The Misadventures of Marjory by James B. Naylor, has a frontispiece in color, by Kirkpatrick, and has been brought out very charmingly by the publishers with a blue cloth cover, decorated with an original design in darker blue and gold. There is an amusing Foreword by the author in easily running verse, in which he disclaims any very serious attention in the pages which are to follow. It is, he asserts, a story–just a story. And certainly it is a very good one, with plenty in it to make the reader laugh and to keep him very thoroughly interested.
Bookseller, Newsdealer & Stationer, New York, 1908
1908 Review from The Journal
Dr. Naylor’s New Story.
A new novel by Dr. James Ball Naylor, which has recently made its appearance, is entitled The Misadventures of Marjory. It follows the very entertaining experiences which come to a young girl who runs away from home and makes her way in the world. Her adventures are, it must be admitted, a little improbable, though not impossible, but have the merit of being wholly original and surprising. Marjory herself is a very unusual and daring young person, and, as she tells her story, one pictures her as an interesting person to know and very human. The author disarms criticism by a poetical foreword, part of which runs as follows:
This is no treastise erudite
On Martian astronomy,
No essay learned teaching right
political economy;
It does not deal, for woe or weal,
With socialist histology.
Nor does it show, or claim to know
The tenets of psychology.
In short, it is no classic score
Of faultless style and diction,
Parading scientific lore--
All in the guise of fiction.
It does not treat, in any way,
Of things and themes politial;
And may not please--I blush to say!--
The critic hyper-critical. It does not claim the right to name Itself a modern novel. Nor beg the fate to circulate From mansion-house to hovel, In truth, the author had no thought Of future fame or glory; He simply sat him down and wrought A story--jsut a story. L'ENVOI.
Dear reader, let me just repeat, Sans further inventory: This is no literary treat-- 'Tis but a little story!