"Richard Matheson - What Dreams May Come" - читать интересную книгу автора (Matheson Richard)

for adding the sweet measure of her soul to my

existence

To the Reader

AN INTRODUCTION TO a novel isтАФalmost without exceptionтАФunnecessary. This is my tenth published
novel and the thought of writing introductions to any of the preceding nine never even occurred to
me.

For this novel, however, I feel that a brief prologue is called for. Because its subject is
survival after death, it is essential that you realize, before reading the story, that only one
aspect of it is fictional: the characters and their relationships.

With few exceptions, every other detail is derived exclusively from research.

For that reason, I have added, at the conclusion of the novel, a list of the books used for this



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research. As you will see, they are many and diverse. Yet, despite their wide variation with
regard to authors and times and places of publication, there is a persistent, unavoidable
uniformity to their content.

You would, of course, have to read them all to prove this to yourself. I urge you to do so. You
will find it an enlighteningтАФand extraordinaryтАФexperience.

RICHARD MATHESON Calabasas, California August 1977

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must
give us pause.

тАФHamlet, Act III, Sc. 1

Introduction

THE MANUSCRIPT YOU are about to read came into my possession in the following way.

On the evening of February 17, 1976, our doorbell rang and my wife answered it. Several moments
later, she returned to the bedroom where we were watching television and said that some woman
wanted to see me.

I got up and walked to the front hall. The door was open and I saw a tall woman in her fifties
standing on the porch. She was well dressed and holding a large, bulky envelope in her hands.

"Are you Robert Nielsen?" she asked.