Eugene Aram [antikvár]

PREFACE Since, dear Reader, I last addressed thee, in Paul Clifford, nearly two years have elapsed, and some-what more than four years since, in Pelham, our familiarity íirst began. The Tale which I now submit to thee differs equally from the last as from the íirst of those works; for, of the two evils, perhaps it is everi better to disappoint thee in a new style than to vveary thee with an old. With the facts on which the tale of Eugene Aram is founded I have exercised the common and fair licence of writers of fiction: it is chiefly the more homely parts of the real story that have been altered; and for what I have added, and what omitted, I have the sanction of all estab-lished authorities, who have taken greater liberties with characters yet more recent, and far more pro-tected by historical recollections. The book was, for the most part, written in the early part of the year, when the interest which the task created in the Author was undivided by other subjects of excitement, and he had leisure enough not only to be nescio quid meditans nugarum, but alsó to be totus in illis !1 I originally intended to adapt the story of Eugene Aram to the stage. That design was abandoned when more than half completed : but I wish to impart to this Románcé something of the nature of Tragedv —something of the more transferable of its qualities. Enough of this: it is not the author's wishes, but the Author's books that the world will judge him by. Perhaps, then (with this I conclude), in the dull monotony of public affairs, and in these long winter 1 Not only to be meditating I know not what of trifles, bui alsó to be wholly engaged on them.