Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889 / 2008-07-06 00:00:00

EBOOK HEART AND SCIENCE ***


Produced by James Rusk


HEART AND SCIENCE
by Wilkie Collins

Heart and Science: A Story of the Present Time
TO
SARONY
(OF NEW YORK)
ARTIST; PHOTOGRAPHER,
AND
GOOD FRIEND

PREFACE
TO READERS IN GENERAL
I.
You are the children of Old Mother England, on both sides of the
Atlantic; you form the majority of buyers and borrowers of novels; and
you judge of works of fiction by certain inbred preferences, which but
slightly influence the other great public of readers on the continent
of Europe.
The two qualities in fiction which hold the highest rank in your
estimation are: Character and Humour. Incident and dramatic situation
only occupy the second place in your favour. A novel that tells no
story, or that blunders perpetually in trying to tell a story--a novel
so entirely devoid of all sense of the dramatic side of human life,
that not even a theatrical thief can find anything in it to steal--will
nevertheless be a work that wins (and keeps) your admiration, if it has
Humour which dwells on your memory, and characters which enlarge the
circle of your friends.
I have myself always tried to combine the different merits of a good
novel, in one and the same work; and I have never succeeded in keeping
an equal balance.
Read more


Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20