'Eden: An Episode' is a novel written by Edgar Saltus. The story begins with a rumor and the man in the center of it all: John Usselex. After his engagement to Miss Menemon is made public, people gossip about him—spreading tales of him having a different name and a past tending geese in Bavaria to being an outlaw and fleeing from the death penalty in Denmark, to having fled from creditors in Vienna. Nobody is quite sure about the truth, and Usselex himself seems to have no interest in setting the records straight.