PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION(1943)
I think that this new edition of Craven House, in which some alterations have been made from theoriginal version, requires one or two remarks as preface.
In February,1941, I had a letter from Michael Sadleir (whose firm first published the book in1926), in which he said:
“I have beenre-reading Craven House. It is much more congested in its earlierchapters than I had remembered. Yourtechnique was, I suppose, a new experiment in those days, and you were temptedto overdo it. As it gets on it settlesdown to a more controlled method.
“Of the highspots which I remembered Mr. Spicer’s Tramp did not get me as it used to, butthe two maids in the kitchen impressed me much more. The two boys were still superb, the tubejourney ditto, and I laughed myself quite silly over the Russian Lady. The book is grand entertainment. If only it were simpler at the beginning! I suppose it’s hopeless to ask you to goover it for a new edition. It ought tobe a standard thing of its kind, but many readers must have been baffled by theinvolutions and parentheses of those early chapters.”
With thisencouragement I re-read the book, whichI had not looked into for ten years. Ifound that less could be done with these faults of style than I had hoped. The book certainly gets better as it goesalong, but throughout intermittently it shows traces of the bias I had at thattime – the delight in the odd, longer word instead of the direct, simpler one –the long (and at times purely facetious) construction instead of the naturalone – the “that lady” instead of “she,” the “that gentleman” instead of “he,”the “whereupon” instead of “then.”
Nevertheless itseemed to me that any attempt to remedy this in a really thoroughgoing mannerwould destroy the very things which givethe book its quality, its gusto, its freshness and its high spirits, which,perhaps, were only able to express themselves in this rather uncouth way. Soapart from certain really outrageous passages and certain places where thecongestion of style actually clouds the meaning, I have not, purely as regardsstyle, made very many alterations for this edition.
A fault in thebook which Michael Sadleir did not mention is its occasionalsentimentality. I do not know that thatmatters much: in a book of this sort alittle sentimentality is probably all to the good. What, however, is terrible is a mixture ofsentimentality and archness. I imaginethere are few authors who do not find things of this sort in their early work –few authors who do not, when reading such passages, slowly redden with shame tothe roots of their hair. Needless to sayI have tried ruthlessly to delete all such passages, though some may remainwithout my being aware of it.
Lastly there isthe question of a book seriously “dating” after sixteen years – a thing whichit might easily not do after six years or sixty. As the first part deals with a period beforethe last war, it is dated intentionally, and so the question does not arise;and I do not think the latter part reads too awkwardly in this respect. Slightly excited references to “bobbed hair” struckme as being the outstanding example of something about which nothing reallyeffectual can be done in a new edition.
I have spoken ofauthors slowly reddening to the roots of their hair over passages in their early books. Some times they do this over their early books from start tofinish. Although it was written when Iwas only twenty-one, I can definitely say that Craven House does not come into this class; and that if it canstill find readers, I should still like it to be read.
P.H.
NOTE: We all have "second thoughts." For some of us, our "second thoughts" and regrets actually seem to precede our original thoughts and these are the things we carry around with us most often. However, if we all could express and deal with our second thoughts and revision exercises as well as Patrick Hamilton does here, I think the world would be a better, calmer, saner place. The "PH" stone monogram immediately above this note was a fortuitous discovery and, unlike the London "blue plaque" placed on Patrick Hamilton's former 2 Burlington Gardens, Chiswick W4 residence, isn't connected with the 20th century British author at all. Rather, it marks the place of execution by burning of the first Scottish martyr of the Reformation, Patrick Hamilton, in 1528, which took place at St. Salvator's Chapel, St. Andrews. This Patrick Hamilton was a protege of Martin Luther and wrote a book, 'Commonplaces' that sought to explain the doctrine of justification by faith, and was influential in the development of Scottish Protestant theology.
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