I know they are important...introductions and prefaces. But sometimes I don't know what to do with them. Either the book has neither, and I could do with a tad bit of extracurricular reading (Stoker's Mystery of the Sea, for example, but it does have many appendices at the back about codes, which will come into play in the story later). Other times there is so much to slog through, I feel drained before I even get to the text (Indiana by Sand and Frankenstein by Shelley). I feel sort of guilty for skipping them, like I might miss a bit of crucial information that will make me understand the entire text. If I don't skip them, inevitably the plot is given away, and I hate that. So I tend to leave them until after I have read the book.
In the case of Frankenstein, I read most of the intro and I found it very helpful. I got the background story of how the novel came about. It was a dark and stormy night...well it was a cold and rainy summer in Lake Geneva, Switzerland when Mary Shelley, her half sister Clare Clairmont, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and William Polidori decided to see who could come up with the best ghost story.
Now Indiana seems to be a different matter entirely. I skimmed the intro, but now I am bogged down by the various prefaces. I hope this is not an indication of what I am up against when I get to the actual story. What has always made me hesitate when it comes to reading the "classics" is that I won't "get it". I will not understand the language the author uses or not catch what is happening within the story. For the most part I have been happily surprised by how accessible the classics really are. You don't have to have some special degree to understand them or appreciate them (in most cases anyway) I have found. Of course supplementary reading has been very helpful in many instances.
In the last few days I have felt so overcome with introductions and prefaces and additional criticism, that I have turned to a different book entirely. Stephanie Meyer's Twilight. It is a YA book--no introduction, no preface, no additional reading necessary. Just find a comfy chair and prepare to lose yourself for a while. Honestly I have never been a big fan of vampire stories (though I really liked Dracula), but this one has been so entertaining, without being over the top in any way. And while it has been a while since I have seen the inside of a high school, I don't think you have to be a teenager to be able to relate to the story. But I need to get back to my other books soon after this little interlude. What do you do about introductions and prefaces? Do you skip them? Do you read them? Do you think they are helpful? I think I have just been reading too many books that have them lately I guess.