Download or read book The Autobiography of a Thief, and Other Histories written by Charles Reade and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-06 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Autobiography of a Thief, and Other Histories: The Wandering Heir The readers of "It is Never too Late to Mend" may remember that in chap. xxii. the chaplain set the thief to write his life honestly. He was not to whitewash, and then gild himself, nor yet to vent one long self-deceiving howl of general, and therefore sham, penitence; but he was to be, with God's help, his own historian and sober critic. Accordingly Thomas Robinson wrote this autobiography in - Jail; and my readers may have noticed that at first I intended to print it with the novel. It cost me a struggle to resign this intention; for it was the central gem of my little coronet. But the novel, without the autobiography, was five ordinary volumes by printers' calculation, and a story within a story is a frightful flaw in art. Moreover, I was attacking settled, long-standing prejudices. Prejudice is a giant, against whom Truth and Humanity need to be defended with great spirit, and, in some desperate cases, with a tiger-like ferocity: "A dur ane dur aiguillon." But there must be some judgment too; and, take my word for it, there always has been some judgment used wherever so hard a battle is won. I feared then to multiply paradoxes, and to draw once too often on the faith of the public, as well as on its good heart - I, who carried no personal weight with me. But I think my readers are now ripe for this strange but true story, and I dedicate it in particular to such as will deign to accept this clue to my method in writing: - I feign probabilities; I record improbabilities. The former are conjectures, the latter truths: mixed they make a thing not so true as Gospel nor so false as History; viz., Fiction. When I startle you most, think twice before you disbelieve me. What able deceiver aims at shocking credulity ? Distrust rather my oily probabilities. They should be true too if I could make them; but I can't. They are guesses. You have seen Thomas Robinson, alias Hie, alias Ille, alias Iste, tinted in water-colours by me; now see him painted in oils by himself, and retouched by Mr. Eden. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.