by John Donne
I am indebted to Christopher Ricks, the series editor, Laura Barber, Alexis Kirschbaum and Jessica Harrison, my editors at Penguin, for reading and commenting on the text with great insight and attention.
Robert Bell offered a patient and attentive ear, a critical eye, astute counsel and loving encouragement throughout.
Though I have made every effort to avoid the errors that have animated my nightmares, whatever mistakes remain are entirely my own.
Finally I wish to dedicate this edition to my daughters, Amanda Bell and Kaitlin Bell Barnett, and my mother, Judith Isaacson –
Fæminæ lectissimæ, dilectissimæque
Women most choice/select/read,
most beloved/loving/well-read.
He just wanted a decent book to read ...
Not too much to ask, is it? It was in 1935 when Allen Lane, Managing Director of Bodley Head Publishers, stood on a platform at Exeter railway station looking for something good to read on his journey back to London. His choice was limited to popular magazines and poor-quality paperbacks – the same choice faced every day by the vast majority of readers, few of whom could afford hardbacks. Lane’s disappointment and subsequent anger at the range of books generally available led him to found a company – and change the world.
We believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price, and staked everything on it’
Sir Allen Lane, 1902–1970, founder of Penguin Books
The quality paperback had arrived – and not just in bookshops. Lane was adamant that his Penguins should appear in chain stores and tobacconists, and should cost no more than a packet of cigarettes.
Reading habits (and cigarette prices) have changed since 1935, but Penguin still believes in publishing the best books for everybody to enjoy.We still believe that good design costs no more than bad design, and we still believe that quality books published passionately and responsibly make the world a better place.
So wherever you see the little bird – whether it’s on a piece of prize-winning literary fiction or a celebrity autobiography, political tour de force or historical masterpiece, a serial-killer thriller, reference book, world classic or a piece of pure escapism – you can bet that it represents the very best that the genre has to offer.
Whatever you like to read – trust Penguin.
www.penguin.co.uk
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PENGUIN CLASSICS
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
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This edition first published in Penguin Classics 2012
Editorial material © Ilona Bell, 2012
Cover: A lady in white satin before the bed with red drapes (1660) by Gerard Terborch in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (Photograph © AKG Images)
All rights reserved
The moral right of the editor has been asserted
ISBN: 978-0-14-139241-7
* I mean from one page which shall paste strings in a book.
* Terra incognita
a Rabelais
b Pantagruel
