What to look out for

    OUP have brought out a centenary edition of Alain-Fournier's The Lost Domain: Le Grand Meaulnes translated by Frank Davison and with an introduction by Hermione Lee, and you can see Dame Hermione talk briefly about the book here. What she says is very interesting, especially in the light of our CBG discussion on the book; had I not already read it, her summing up would draw me in.

    This leads me to wonder whether there is not a place for the equivalent of a set of signposts at the beginning of certain books - in addition to the conventional introduction which I always read after the text as it so often gives away crucial parts of the plot - more a 'what to look out for', a pointer towards key themes, stylistic quirks, and so on, which would inform your reading, as Hermione Lee does in her short video, with the detailed analysis and contextual exposition and comment being left for later.