“It Ought to Be Enough”

Despite her idyllic life at Tibbles, Edith was not at all well. Kate thought she should consult a nerve specialist. Edith opted to go to Spain. She returned to find Edward Arnold about to publish her third novel, Folly (1906), before it was ready. Her frantic attempts at revision were then impeded by flu and a “smash-up” on her bicycle. Even so, the novel sold well, partly because it lets a supposedly “wicked” couple achieve happiness. One reviewer classed it as “fungus fiction”; another declared it “a great American novel.” With Folly safely out of her hands, Edith next gathered “copy” among London’s poor for her fifth published novel, The Beggar in the Heart (1909). This chapter ends with Edith’s engagement, or near-engagement, to an Englishman, in a relationship that seemingly ended when Edith received a learned off-print from Manly.