Introduction 



E-H-N- 



///. The Compleat Angler 



THE history of 'The Compleat Angler is a romance in itself, and 

 it has been written once and for all by Thomas Westwood, 

 in his Chronicle of the Compleat Angler, a model of what one 

 might call devotional bibliography. From that I have ventured to 

 appropriate the skeleton bibliography printed in the Appendix, and to 

 that I must refer readers who would read the story in its fulness. 



That so restful a pastoral should have been published in so 

 turbulent a time has already been commented upon. Some have 

 suggested that that very paradox may have accounted for its 

 immediate success, so welcome was such a note of peace. Certainly 

 its quietist message was one pertinent to the moment, and it had the 

 rare fortune to be heard. The sale of the first edition seems to have 

 been immediate, and the second speedily called for. This second is 



Ixi 



