THE FALLEN LEAVES    


      By Wilkie Collins    

 

 
      To CAROLINE    

      Experience of the reception of The Fallen Leaves by intelligent      readers, who have followed the course of the periodical publication at      home and abroad, has satisfied me that the design of the work speaks for      itself, and that the scrupulous delicacy of treatment, in certain portions      of the story, has been as justly appreciated as I could wish. Having      nothing to explain, and (so far as my choice of subject is concerned)      nothing to excuse, I leave my book, without any prefatory pleading for it,      to make its appeal to the reading public on such merits as it may possess.    
      W. C. GLOUCESTER PLACE, LONDON July 1st, 1879