Lanterna Rally

Author: John Brougham

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-12

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 9781331220374

Excerpt from A Basket of Chips My Dear Public. My publishers, with that delicious sang froid so characteristic of the frigiferous class, have just intimated to me that they are "waiting for a Preface." For a Preface! good gracious! was there ever such an absurdity? A Preface! why, the very term sounds to me far-off-ish and antediluvian. I had fondly imagined that, like the prologues to plays, Prefaces belonged now to the cocked-hat and shoe-buckle period. But it appears that I am mistaken; my publishers want a Preface, and publishers are unappeasably despotic. I am well aware that nobody reads the confounded thing; and with that assurance and the thermometer so pertinaciously at 80, that there's a tidal mark on the glass wall of the instrument, you may imagine, my very dear public, with what amount of enthusiasm I set myself down for the undertaking. Now, I have a kind of general idea what a good Preface should be, just as I have a tolerably shrewd notion of what a good dinner should consist. But unfortunately my resources, both mental and monetary, restrict me to the simple but unsatisfactory consciousness of the abstract knowledge. A properly organized Preface should be more suggestive, than indicative, of that which is to follow, just as a tastefully ordered table with its plate and glass, its bouquets and snowy serviettes, prepares, instinctively the fortunate invitee, for a grammatical repast. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.