Ebook Charles XII and the Collapse of the Swedish Empire, 1682-1719

It is a question, I think, how far original documents should be consulted in the compilation of a short sketch of this kind, or even whether they should be consulted at all. For the use of original documents necessitates, generally speaking, the addition of notes, fipendices and other literary impedimenta which are almost out of place in a popular book of so small a compass as the present one. Nevertheless, I have en deavoured, somewhat reluctantly, to steer a middlecourse, by following the best available Swedish mon ographs in the purely historical and political portions of this book while going to original documents for the private conduct and personal character of my hero. — It now remains for me to set out my principal authorities.