Jennifer Lee Carrell The Speckled Monster

Two Kinds of Storytelling

In telling this tale, I have tried to remain faithful to its two heroes, not only as historical figures but as storytellers.

In honor of Lady Mary's love of a well-told story, I have done my best to lift dry, briefly outlined scenes back into drama, relying on evidence from elsewhere to add details of sight, smell and sound; food, clothing, and furniture; medical beliefs and scientific facts; music and poetry, even weather. Where history reports dialogue indirectly or leaves it merely suggested, I have returned it to full conversational life - while keeping as close to what was actually said as possible, often by borrowing known words from similar situations. I have drawn connections left implied by timing or juxtaposition. At times, the narrator speaks with the words and phrases of Lady Mary, Boylston, and their cohorts - not always set apart in quotation marks - to allow the reader to look at the world through their eyes, as well as to look at them, like marvelous butterflies pinned beneath museum glass.

The notes, in the form of short essays at the back of the book, are in honor of Boylston - and all those who like their certainties sharply demarcated from surmise, or who just enjoy the tension and spring between history and story.