

..........He turned it down, naturally—as did the very lovely reader who responded to it, regretfully, in the praise-filled rejection you've already seen.

..........Now, however, thanks to Progressive Press, all of that has changed, and the book exists in a way and form different from any it has existed in before. I trust and hope it will find its readers.

..........I wish the book, as I do all those who may read it, and even those who won't, the best.

..........In a dark time, I wish us all well.

......................................................................—EL
......................................................................—October 18, 2008

TO BUY YOUR OWN COPY OF THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY or to download it as a pdf file, CLICK HERE

TO READ AN INTERVIEW OF THE AUTHOR—CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR—CLICK HERE

TO RETURN TO "IDEAS," CLICK HERE



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	xx xx .......... THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Third Novel in a Tetralogy by Eric Larsen ..........·..........·..........·..........·..........·..........· 1) .....THE NOVEL: Click on the cover to buy a copy of The End of the 19th Century and have, hold, and possess it forever in book form or to download and read it as a pdf file. 2)...... HISTORY OF THE NOVEL: ..........I finished the book in 1997, and that year marked the beginning of a decade or so of high praise followed invariably by rejection. I had an agent—for the first four or five submissions—and so those first rejections came to the agent, who forwarded them to me. From the beginning, the book was seen by publishers as too difficult for the American reading public. Here, if you'd care to read it, is a slightly redacted—to protect equally the innocent and the well-intended—version of the novel's first rejection. However disappointing, I think it's an honorable rejection—and in that way not much different from most of the others that were to follow, each one more dispiriting to me than the last. ..........This one,, for example, while not a rejection—it's just the praise part—nevertheless resulted in gloom, for reasons that you can read about here if you choose. Neither the reading public, it seems, nor the publisher's sales staff, were up to the task of considering the book as sufficiently readable—whatever might be meant, exactly, by "readable," a matter I once addressed at some length here. ..........The struggle continued, as you can see in a rejection letter that's so full of praise for the book that's being rejected that the editor doing the rejecting remarks on being "deeply disappointed in myself" and comments on having been "mesmerized in reading" the book. ..........Yet another praise-filled rejection arrived, not unique but nevertheless memorable. There came a time when even I myself wrote to a wavering editor who seemed in need of a bit of guidance, either in understanding what the book was trying to do or in deciding what to do with it. ..........He turned it down, naturally—as did the very lovely reader who responded to it, regretfully, in the praise-filled rejection you've already seen. ..........Now, however, thanks to Progressive Press, all of that has changed, and the book exists in a way and form different from any it has existed in before. I trust and hope it will find its readers. ..........I wish the book, as I do all those who may read it, and even those who won't, the best. ..........In a dark time, I wish us all well. ......................................................................—EL ......................................................................—October 18, 2008 TO BUY YOUR OWN COPY OF THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY or to download it as a pdf file, CLICK HERE TO READ AN INTERVIEW OF THE AUTHOR—CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR—CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO "IDEAS," CLICK HERE