Prologue, Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

In the prologue, the author describes his generally peaceful and productive country life in England, a life occasionally interrupted by usually drunken visits into London and racing returns home in the middle of the night.

The first part of the first chapter is taken up with the author's recollections of his father, whom the author recalls as being in and out of mental hospitals the whole while he was growing up, and briefly describes his father's death from cancer when he was eleven.

The bulk of the chapter is taken up with the author's recollections and descriptions of his life at "an experimental boarding school in Pennsylvania called Freemont", where the overall atmosphere was one of both academic and personal freedom. He narrates at length the "trial" of one of the boys, Ligget, on charges that he was a...