The painted veil [antikvár]

AUTHOR'S NOTECertain changes have been made in this novel since its serial publication.As the law stands at present writers of fiction are in a very awkward predicament. Choosing the names of their characters at haphazard, from Bradshaw's Guide, the telephone directory, or, as is the practice of the author of this novel, from the obituary column of "The Times," it is inevitable that they should sometimes hit upon the name of a living person who may suppose that a reference to him is intended; and if for purposes of verisimilitude they give one of their characters a post or office which exists in an actual place, the holder of that post or office is liable to assume that a reflection is cast upon him.It is hard to believe that any writer would be such a fool as deliberately to libel a total stranger; but since inadvertence is in this case no excuse, the author of this novel wishes to state that Tching-Yen is an imaginary place and is not intended to represent any existing colony; that the incidents of the story are imaginary and are not founded on any actual incidents within his knowledge; and finally that the characters are imaginary, and that he intends no reference or allusion to any living person or persons.