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stranger to see his supposed likeness, halting not before a statue of Ramses II but ‘a sarcophagus in which lay an age-emaciated shrivelled discovery – a fanciful reproduction of myself’, as Morgan put it. 42 Firbank had long been fascinated by the Ancient Egyptian rulers and the concept of reincarnation. He may have developed a particular interest in this pharaoh after seeing him portrayed by the French actor Edouard de Max, whom he had got to know in Paris a decade earlier. 43
Vainglory
does not precisely replicate Firbank’s bizarre pick-up technique (which Morgan claims he took in good part). Chapter I, however, describes Lady Georgia’s children returning from the British Museum, where they go to ‘learn deportment from the Tanagras’ 44 ( p. 6 ).
    Travelling through France and Italy in the summer of 1914, Firbank made further ‘excellent alterations’. 45 He had arrived in Paris by 20 June, where a winningly named astrologer, Madame de Thèbes, predicted a long life for Lady Firbank and ‘
a very great success
’ for her son’s book. 46 From Rome in July, he wrote that he was continuing to revise his novel, ‘by degrees … getting the “strained” parts away’. 47 Rhythm and music were important to Firbank – not only as recreation, but by allowing his distinctive prose to flow. Firbank paid little attention to the wider world – especially to the incipient political drama haunting Europe. Only once Britain declared war on Germany did he appreciate the need to get home from Venice. Somehow, following advice from the British Consul inMilan, he was able to return to England via Paris. He headed north immediately, stopping briefly in York, but moving on to Edinburgh, where, in September, he finished the novel. He declared to Baba: ‘The impression is more or less what I imagined – a soufle! [sic] Anyway, nobody could guess of the sacrifice behind.’ 48 None of his novels would cost him anything like the eighteen months or so he had expended on
Vainglory
, the first book he generally admitted to having written, and the first publication under the name of ‘Ronald Firbank’.
    Finally, Firbank had completed a novel of which he felt proud. He promptly returned to London, determined to see it published, and immediately sent a typescript to Martin Secker for consideration. The publisher, here, recalls his role in the author’s career:
I was amused by his first book, when I read it in typescript, but I saw no reason at all why it should sell, and, not being gifted with second sight, I had no idea that one day he would become a cult and that monographs would be devoted to him and his work. I recommended him to take his book to Mr Grant Richards, so that I feel I am in a very small degree responsible for his career. 49
    Firbank was not inclined to take the gesture as anything other than a rejection. Once rival publisher Grant Richards had been persuaded to take
Vainglory
on, its author returned to Secker’s offices, ‘put his head coyly round the door and announced to no one in particular: “Grant Richards has taken my novel – so there!” ’ 50
    Richards read
Vainglory
over Christmas 1914, and met its author to discuss it on Monday 28 December. The book had exerted a ‘curious fascination’ on the publisher – though primarily because of its unorthodox presentation:
I took it for granted that the extraordinary punctuation or lack of punctuation was a mere carelessness of an uninstructed copyist, and that the printer would, if the book came to be produced, follow the usual custom and supply the deficiencies and correct the errors of the author. 51
    Richards initially refused
Vainglory
. Eventually, though, he coaxed favourable terms out of the author, purporting to agree to publish it against his better instincts. Firbank effectively underwrote the entire costs of production, paying an arrangement fee on top. Richards later wrote that he ‘felt as if [he] were dealing with a child’. 52