Posted by Robert Hill on February 21, 2000 at 14:14:11 from ucs-pc2035.leeds.ac.uk:
In Reply to: Re: Newbie Query posted by Robert Hill on February 21, 2000 at 13:42:58:
I accidentally left out part of what I'd intended to say about the
dedication of Peter Duck as evidence for the "unreality" of the story.
Books which carry a dedication are usually dedicated to real people,
and, as far as I know, this applies to all AR's other books. But Peter
Duck is dedicated to Mrs Walker and Mrs Blackett, who are characters
within the overall story. This is a further strong suggestion that
Peter Duck is a story within the story. Then, at the level of
suspension of disbelief at which we accept the events in most of the
books as real, PD is also dedicated to real people.