Edmund Hodgson Yates (1831-94) was a British journalist, novelist and dramatist. He was born in Edinburgh and educated at Highgate School in London from 1840-46 before taking a position as clerk in the General Post Office. He then embarked on a career in journalism, working on the Court Journal and then the Daily News. His first book My Haunts and Their Frequenters was published in 1854, followed by a succession of novels and plays. As a contributor to All the Year Round and Household Words he became a friend of Charles Dickens and at one time was his near neighbour in Doughty Street. He was perhaps best known as proprietor and editor of The World, a society newspaper he established with Eustace Clare Grenville Murray and edited under the pen name of Atlas. In 1884 he was sentenced to 4 months' imprisonment for libelling Lord Lonsdale, but some years later enjoyed a second career as a county magistrate. This novel was first published in two volumes in 1871 and is reprinted from the George Rutledge edition of 1878.