when mr, somervell sent me his manuscript, more than four years had already passed since the publication of volumes 9-6 and more than nine years since that of the volumes 1-4 . for a writer the act of publication always, i suppose, has the effect of turning into a foreign body the work that, so long as it was in the making, was apart of its maker's life; and in this case the war of 1939-1945, with changes of circumstance and occupation that it brought with it, had also intervened between my book and me (volumes 9-6 were published forty-one days before that the war broke out). in working over mr. somervell's manuscript, i have therefor been able -notwithstanding his skill in retaining my own words - to read the abridgment almost as though it were a new book from another hand than mine. i have now made it fully my own by here and there recasting the language (with mr, somervell's good- natured acquiescence) as i have gone along, but i have not compared the abridgment
with the original line by line, and i have made of never reinserting any passage that mr, somervell had left -believing as i do, that the another himself is unlikely to be the best judge of what is and is indispensable part of his work.
the marker of a skilful abridgment does an author a most valuable service which his own hand cannot readily do for him.and readers of the present volume who are acquainted with the original text will, i am sure, agree with me that mr, somervell's literary craftsmanship has been skilful indeed. he has managed to preserve the argument of the book, to present it for the most part in the original words and at same time to a bridge six volumes into one volume. if i had been set this task myself, i doubt whether i could have accomplished it.