{"product_id":"2940012264022","title":"THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY","description":"AUTHOR'S PREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis story was begun, within a few months after the publication of\u003cbr\u003ethe completed \"Pickwick Papers.\" There were, then, a good many cheap\u003cbr\u003eYorkshire schools in existence. There are very few now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf the monstrous neglect of education in England, and the disregard\u003cbr\u003eof it by the State as a means of forming good or bad citizens, and\u003cbr\u003emiserable or happy men, private schools long afforded a notable example.\u003cbr\u003eAlthough any man who had proved his unfitness for any other occupation\u003cbr\u003ein life, was free, without examination or qualification, to open a\u003cbr\u003eschool anywhere; although preparation for the functions he undertook,\u003cbr\u003ewas required in the surgeon who assisted to bring a boy into the world,\u003cbr\u003eor might one day assist, perhaps, to send him out of it; in the chemist,\u003cbr\u003ethe attorney, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker; the whole\u003cbr\u003eround of crafts and trades, the schoolmaster excepted; and although\u003cbr\u003eschoolmasters, as a race, were the blockheads and impostors who might\u003cbr\u003enaturally be expected to spring from such a state of things, and to\u003cbr\u003eflourish in it; these Yorkshire schoolmasters were the lowest and most\u003cbr\u003erotten round in the whole ladder. Traders in the avarice, indifference,\u003cbr\u003eor imbecility of parents, and the helplessness of children; ignorant,\u003cbr\u003esordid, brutal men, to whom few considerate persons would have entrusted\u003cbr\u003ethe board and lodging of a horse or a dog; they formed the worthy\u003cbr\u003ecornerstone of a structure, which, for absurdity and a magnificent\u003cbr\u003ehigh-minded LAISSEZ-ALLER neglect, has rarely been exceeded in the\u003cbr\u003eworld.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe hear sometimes of an action for damages against the unqualified\u003cbr\u003emedical practitioner, who has deformed a broken limb in pretending to\u003cbr\u003eheal it. But, what of the hundreds of thousands of minds that have been\u003cbr\u003edeformed for ever by the incapable pettifoggers who have pretended to\u003cbr\u003eform them!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI make mention of the race, as of the Yorkshire schoolmasters, in the\u003cbr\u003epast tense. Though it has not yet finally disappeared, it is dwindling\u003cbr\u003edaily. A long day's work remains to be done about us in the way of\u003cbr\u003eeducation, Heaven knows; but great improvements and facilities towards\u003cbr\u003ethe attainment of a good one, have been furnished, of late years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI cannot call to mind, now, how I came to hear about Yorkshire schools\u003cbr\u003ewhen I was a not very robust child, sitting in bye-places near Rochester\u003cbr\u003eCastle, with a head full of PARTRIDGE, STRAP, TOM PIPES, and SANCHO\u003cbr\u003ePANZA; but I know that my first impressions of them were picked up\u003cbr\u003eat that time, and that they were somehow or other connected with a\u003cbr\u003esuppurated abscess that some boy had come home with, in consequence of\u003cbr\u003ehis Yorkshire guide, philosopher, and friend, having ripped it open with\u003cbr\u003ean inky pen-knife. The impression made upon me, however made, never left\u003cbr\u003eme. I was always curious about Yorkshire schools--fell, long afterwards\u003cbr\u003eand at sundry times, into the way of hearing more about them--at last,\u003cbr\u003ehaving an audience, resolved to write about them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith that intent I went down into Yorkshire before I began this book, in\u003cbr\u003every severe winter time which is pretty faithfully described herein.\u003cbr\u003eAs I wanted to see a schoolmaster or two, and was forewarned that those\u003cbr\u003egentlemen might, in their modesty, be shy of receiving a visit from the\u003cbr\u003eauthor of the \"Pickwick Papers,\" I consulted with a professional friend\u003cbr\u003ewho had a Yorkshire connexion, and with whom I concerted a pious fraud.\u003cbr\u003eHe gave me some letters of introduction, in the name, I think, of my\u003cbr\u003etravelling companion; they bore reference to a supposititious little boy\u003cbr\u003ewho had been left with a widowed mother who didn't know what to do\u003cbr\u003ewith him; the poor lady had thought, as a means of thawing the tardy\u003cbr\u003ecompassion of her relations in his behalf, of sending him to a Yorkshire\u003cbr\u003eschool; I was the poor lady's friend, travelling that way; and if\u003cbr\u003ethe recipient of the letter could inform me of a school in his\u003cbr\u003eneighbourhood, the writer would be very much obliged.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI went to several places in that part of the country where I understood\u003cbr\u003ethe schools to be most plentifully sprinkled, and had no occasion to\u003cbr\u003edeliver a letter until I came to a certain town which shall be nameless.\u003cbr\u003eThe person to whom it was addressed, was not at home; but he came down\u003cbr\u003eat night, through the snow, to the inn where I was staying. It was after\u003cbr\u003edinner; and he needed little persuasion to sit down by the fire in a\u003cbr\u003ewarm corner, and take his share of the wine that was on the table.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am afraid he is dead now. I recollect he was a jovial, ruddy,\u003cbr\u003ebroad-faced man; that we got acquainted directly; and that we talked\u003cbr\u003eon all kinds of subjects, except the school, which he showed a great\u003cbr\u003eanxiety to avoid.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47173027594480,"sku":"2940012264022","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012264022_p0.jpg?v=1763553870","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012264022","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}