page_title: The Bondman (novel)
section_title: Publishing
hierarchical_section_title: The Bondman (novel) / Publishing
caption_attribution_description: English: Former logo of the publishing company William Heinemann.
context_page_description: The Bondman is an 1890 best-selling novel by Hall Caine set in the Isle of Man and Iceland. It was the first novel to be released by the newly established Heinemann publishing company. It was a phenomenal success and was later adapted into a successful play and two silent films.
  The plot revolves around two half brothers, the one, Jason, sworn to avenge the wrongs done by their father; the other, Michael, sworn to rectify these wrongs. They both fall in love with the same woman and their travels take from between the Isle of Man and Iceland, crossing personal upheavals, political revolutions and natural disasters. The novel ends with one half-brother giving his life so that the other may escape to a life with the one he loves.
context_section_description: The book was serialised in the Isle of Man Times and other regional UK newspapers between June and November 1889. In August 1889 Caine visited Iceland for the first time. In this, his first trip abroad with his wife, he set sail from Leith on the SS Magnetic via Bergen and the Faroe Islands. On the first leg of the trip he and his wife were overcome by seasickness but an onboard doctor curiously prescribed them opium, which successfully cured them. They stayed for two weeks in Iceland, including a visit to the sitting at Þingvellir. During his trip, Caine kept notes on things to add local colour to the Icelandic section of the book. These he generally kept in a disorderly manner, mostly on old envelopes and the backs of letters.
  As was usual for Caine, he sent the first proofs of the novel to a friend for comment, this time to Robert Leighton, who he had met for the first time earlier that year. When Leighton returned the proofs on 7 November 1889, he congratulated Caine on the novel, commenting that it was "for all classes of readers. It is so grand that the highest intellect will be elevated by it. It is so simple that our shepherd boy out here might read it and be thrilled by every line of it." However, he also suggested significant changes to the historical references of the novel, which were glaringly inaccurate at that stage and which Leighton thought exposed Caine to the charge of taking "improbable liberties with circumstance." Caine took the recommendations on board and made alterations to the text, as well as acknowledging in a preface some of the other compromises of history to fiction that he did not alter in the text.
  Caine's previous three novels had been published by Chatto & Windus, but after the success of The Deemster Caine was determined to have a different form of contract to receive royalties and retain the copyright. He discussed the contract with Chatto & Windus throughout November 1889 but on 6 December Andrew Chatto amicably wrote to refuse the terms, stating that the sales of The Deemster, although great, did not justify the contract and the substantial advance that Caine was asking for. Caine then turned to Heinemann, which was seeking the novel to lead the launch of the new publishing company. Caine had been introduced to Wolcott Balestier, the business partner of William Heinemann, not long before by his friend, Bram Stoker. Because Heinemann were willing to outbid Chatto & Windus, and include Caine's retention of the copyright, Caine moved to Heinemann.
  The novel was published in a three-volume edition at the end of January 1890. The single-volume edition appeared in October of the same year.
caption: The original William Heinemann logo
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