Preface — To the English Edition
Prefaces, generally speaking, are pleadings, in which authors, anticipating public censure, and well knowing how richly they deserve it, adduce sundry reasons why their books are not shorter or longer, and altogether different from the volumes which then and there they bring into the market.
I need not make any such excuses, for I did not write for an English public, nor did I ever pretend to popularity in England. The “Saunterings” were intended for the profit and amusement of my German countrymen; and I must say I was not a little pleased and surprised with the very flattering reception which my book experienced at the hands of the English critics. Their favourable opinion, which they so emphatically and—I am selfish enough to go the whole length of the word—so ably expressed, has probably caused the production of the book in an English dress. The critics, therefore, must bear the responsibility, if the general public should happen to condemn these “Saunterings,” as “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,” and shelve them accordingly.
Max Schlesinger.
London, October, 1853.