The Shadow of John Wallace

This work is The Shadow of John Wallace, a novel by L. Clarkson (L.C. Whitelock), published in 1884. The narrative opens with a prelude consisting of a letter from Leslie Bracebridge describing a quiet artistic hamlet on eastern Long Island he calls "Artist-haven"—actually Rest-Hampton—where nineteenth-century painters and society figures seek refuge from fashionable life. The prelude emphasizes the village's two-century-old colonial character, its windmills and graveyards, and historical associations with the Revolutionary War. Book I begins with the arrival in April 1840 of a mysterious gentleman named John Wallace, traveling with a valet, stepping from a stage coach into the small seaside inn. The narrative voice echoes Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book, suggesting psychological and biographical inquiry into Wallace's character and circumstances.