Prefaces and prologues to famous books

by Unknown

PROOEMIUM, EPISTLE DEDICATORY, PREFACE, AND PLAN OF THE INSTAURATIO MAGNA, ETC. FRANCIS BACON TRANSLATION EDITED BY J. SPEDDING

PREFACE TO THE NOVUM ORGANUM FRANCIS BACON

PREFACE TO THE FIRST FOLIO EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS HEMINGE AND CONDELL

PREFACE TO THE PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA SIR ISAAC NEWTON TRANSLATED BY ANDREW MOTTE

PREFACE TO FABLES, ANCIENT AND MODERN JOHN DRYDEN

PREFACE TO JOSEPH ANDREWS HENRY FIELDING PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH DICTIONARY SAMUEL JOHNSON PREFACE TO SHAKESPEARE SAMUEL JOHNSON INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPYLÄEN J.W. VON GOETHE

PREFACES TO VARIOUS VOLUMES OF POEMS WILLIAM WORDSWORTH APPENDIX TO LYRICAL BALLADS WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ESSAY SUPPLEMENTARY TO PREFACE WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

PREFACE TO CROMWELL VICTOR HUGO PREFACE TO LEAVES OF GRASS WALT WHITMAN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE H.A. TAINE

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

_No part of a book is so intimate as the Preface. Here, after the long labor of the work is over, the author descends from his platform, and speaks with his reader as man to man, disclosing his hopes and fears, seeking sympathy for his difficulties, offering defence or defiance, according to his temper, against the criticisms which he anticipates. It thus happens that a personality which has been veiled by a formal method throughout many chapters, is suddenly seen face to face in the Preface; and this alone, if there were no other reason, would justify a volume of Prefaces.