By George Santayana
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In his essay "Imagination," George Santayana writes, "There are books within which the footnotes, or the reviews scrawled via a few reader's hand within the margins, might be extra fascinating than the text." Santayana himself used to be an inveterate maker of notes within the margins of his books, writing (although well, by no means scrawling) reviews that light up, contest, or curiously extend the author's suggestion. those volumes supply a range of Santayana's marginalia, transcribed from books in his own library. those notes provide the reader an strange point of view on Santayana's lifestyles and paintings. he's by means of turns serious (often), approving (seldom), literary, slangy, frivolous, or even spiteful. The notes convey his humor, his occasional outcry at a writer's folly, his problem for the niceties of English prose and the putting of Greek accessory marks.
These volumes checklist alphabetically by way of writer all of the books extant that belonged to Santayana, reproducing a variety of his annotations meant to be of use to the reader or pupil of Santayana's concept, his paintings, and his lifestyles. every one access incorporates a headnote with the author's identify, the name of the paintings, short e-book details, and the library place of the booklet. now not all marginalia from a given textual content is incorporated; the notes were chosen for content material and style.
Santayana, frequently dwelling in solitude, spent loads of his time chatting with, and conversing again to, a superb miscellany of writers, from Spinoza to Kant to J. S. Mill to Bertrand Russell. those notes record these conversations.