Dedication: My Dear Mother,
I am afraid that, though you nobly dissemble, you do not greatly care for all this gore; nevertheless, I am certain that in you, at least, I have one reader who will persevere to my last page. That would be a sufficient reason for dedicating this novel to you, even though I were unaware of a thousand better reasons, each worthy of a thousand better books.
With love, then, from
Paul
Muchelney
Epigraph: For were it not better for a man...to set up one great light or branching candlestick of light than to go about with a small watch-candle into every corner?- Bacon.
