I posted this in my LJ and thought it was worthy enough to post here also.
I decided to switch and finish reading David Copperfield through with one of the books that Pete gave me for Christmas. Instead of the brand new book I bought last summer. Thumbing through I found a Preface that wasn't in my newer version, and felt as if I had to share it. I think it is so delightful!
"P R E F A C E
I REMARKED in the original Preface to this Book, that I did not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from it, in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with composure which this formal heading would seem to require. My interest in it was so recent and strong, and my mind was so divided between pleasure and regret--pleasure in the achievement of a long design, regret in the separations from many companions--that I was in danger of wearying the reader with person confidences and private emotions.
Besides which, all that I could have said of the Story to any purpose, I had endeavoured to say in it.
It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of two-years' imaginative task; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of his brain himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are goinf from him for ever. Yet, I had nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which might be of less moment still), that no one can ever believe this Narrative, in the reading, more than I believed it in the writing.
So true are these avowals at the present day, that I can now only take the reader into one confidence more. Of all my books, I like this the best. It will be easily believed that I am a found parent to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly as I love them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourtie child. And his name is DAVID COPPERFIELD."
That certainly makes me want to finish this book more. Just some 270 pages to go, and I have a good feeling of what happens in the end.
I wish I were his friend during the time he wrote this book, so that I could know exactly what real life happenings are ebedded with in the text. Sigh...
I decided to switch and finish reading David Copperfield through with one of the books that Pete gave me for Christmas. Instead of the brand new book I bought last summer. Thumbing through I found a Preface that wasn't in my newer version, and felt as if I had to share it. I think it is so delightful!
"P R E F A C E
I REMARKED in the original Preface to this Book, that I did not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from it, in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with composure which this formal heading would seem to require. My interest in it was so recent and strong, and my mind was so divided between pleasure and regret--pleasure in the achievement of a long design, regret in the separations from many companions--that I was in danger of wearying the reader with person confidences and private emotions.
Besides which, all that I could have said of the Story to any purpose, I had endeavoured to say in it.
It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of two-years' imaginative task; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of his brain himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are goinf from him for ever. Yet, I had nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which might be of less moment still), that no one can ever believe this Narrative, in the reading, more than I believed it in the writing.
So true are these avowals at the present day, that I can now only take the reader into one confidence more. Of all my books, I like this the best. It will be easily believed that I am a found parent to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly as I love them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourtie child. And his name is DAVID COPPERFIELD."
That certainly makes me want to finish this book more. Just some 270 pages to go, and I have a good feeling of what happens in the end.
I wish I were his friend during the time he wrote this book, so that I could know exactly what real life happenings are ebedded with in the text. Sigh...