Mr Fenman's Farewell to His Readers

Who was the mysterious Madame de Mentou? A mature and cosmopolitan woman, she seemed to have been everywhere and met everyone of note.

In 1786, so Thomas Fenman tells us, Madame de Mentou took him under her wing; and during that winter, in the city of Venice, she taught him how to write fiction. She became his muse, his mentor, and his lover. She taught him so well, in fact, that he went on to write 100 books, and became one of the most popular novelists of his day.

And who was the lady, so much like Madame de Mentou, who met Fenman in Venice fifty years later? Was it the same person? And if so, why had she not aged one day?

Thomas Fenman wrote this short and very strange memoir in 1836. It was to be his final communication with his loyal readers, and in it Fenman gives an account of his curious experiences during his first visit to Venice. He also speaks of his return to Venice fifty years later, when even stranger things happened to him.

Fenman claims to be telling the absolute truth. But can his story really be true? Or is it just another piece of fiction? Or--and he admits this to be a possibility too--is his mind beginning to wander?

Mr. Fenman's Farewell to His Readers, here published for the first time, is an intriguing piece that presents the modern reader with more than one conundrum.