 The work was first published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green in London in August 1823, in three volumes.It was subsequently omitted from Hogg’s canon by Victorian editors.A possible reason is censorship, as Hogg dealt in a matter-of-fact way with issues such as prostitution and illegitimacy, which were still widely seen as unsuitable subjects for fiction when Wilkie Collins broached them 40 or more years later.