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PUBLIC SCHOOL LIFE
COUNTRIES OF THE MIND
Middleton Murry
Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net
IBSEN AND HIS CREATION
Professor Janko Lavrin
Cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net
THE RETURN
Walter de la Mare
Cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net
PUBLIC
SCHOOL LIFE
BOYS PARENTS MASTERS
by
ALEC WAUGH
Author of 'The Loom of Youth,' 'Pleasure,' etc.
LONDON: 48 PALL MALL
W. COLLINS SONS & CO. LTD.
GLASGOW MELBOURNE AUCKLAND
Copyright, 1922
Manufactured in Great Britain
A DEDICATORY LETTER TO
ARNOLD LUNN
December 6, 1921:
My Dear Arnold,—It was with genuine surprise that I read the other day,while turning over the pages of The Harrovians, the date 1913 upon thetitle-page. Only eight years ago, and since then so much has happened.What a long while it seems since The Harrovians was the most borrowedbook in the house, and we passed the hours of evening hall, that shouldhave been spent in the study of irregular verbs, in eager discussions onyour book. It was a revelation to us—we schoolboys of 1913. Itexplained us to ourselves. We thought then that the last word on thesubject had been said.
But one can never say the last word on such a subject as the PublicSchools, especially in a novel. In a novel one is constrained to tell astory or to reveal a character. In The Harrovians you dealt with thePublic School System only in as far as it effected the development ofPeter, and in Loose Ends you found yourself equally fettered with[Pg vi]regard to Maurice. It is for this reason that I feel there is stillroom for a book such as this, which, though a narrative, has for itsobject simply the analysis and presentation of public school life. Atany rate I hope that