Chapter 4, Preface to The Child Runs Deep in Filidor Summary

The narrator interrupts the novel to insert a short story, introduced by a preface. He is interrupting the true story of anguished youth and the formation of maturity to tell the story of another duel, between Professor G.L. Filidor and Professor Momsen, known as anti-Filidor. The narrator addresses critics who will dislike the interruption, comparing the parts of his novel to the body parts. The distinct parts come together in a whole. He extols repetition as the way to create mythology and uniform style and says that a novel is always read in parts, because the reading of the novel is interrupted, by a doorbell, a phone call, or any kind of trivia of life. The reader only takes away a part of the whole. He...