Excerpt from Standard Novels: Headlong Hall; Nightmare Abbey; Maid Marian; Crotchet Castle<br><br>Literary, is as imposing as ever: the rulers of the world still feel things. In their effects, and never foresee them in their causes; and political mountebanks continue, and will continue, to puff nostrums and practise leger demain under the eyes of the multitude; following, like the learned friend of Crotchet Castle, a course as tortuous as that of a river, but in a reverse process; beginning by being dark and deep, and ending by being transparent.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>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.