Introduction
You now hold in your hands one of the most extraordinary volumes ever constructed - a tome that would not have been possible but for the patience of over ten million volunteers, working over the course of over forty years. A book with such purpose may seem quixotic in the extreme, but the Introductionary has captured a zeitgeist with unusual longevity. The origins of this project are so old now that many of the volunteers know nothing of its uncertain start, of the slow build, the celebrity contributions that widened the popularity with such amazing speed, the many highs and lows. Alas also, there are some volunteers who have not lasted to see this volume complete (in as much as it can be complete, of course, for many more books are written every day, all of which must have their own introductions.)
There are few lives that have not been touched in some way by the Introductionary. The resurgence of the Novel in the popular arts, the near-terminal decline of television and cinema, the startling flip that has all but destroyed professional sport - the Introductionary looms in the background, as unlikely but sure an assassin as the Butler in modern mystery fiction.
There will be a number of you for whom this is your first introduction to the Introductionary. Put simply, the Introductionary holds introductions to every single novel ever written, listed alphabetically by title - a Dictionary of Introductions. (Though it could more accurately be titled an encyclopedia, the name caught and stuck.) It is estimated that the Introductionary contains introductions to approximately 53 million books - every book that has ever been found and collected on the internet. A staggering number, certainly. It is likely that there are another 20 million works that will never be found, never introduced to the mass of connected humanity. Never held in your hands. Equally likely, there will be a trickle of older books for the next hundreds of years. There will be some books with invalid "null" Introductions - cross-check procedures, however rigorous, rely on humans, and there will always be failures and disagreements. Nonetheless, humans must divide the world into before and after; we must cut the ribbon even if there is carpetting left to be completed.
Naturally, this project would have been quite impossible without the existing Internet Book Database, itself a mammoth undertaking. The Introductionary started (although there were many other contributions, the most significant of course being existing Introductions in the books themselves!) as a formalisation of the "User Review" and "Trivia" system in the IBDB.
The purpose of Reviews, once the dominant form of discussion of a work (there were equally reviews of movies, music, and television) was grossly similar to that of the modern Introduction - to give context to a work, to explain aspects of it that may not strike the eye immediately, to put forward what is known of it and its effect on those who have read it (an aspect that most closely resembles the Review) - in short, to ease the reader into that which the author has created. However, before our age of leisure and the systems of heuristics that are nowadays used to serve and expand our tastes, people often sought Reviews to tell them whether they might "enjoy" a work, whether it may have served as an adequate distraction from the loathsome burden of their labors. Indeed, a good Review might mean the difference between life and death for the writer, in some ages past. Similarly, what was dubbed "Trivia" - the facts and history of the world surrounding the work, of the creator and their own thoughts - itself served as little more than a distraction, a way of infantilising the creation and rendering it safe.
As time passed, however, and the era of copyright and possession fell uncertainly adrift, as people learned to seek out what was worthy of them, the efforts of Review began to turn to Introduction. There is so much of the past, such great things to learn, such wonders and strange thoughts, that the joy of discovery often turns into the desire to share such knowledge. You will find many Introductions here that are so lengthy and detailed that they themselves have Introductions.
I first became involved in the Introductionary program thirty years ago. After a brief period in which I would dip into its list of the un-introduced - perhaps researching one a year, for the first three - I found a rich seam of delight in understanding the 1980's "Mills & Boone" phenomona, in introducing the tantalising fragments of what is known of those almost anonymous men and women, the culture in which such Romances flourished, and yes - the joy of the books themselves, which often surprised in their inventiveness. I know others who have found similar pleasures in exploring the genre fictions; others who, most impressively, review works scanned from the "Slush piles" (collections of unsolicited manuscripts, not approved for publication) of pre-internet publishers.
I have become good friends with many who have made such efforts as to make ours pale: those who learn dead languages and live dead lives, whole months at a time in simulation; those who emerge from yet other studies shaking and raving, drawing a line connecting us to understand the never-published thousand-page rambles of madmen. These brave souls deserve every accolade (and Introduction!) that has been heaped upon them.
There are many more who dip in, as I once did, and content themselves with already-introduced favorites, adding aspects of Introduction revealed with the passing of time. This gentle crowd, for their silent touch, are what has truly pushed the Introductionary into the realm it today occupies.
To those for whom this introduction is the first glimpse of the Introductionary, I say Welcome. You draw on a deep history; the words of all who have lived and written and been found are here before you. You may find frustration that it would take lifetimes to explore all that is before you; awe at the thought of adding to such a compendium. But draw on this: all who have written here, from the greatest to the least, have found a reader who understood.