Read "The Sad Story of a Dramatic Critic" by H.G. Wells online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I was -- you shall hear immediately why I am not now -- Egbert Craddock Cummins. The name remains. I am still (Heaven help me! ) Dramatic Critic to the _Fiery Cross_. What I shall be in a little while I do not know. I write in great trouble and confusion of mind. I will do what I can to make myself clear in the face of terrible difficulties. You must bear with me a little. When a man is rapidly losing his own identity, he naturally finds a difficulty in expressing himself. I will make it perfectly plain in a minute, when once I get my grip upon the story. Let me see -- where _am_ I? I wish I knew. Ah, I have it! Dead self! Egbert Craddock Cummins!
In the past I should have disliked writing anything quite so full of "I" as this story must be. It is full of "I's" before and behind, like the beast in Revelation -- the one with a head like a calf, I am afraid. But my tastes have changed since I became a Dramatic Critic and studied the masters -- G. R. S., G. B. S., G. A. S., and the others. Everything has changed since then. At least the story is about myself -- so that there is some excuse for me. And it is really not egotism, because, as I say, since those days my identity has undergone an entire alteration.