Project Gutenberg's The Truth About Tristrem Varick, by Edgar Saltus

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Title: The Truth About Tristrem Varick
A Novel

Author: Edgar Saltus

Release Date: July 7, 2010 [EBook #33099]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE TRUTH ABOUT TRISTREM VARICK

A NOVEL

BY EDGAR SALTUS

AUTHOR OF "MR. INCOUL'S MISADVENTURE"

CHICAGO, NEW YORK, AND SAN FRANCISCO:
BELFORD, CLARKE & CO.
PUBLISHERS.

COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY
EDGAR SALTUS

TROW'S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.

TO MY MASTER
THE PHILOSOPHER OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
EDUARD VON HARTMANN
THIS ATTEMPT IN ORNAMENTAL
DISENCHANTMENT
IS DUTIFULLY INSCRIBED

_New York, 15th February, 1888_

"_Truth it not always in white satin like a girl on her
wedding-day. And when it is of mud and of blood, when it
offends the nostrils, so much the worse; I, for one, will not
sprinkle it with ottar of rose. Besides, I am not here to tell
fairy tales and pastorals._"

THE TRUTH ABOUT TRISTREM VARICK.

I.

It is just as well to say at the onset that the tragedy in which
Tristrem Varick was the central figure has not been rightly understood.
The world in which he lived, as well as the newspaper public, have had
but one theory between them to account for it, and that theory is that
Tristrem Varick was insane. Tristrem Varick was not insane. He had,
perhaps, a fibre more or a fibre less than the ordinary run of men; that
something, in fact, which is the prime factor of individuality and
differentiates the possessor from the herd; but to call him insane is
nonsense. If he were, it is a pity that there are not more lunatics like
him.

It may be that the course of