jQuery $() constructor and strings with a leading backslash
<p>Please, take a look at this code: <a href="http://jsfiddle.net/Bkdgr/1/" rel="nofollow">http://jsfiddle.net/Bkdgr/1/</a>
<br>It does not work. However, either of the following two modifications makes it work correctly: <br>
<br>
Passing the pure <code>newItem</code> string in <code>append</code>, instead of wrapping it with <code>$()</code>:</p>

<pre><code>$('button').on('click', function(e){
    e.preventDefault();
    var newItem = '\
        &lt;li&gt;Hello, \
        World!&lt;/li&gt;';
    $('ul').append(newItem);
});
</code></pre>

<p><br>
Moving the opening <code>&lt;li&gt;</code> tag up to the first line of the string definition:</p>

<pre><code>$('button').on('click', function(e){
    e.preventDefault();
    var newItem = '&lt;li&gt;Hello, \
        World!&lt;/li&gt;';
    $('ul').append($(newItem));
});
</code></pre>

<p><br>
Neither does it work when I move up <code>&lt;li&gt;</code> to the same line with the leading <code>\</code> (but without deleting <code>\</code>).<br>
To me, it seems like the <code>$()</code> constructor has some problem with the leading <code>\</code> in string definitions. Passing pure string (without <code>$()</code> wrapper) into <code>append</code> doesn't seem to cause any problem.<br>
Why does it work like this? Does a leading slash have any special meaning in <code>$()</code>?</p>
