Containing Instructions Very Necessary To Be Perused By Modern Critics
- The narrator does not want any critics to misrepresent him.
- He addresses his critics as "little reptile."
- (We're imagining something like this.)
- So, let's say you're a "little reptile" critic.
- Here's what the narrator says you're not allowed to do:
- (1) Don't assume that anything that happens in the novel is pointless just because you don't see the point.
- (2) Don't complain because some characters closely resemble each other.
- Sometimes two people doing the same job in two different places (like the landladies in Books 7 and 9) will have traits in common.
- That doesn't mean they are the same.
- (3) Don't assume that any character is bad just because he isn't perfectly good.
- After all, there are no perfect people in the world.
- In fact, it's morally better to notice the flaws in characters we otherwise like than to be really black-and-white about Good vs. Evil.
- With these warnings out of the way, we can get on with the story.