Once on a Time [antikvár]

A Mote From the PublisherWhen this delightful story was first published in 1917, A. A. Milne contributed an Introduction which opened with the words: 'The publishers have asked me to introduce this book to you.' The present publishers deeply regret that the late Mr Milne cannot again take on this happy task for a new generation of readers, but still we find (not surprisingly) the author's own words most apt in writing about Once on a Time.Mr Milne wrote: 'This is not a children's book. I do not mean by that "Not for children," which has an implication all its own. Nor do I mean that children will be unable to appreciate it. But what I do mean is that I wrote it for grown-ups. More particularly for two grownups. My wife and myself. This is a Fairy Story; and it is a Fairy Story for grown-ups because I have tried to give some character to the people who wander through its pages. Children prefer incident to character; if character is to be drawn, it must be done broadly, in tar or whitewash. Read the old fairy stories and you will see with what simplicity, with what perfection of method, the child's needs are met. Yet there must have been more in Fairyland than that. Life in Fairyland was not so straightforward as the romancers pretend. The dwellers therein had much our difficulties to meet, much our complex characters wherewith to attack them. Princes were not all good or bad; fairy rings were not always helpful; magic swords and seven-league boots not the only necessary equipment for fighter and traveller. The inhabitants of that blessed country were simpler than we; more credu-