NONSENSE NOVELS

BY STEPHEN LEACOCK


_PREFACE_

THE author of this book offers it to the public without
apology. The reviewers of his previous work of this
character have presumed, on inductive grounds, that he
must be a young man from the most westerly part of the
Western States, to whom many things might be pardoned as
due to the exuberant animal spirits of youth. They were
good enough to express the thought that when the author
grew up and became educated there might be hope for his
intellect. This expectation is of no avail. All that
education could do in this case has been tried and has
failed. As a Professor of Political Economy in a great
university, the author admits that he ought to know better.
But he will feel amply repaid for his humiliation if there
are any to whom this little book may bring some passing
amusement in hours of idleness, or some brief respite
when the sadness of the heart or the sufferings of the
body forbid the perusal of worthier things.

STEPHEN LEACOCK

McGill University
Montreal