Mr Hornung’s Three Goddesses - a Victorian Novelist at Work

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So far as it goes, Goddesses Three is an absorbing study of the Pontifex family, and (ultimately) of Anglo-Portuguese relations. E.W. Hornung apparently began writing this book in 1894 but put it aside after completing eleven chapters. Set primarily in an English Rectory, it is very much a work in progress, written partly in pencil and partly in ink, and incorporating a vast number of revisions. In addition to deciphering 99% of the manuscript, and producing an edited text for the general reader, the editor has examined it on a chapter-by-chapter basis. This results in a fuller notion of how the story was being shaped and the occasional problems encountered - and pinpoints Hornung's consequent changes and instructions to himself. We are, as it were, looking over his shoulder for the whole time, and gain (as a result) a fascinating insight into how a Victorian novel took shape.