words in length, or over two and a half times as long. I do not say that
this is a system which I devised; but it was, from the first, the method
I pursued instinctively; on the basis that dealing with a smaller
subject--with what one might call a genre picture first, I should get
well into my field, and acquire greater familiarity with my material
than I should have if I attempted the larger work at once.

This is not to say that the smaller work was immature. On the contrary,
I believe that at least these shorter works are quite mature in their
treatment and in their workmanship and design. Naturally, however, they
made less demand on all one's resources, they were narrower in scope and
less complicated, than the longer works, like 'The Seats of the Mighty',
which made heavier call upon the capacities of one's art. The only
occasion on which I have not preceded a very long novel of life in a new
field, by a very short one, is in the writing of 'The Judgment House'.
For this book, however, it might be said, that all the last twenty
years was a preparation, since the scenes were scenes in which I had
lived and moved, and in a sense played a part; while the ten South
African chapters of the book placed in the time of the Natal campaign
needed no pioneer narrative to increase familiarity with the material,
the circumstances and the country itself. I knew it all from study on
the spot.

From The 'Pomp of the Lavilettes', with which might be associated 'The
Lane That Had no Turning', to 'The Right of Way', was a natural
progression; it was the emergence of a big subject which must be treated
in a large bold way, if it was to succeed. It succeeded to a degree
which could not fail to gratify any one who would rather have a wide
audience than a contracted one, who believes that to be popular is not
necessarily to be contemptible--as the ancient Pistol put it, "base,