The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prefaces to Fiction, by Various

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Title: Prefaces to Fiction

Author: Various

Release Date: December 30, 2004 [EBook #14525]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PREFACES TO FICTION ***

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PREFACES TO FICTION

Georges de Scudery, Preface to _Ibrahim_ (1674)

Mary De la Riviere Manley, Preface to _The Secret
History of Queen Zarah_ (1705)

Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, _The Jewish
Spy_ (1744), Letter 35

William Warburton, Preface to Volumes III and
IV (1748) of Richardson's _Clarissa_

Samuel Derrick, Preface to d'Argens's _Memoirs of
The Count Du Beauval_ (1754)

With an Introduction by

Benjamin Boyce

Publication Number 32

Los Angeles
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
University of California
1952

* * * * *

GENERAL EDITORS

H. RICHARD ARCHER, _Clark Memorial Library_
RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_
JOHN LOFTIS, _University of California, Los Angeles_

ASSISTANT EDITOR

W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_

ADVISORY EDITORS

EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_
BENJAMIN BOYCE, _Duke University_
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_
CLEANTH BROOKS, _Yale University_
JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_
ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_
EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_
LOUIS A. LANDA, _Princeton University_
SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_
ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_
JAMES SUTHERLAND, _University College, London_
H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_

INTRODUCTION

The development of the English novel is one of the triumphs of the
eighteenth century. Criticism of prose fiction during that period,
however, is less impressive, being neither strikingly original nor
profound nor usually more than fragmentary. Because the early
statements of theory were mostly very brief and are now obscurely
buried in rare books, one may come