Читать книгу The Library of Entertainment: Handbook - John Chilton Scammell - Страница 4

Table of Contents

It is the easiest thing in the world to open the treasure-vaults of the Bank of England—if you have the combination; if you haven't, the task is hopeless. It is the easiest thing in the world to enjoy the most brilliant stories, the most laughable humor, the most heroic deeds that the world has known—if you know where to find them.

"Where's something to read, something so interesting that I can forget how tired I am and what a hard day I had at the office?" There is the problem of almost every home in this country. Tired men and women must have some means of refreshing themselves, of forgetting their worries and trials for a time. They must rest and gather strength for the next day's work. Where are they going to get it?

The purpose of this book is to give the owners of The Library of Entertainment an easy answer to that question. Its opening pages contain some unusual notes on the oddities of literary folk and some suggestions for hours and hours of entertainment and amusement that will drive away care and fatigue unfailingly. The brightest stories and the most fascinating humor are put right on the table beside you, all you have to do is to turn to them according to the directions in these pages.

But there is something better still in this little volume. It gives a true opportunity to enjoy the company of the ablest men and women who have ever put pen to paper. Until now a college course of three or four years has been the only means of getting in touch with the best of good, sensible reading. Our schools do not teach us how to understand and take pleasure in these books; our libraries only store them for us to use if we already know about them. Recent figures show that for some time past more than 10,000 new books have been published in the United States each year, an equal number in England, and even more in Germany and Russia. The public libraries contain millions upon millions printed in the past. It would be impossible for even a hundred men giving their whole lifetime of eighty years to do as much as scan the pages of all the world's literature.

Therefore it is only too evident that for the sensible use of the little time which we can give to reading we should be enabled to make a selection. We must be started on the right road. This is the express aim of The Library of Entertainment. Until now the pleasure and the distinction that come from being well-read have belonged to a few. The combination that opens the treasure-vaults of literature was only given in college lectures. The outside world has been left to shift for itself. But this is utterly wrong; with the simple introduction that is given in Part Two of this book the world of literature and its lasting delights are open to all.