Produced by David Widger THE DODD FAMILY ABROAD By Charles James Lever With Illustrations By Phiz And W. Cubitt Cooke. In Two Volumes: Vol. I. Boston: Little, Brown, And Company 1895. TO SIR EDWARD LYTTON BULWER LYTTON, Bart., M.P. My Dear Sir Edward,--While asking you to accept the dedication of this volume, I feel it would be something very nigh akin to the Bathos were _I_ to say one word of Eulogy of those powers which the world has recognised in _you_. Let me, however, be permitted, in common with thousands, to welcome the higher development which your Genius is hourly attaining, to say God speed to the Author of "The Caxtons" and "My Novel," and cry "Hear!" to the Eloquent Orator whose words have awakened an enthusiasm that shows Chivalry still lives amongst us. Believe me, in all admiration and esteem, Your faithful friend, CHARLES LEVER. Casa Capponi, Florence, March, 1854. PREFACE. Although the faulty judgment of authors on their own productions has assumed something like the force of a proverb, I am ready to incur the hazard of avowing that the present volume is, to my own thinking, better than anything else I have done. I am not about to defend its numerous shortcomings and great faults. I will not say one word in extenuation of a plan which, to many readers, forms an insuperable objection,--that of a story in letters. I wish simply to record the fact that the book afforded me much pleasure in the writing, and that I felt an amount of interest in the character of Kenny Dodd such as I have never before nor since experienced for any personage of my own creation.