The Symbolism! The Awful Symbolism!

[rovingseaturtle]

I bought a bunch of books today, many of them "classics" (For whatever that's worth). Part of the problem I have with some editions of classics is that the people who write the introductions seem to assume that their readers are already intimately familiar with the material. Therefore, there's no reason not to reveal the entire plot. And discuss it

Comments

[jennielovesall]

my rule, to avoid having the whole story ruined by an introduction, is that i don't read anything that wasn't written by the author. generally this works. i have no problem stopping reading an introduction in the middle and jumping straight to the book, if it was about to give away the ending. sometimes the introduction is valuable. and sometimes i'll read it after i read the book if it is something that you have to have read the book to understand.

my sympathies.