It was originally published by Chapman and Hall in 1909,[1] but because the copyright has expired, the text of the book is now in the public domain.
It may fairly be described as a sentimental novel: Temple Thurston himself wrote that "To many, from the first page to the last, it had not the faintest conception of reality, and indeed has earned for me the classification of sentimentalist".
His obituary in The Times (20 March 1933) stated that "there were those who might suggest that sentimentalism was too evident in Temple Thurston's work".
As well as being a vehicle for Edwardian romanticism, the novel shares the Roman Catholic faith of its author with its main characters.
In The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg's 2019 film, Honor Swinton Byrne reads to Tom Burke from the novel.