Publisher's Synopsis
"It is not without some misgivings that I at length make public the strange history communi-cated to me by my lamented friend Humphrey Challoner. The outlook of the narrator is so evi-dently abnormal, his ethical standards are so re-mote from those ordinarily current, that the chronicle of his life and actions may not only fail to secure the sympathy of the reader but may even excite a certain amount of moral repulsion. But by those who knew him, his generosity to the poor, and especially to those who struggled against undeserved misfortune, will be an ample set-off to his severity and even ferocity towards the enemies of society."
