Excerpt from The Condensed Library: Being a Condensation of the Choicest and Most Popular Works of Fiction by the World's Best Authors; Also, History, Biography, and Scientific Knowledge in Condensed Form for Busy People IT is not the purpose. Of this book to displace any of the high-class standard works found condensed herein; but that the class of busy humanity who imagine they have not the time to read, may have the helpfulness to be derived from even a casual, acquaintance with some of the world's best authors, this volume is prepared. Its mission is'one of education and entertainment com bined: of education, because it not only introduces to the busy person those authors and characters in literature with whom it is so desirable to. Have an acquaintance, but is suggestive of further reading along the same lines, its influence extending more and more broadly, as do the ripples on the quiet water when a pebble is dropped therein; of entertainment, because the writer has woven into the condensation such a beautiful thread of the story or book, that one is ready to believe it an entirely new one, instead of a condensation of several hundred pages into I so small a space. 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.