Part 1 (1/2)

Olla Podrida.

by Frederick Marryat.

Prefatory Note

This edition of _Olla Podrida_ does not include the ”Diary on the Continent” which appeared first in the _Metropolitan Magazine_ 1835-1836 as ”The Diary of a _Blase_” continued in the _New Monthly Magazine_ 1837, 1838, as ”Confessions and opinions of Ralph the Restless.” Marryat himself described the ”Diary” as ”very good magazine stuff,” and it has no fitting place in an edition of his novels, from which the ”Diary in America” is also excluded.

The s.p.a.ce thus created is occupied by ”The Gipsy,” ”The Fairy's Wand,”

and ”A Rencontre,” which I have ventured to print here in spite the author's protest,[A] that the original edition of _Olla Podrida_ contained all the miscellaneous matter contributed by him to periodicals that he wished to acknowledge as his writing. The statement may be regarded as a challenge to his editors to produce something worthy; and I certainly consider that the ”Gipsy” is superior to some of his fragments, and may be paired, as a comedy, with ”The Monk of Seville,”

as a tragedy.

[Footnote A: Preface to first edition of O.P. printed below.]

But I have not attempted any systematic search for sc.r.a.ps. ”The Fairy's Wand” was published in the same year as, and probably later than, _Olla Podrida_ itself, and need not therefore be ”considered as disavowed and rejected” by him. ”A Rencontre” was always reprinted and acknowledged by its author, being, for no ostensible reason, bound up with _Joseph Rushbrook, or The Poacher_, 1841.

This seems the most appropriate occasion to supplement, and--in some measure--to correct, the list of novels contributed to periodicals by Marryat, which I compiled from statements in _The Life and Letters_ by Florence Marryat (also tabulated in Mr David Hannay's ”Life”), and printed on p. xix. of the General Introduction to this edition.

TO THE METROPOLITAN MAGAZINE.

(Edited by Marryat, 1832-1835.)

_The Pacha of Many Tales_, May 1831--February 1833; and May 1834--May 1835.

_Peter Simple_, June 1832--September 1833. The novel is not completed in the Magazine, but closes with an announcement of the three volume edition.

_Jacob Faithful_, September 1833--September 1834.

_j.a.phet in Search of a Father_, September 1834--January 1836.

_Snarleyyow_, January 1836--January 1837.

_Mids.h.i.+pman Easy._ One specimen chapter only. August 1835.

TO THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

_The Privateersman_, 1845-1846.

_Valerie_ (the first eleven chapters), 1846-1847.

_The Phantom s.h.i.+p_, 1838-1839.

The bulk of this volume is reprinted from the first edition of _Olla Podrida_, in three volumes, Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1840. ”The Gipsy,” from the _Metropolitan Magazine_; ”The Fairy's Wand,”