Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Autobiography of a Slander
    The Autobiography of a Slander
    The Autobiography of a Slander
    Ebook79 pages1 hour

    The Autobiography of a Slander

    By Edna Lyall

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013

    Read more from Edna Lyall

    Related to The Autobiography of a Slander

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      Helen

      Jun 5, 2023

      She was a friend of my family—the Carlins, as I have chosen to call them. She and my father met in the fifties through the editor of the architecture magazine where she began her career. My father had taken her out a few times. They were never lovers

      30 min read

    • Article

      Life After Death

      May 27, 2022

      Life After Death
      14 min read

    • Article

      To The Abbey Born

      Oct 9, 2022

      To The Abbey Born
      7 min read

    • Article

      Towns Like Ours

      May 3, 2018

      Towns Like Ours
      9 min read

    • Article

      Caught Out

      Oct 2, 2022

      Caught Out
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Hard Man To Forget

      Jan 8, 2024

      A Hard Man To Forget
      4 min read

    • Article

      When Lizzie met Maggie

      Dec 13, 2023

      The Grim Reaper has been having a high old time of late. I've barely had a moment to keep up with my diary, I have been so busy writing letters of condolence, attending funerals and giving addresses at memorial services. I was especially saddened by

      3 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      Winning Letter

      Sep 30, 2022

      I’m a single mother who struggles financially to get through each month. When my washing machine broke I had no funds to repair it, so I asked my neighbours if I could do my washing at their place. On a Wednesday afternoon my bell rang. At the door w

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letter From The Founder

      Feb 8, 2024

      Letter From The Founder
      3 min read

    • Article

      Notes on Etiquette

      Mar 1, 2019

      Notes on Etiquette
      10 min read

    • Article

      ‘Cygnet’: Featured Fiction from Season Butler

      Jun 25, 2019

      A excerpt from Butler's debut coming-of-age novel, set in an appealingly rich world with quirky, flawed characters and a dramatic oceanfront landscape. The post ‘Cygnet’: Featured Fiction from Season Butler appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Hotel ROMEO

      Oct 13, 2021

      Hotel ROMEO
      8 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Island

      Jun 4, 2018

      The Island
      8 min read

    • Article

      After “The End”

      Oct 10, 2022

      I walked down the road with a hunched back and a wet cigarette in my mouth—the fire had died a while back. My hands were tucked into the pockets of my jacket, and my hair fell over my face, limiting my sight. But I wasn’t really seeing where I was go

      10 min read

    • Article

      Adelaide, Liza & finding ME

      Mar 24, 2021

      Adelaide, Liza & finding ME
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      My Trouble And Strife

      Sep 21, 2022

      My Trouble And Strife
      3 min read

    • Article

      In Defense Of The Harvest

      Nov 10, 2021

      I know what you will all be thinking. It is true that I was asked to write this story by members of the current government. A government pertaining of a few politicians, lawmakers, and others who are currently subject to public scrutiny as possibly b

      10 min read

    • Article

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows

      Nov 1, 2022

      DULCE DOMUM From The Wind In The Willows
      11 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    Reviews for The Autobiography of a Slander

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Autobiography of a Slander - Edna Lyall

      The Autobiography of a Slander, by Edna Lyall

      The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Autobiography of a Slander, by Edna Lyall

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Autobiography of a Slander

      Author: Edna Lyall

      Release Date: October 14, 2007 [eBook #1273]

      Language: English

      Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER***

      Transcribed from the 1890 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

      THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER

      by

      EDNA LYALL

      author of ‘donovan’ ‘we two’ ‘in the golden days’

      ‘knight errant’ etc.

      Trust not to each accusing tongue,

      As most week persons do;

      But still believe that story false

      Which ought not to be true

      Sheridan

      NEW EDITION

      (thirty-ninth to forty-first thousand)

      london

      longmans, green, and co.

      and new york: 15 east 16th street

      1890

      All rights reserved

      DEDICATED

      TO ALL

      WHO IT MAY CONCERN

      MY FIRST STAGE

      At last the tea came up, and so

      With that our tongues began to go.

      Now in that house you’re sure of knowing

      The smallest scrap of news that’s going.

      We find it there the wisest way

      To take some care of what we say.

      Recreation.  Jane Taylor.

      I was born on the 2nd September, 1886, in a small, dull, country town.  When I say the town was dull, I mean, of course, that the inhabitants were unenterprising, for in itself Muddleton was a picturesque place, and though it laboured under the usual disadvantage of a dearth of bachelors and a superfluity of spinsters, it might have been pleasant enough had it not been a favourite resort for my kith and kin.

      My father has long enjoyed a world-wide notoriety; he is not, however, as a rule named in good society, though he habitually frequents it; and as I am led to believe that my autobiography will possibly be circulated by Mr. Mudie, and will lie about on drawing-room tables, I will merely mention that a most representation of my progenitor, under his nom de théatre, Mephistopheles, may be seen now in London, and I should recommend all who wish to understand his character to go to the Lyceum, though, between ourselves, he strongly disapproves of the whole performance.

      I was introduced into the world by an old lady named Mrs. O’Reilly.  She was a very pleasant old lady, the wife of a General, and one of those sociable, friendly, talkative people who do much to cheer their neighbours, particularly in a deadly-lively provincial place like Muddleton, where the standard of social intercourse is not very high.  Mrs. O’Reilly had been in her day a celebrated beauty; she was now grey-haired and stout, but still there was something impressive about her, and few could resist the charm of her manner and the pleasant easy flow of her small talk.  Her love of gossip amounted almost to a passion, and nothing came amiss to her; she liked to know everything about everybody, and in the main I think her interest was a kindly one, though she found that a little bit of scandal, every now and then, added a piquant flavour to the homely fare provided by the commonplace life of the Muddletonians.

      I will now, without further preamble, begin the history of my life.

      * * * * *

      I assure you, my dear Lena, Mr. Zaluski is nothing less than a Nihilist!

      The sound waves set in motion by Mrs. O’Reilly’s words were tumultuously heaving in the atmosphere when I sprang into being, a young but perfectly formed and most promising slander.  A delicious odour of tea pervaded the drawing-room, it was orange-flower pekoe, and Mrs. O’Reilly was just handing one of the delicate Crown Derby cups to her visitor, Miss Lena Houghton.

      What a shocking thing!  Do you really mean it? exclaimed Miss Houghton.  Thank you, cream but no sugar; don’t you know, Mrs. O’Reilly, that it is only Low-Church people who take sugar nowadays?  But, really, now, about Mr. Zaluski?  How did you find it out?

      My dear, I am an old woman, and I have learnt in the course of a wandering life to put two and two together, said Mrs. O’Reilly.  She had somehow managed to ignore middle age, and had passed from her position of renowned beauty to the position which she now firmly and constantly claimed of many years and much experience.  Of course, she continued, "like every one else, I was glad enough to be friendly and pleasant to Sigismund Zaluski, and as to his being a Pole, why, I think it rather pleased me than otherwise.  You see, my dear, I have knocked about the world and mixed with all kinds of people.  Still, one must draw the line somewhere, and I confess it gave me a very painful shock to find that he had such violent antipathies to law and order.  When he took Ivy Cottage for

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1