[Vocabulary] to bolt away

[constantinusphilo]

The opening sentence of Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad may puzzle not only the learners of English but the native speakers as well:

When this novel first appeared in book form a notion got about that I had been bolted away with.

What does the phrase in bold mean?

 

[jutfrank]

This is the opening line of the introductory author's note to Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim. Here's more context:

When this novel first appeared in book form a notion got about that I had been bolted away with. Some reviewers maintained that the work starting as a short story had got beyond the writer’s control. One or two discovered internal evidence of the fact, which seemed to amuse them. They pointed out the limitations of the narrative form. They argued that no man could have been expected to talk all that time, and other men to listen so long. It was not, they said, very credible.

Conrad is saying that some people thought that he had got carried away with his writing, and had lost control of what was originally intended to be a short story, but which had ended up as a full-length novel.