OK, just about to post the first Nabokov MFA essay on Mansfield Park, but figured that (on the odd chance anyone else takes up this literary challenge), a warning is required.

When reading "classic" books, it is very important to NEVER read the introduction before reading the text itself. I learned this in Thailand when I was reading a lot of classics and started the introduction to The Great Gatsby. I don’t have the exact sentence, but basically it comes right out and says "With the death of Gatsby, the novel spirals into…"

And, I’m there like, Dude! Why tell me a character in the book is going to die like that?!

A faulty argument could be made that I just gave you, unsuspecting potential Gatsby reader, the same information just as brazenly. But I would have to disagree. That book has been around for decades, so Gatsby’s death is not really a secret. It is not like a hot new movie that you have to make sure not to hear about until you see it. Like referencing Samuel L. Jackson’s character dying in the new Star Wars movie coming out in May. THAT would be wrong to post randomly beforehand.

However, that Gatsby information had somehow eluded me or I had forgotten it, and there I was ready to read it for the first time in Thailand. So, to have the "spoiler," using today’s terminology, actually printed as an introduction to the book you are about to read just baffles me.

It is like a title card appearing before The Crying Game saying, "It is really a dude," and then it fades out, and the movie begins.

So, as soon as I hit a lenghty introduction to Mansfield Park, I immediately jumped past it and started with Jane Austen’s text. And, having read the introduction that appears before the novel, and a former introduction that now appears after the novel, it was the right decision. There is WAY too much information in these things.

They are actually not introduction at all, but literary and historical interpretation of the novel. Which is an amazing resource to provide, and one that I rather enjoyed reading after finishing the book. Beforehand, though, it would have been a massive waste of time that robbed me of the intricacies of the novel that was about to unfold.

So, should anyone decide to take on the Nabokov MFA, or if one of the books tickles your fancy, just remember: Skip the introductions.

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