Old Bottles, New Wine was conceived as a literary experiment featuring contemporary situations or narratives cast in classical form, each form indicated in parentheses beside its title in the table of Contents. The tone throughout the work is mostly humorous, occasionally melancholic, and hopefully realistic overall.The Ancient Greeks believed that the most heroic personality often has within his character what they called a tragic flaw. That flaw at times inhibits or in some way affects the hero's downfall. The hero may or may not recognize what it is that is affecting his behavior. We think that this same tragic flaw may be in the psyche of the unheroic.For instance, Maggie, a character in Bottles, sometimes reflects a bit of that tragic flaw in her general unhappiness. Also, it could be hidden in poor Olaf's gastric problems in "The Anatomy of an Allergy," in the title character carrying on in "Pigeon," or even in Herb's rat problem in "The Ravaged House."Take a look at the characters in our stories and wonder whether you should be there too. So get to it and open this book, and find yourself or someone you know within its pages.