Intro by Walter de la Mare. First publ. in 1950, when Barfield was as a solicitor in London. A humorous portrayal of everyday life in a lawyer’s office, the novel’s true subject is what C.S. Lewis described as “the rift in every life between the human person and his public persona – between, say, the man and the bus conductor or the man and the king…” Owen Barfield is one of the twentieth century’s most significant writers and philosophers. Widely renowned for his insight and literary artistry, Barfield addresses key concerns of the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and arts in our time. His fellow Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, are among the leading figures influenced by Barfield’s work. “A work of art and more original than anything I have read for a long time” – C.S. Lewis