J. Storer Clouston achieved great success with the "Lunatic" series of comic novels, of which this, "The Lunatic at Large, " is the first. His first published book was 'Vandred the Viking; or The Feud and the Spell' (1898) and the following year he published what was to be his most celebrated work, 'The Lunatic at Large', to which there were a number of sequels.