Harry Lorrequer, Vol. 1 of 2
Charles Lever
Hardcover
(Forgotten Books, Jan. 18, 2018)
Excerpt from Harry Lorrequer, Vol. 1 of 2Here are two kinds of literary immortality; authors, dead and gone, as far as the life of earth is concerned, may inhabit either the Paradise or the Limbo of men of letters. The works of the fortunate dwellers in the former region are read by later generations, as Fitzgerald said, for human pleasure. It does not follow, of course, that even they are very widely read in proportion to the number of people who now have the art of reading thrust on them. N o sanguine anticipation of reformers has been more sadly disappointed than the hope that a vast increase in the numbers of people who can read, would mean a large increase in the numbers of people who can read good books; perhaps even the opposite result has followed compulsory education. While the multi tude study cheap journals of politics, gossip, scraps, and sport, the more highly educated minority perhaps read literature less than they have done since the invention of printing. Thus even the dead authors who dwell in the Paradise of their class, and who are actually read for human pleasure, are not very Widely read after all.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis 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.