''What is the best way to read a book? The first answer is: twice!' So run the opening sentences of a Victorian Adult Education Board bulletin issued this year. They are blatantly characteristic of the cloud-cuckoo territory in which the novel is studied by children, undergraduates, intellectuals and discussion-groups, And, if such poisonous nonsense were restricted merely to such groups, the result would be nothing more than a startling waste of time. It is when the novelist himself becomes influenced by changes rung upon such data that the results can be most dangerous.' (Introduction)