—a vivid picture of monkish life in the middle ages—are in fine harmony with the spirit of the poem, which bears a strong resemblance in characters and plot to Goethe's "Faust." "The Song of Hiawatha," the most poetical of Longfellow's works, is an ode in a novel but charming measure, descriptive of the Saturnian age of the native race of North America. In the highly fanciful personifications of natural forces, and in the majestic scenery of the prairie and the forest, the author finds full scope for his rare gift of imaginative description. In Longfellow's later poems, characterized by his usual grace and tenderness of expression, there are traces of that meditative tendency so prevalent now. No Transatlantic poetry smacks so much of the soil as that of Whittier. An ar b. 1807. }dent advocate, in prose and verse, of abolition, he has poetized republican themes with great energy. The "Home Ballads" are more subdued and contemplative in tone than the early “New England Legends;" while their effect is heightened by a skilful use of the common psalm metre. "The Tent on the Beach" takes its title from the fiction by which the author unites a series of otherwise unconnected poems, remarkable for their keen and lively appreciation of nature. b. 1819. Passing over the airy sentiment of Willis, and the humorous and elegant verse of O. W. Holmes, we proceed to notice the more } popular poetry of James Russell Lowell. His “Biglow Papers," a clever Hudibrastic poem in the Yankee dialect, scarcely prepared us for the pure, tender, and pensive verse of "Under the Willows." "No American poet seems to have so genuine a love of nature, so playful a fancy, so truthful and genial a spirit." CHAPTER XVII. THE IMAGINATIVE PROSE OF THE VICTORIAN AGE. A. D. 1830-A. D. 1870. FICTION PROPER.-1. Classifications of Novels-Statistics of Novel-Writing. -2. Leading Novelists of the Period.-3. Minor Novelists.-4. Contemporary American Fiction. MISCELLANEOUS PROSE.-1. Classification of Miscellanies.-2. The Familiar Miscellany.-3. The Intellectual Essay.-4. The Picturesque Sketch. 1. THIS chapter will embrace all recent imaginative prose, whether in the form of the novel or after the manner of fiction. To this mass of popular literature it will be convenient to apply, at the outset, some principles of classification. Professor Masson's arrangement of modern nevels in "British Novelists and their Styles" is sufficiently comprehensive, and (slightly modified) stands thus—(1.) The Novel of Life and Manners, whether national or provincial, native or foreign; (2.) The Fashionable Novel; (3.) The Illustrious Criminal Novel; (4.) The Traveller's Novel; (5.) The Professional Novel; (6.) The Novel of Supernatural Phantasy; (7.) The Art and Culture Novel; (8.) The Historical Novel. Lord Lytton furnishes another classification, which, being internal, and regarding the manner of the artist, forms the complement to the external or objective one of Professor Masson. In this aspect, he distinguishes, in the preface to the "Last of the Barons," three schools of novelists-the Familiar, the Picturesque, and the Intellectual. Professor Masson, in the work just quoted, supplies some interesting statistics of the growth of British fiction, from the publication of "Waverley" to 1859. During this period he calculates that 3000 novels were written in this country; and that "the annual yield had been quadrupled by the time of Scott's death, as compared with what it had been when he was in the middle of his Waverley series having risen from 26 a year, or a new novel every fortnight, to about 100 a year, or nearly two new novels every week." In 1869, according to the "Publishers' Circular," the total was 461, which, as a novel generally exceeds one volume, gives about three volumes of fiction for every day in the year. 2. Dividing our period of forty years into two portions as before, we find in full activity during the earlier portion those novelists who began their career about the time when Scott died. Of these, more than a dozen in number, we note first Fenimore Cooper and Captain Marryat, who give us stirring tales of adventure and darb. 1789. ing. The former delights in the wild Indian life of his d. 1851. native America, with picturesque descriptions of its forest b. 1792. scenery; while the latter is specially at home on the sea, and d. 1848. invests the ship and its crew with an absorbing interest. His maritime tales reproduce the character and humour of Smollett, set in a colouring of natural description foreign to that classic. G. P. R. James cultivated the historical romance of Scott, in nearly 200 volumes of fiction, which exhibit a tiresome sameness of style and incident, but a marvellous ingenuity in circumstantial particulars. "Richelieu" and "Darnley" are said to be his best productions. To our next group belong such lady novelists as Mrs Trollope, Mrs Hall, Mrs Gore, the Brontés, and Mrs Gaskell. Mrs Trollope b. 1790. commenced her literary career at the age of fifty, after she d. 1863. had met with much trial and misfortune. Her books of travels are marked by strong common sense and acute observation. Interesting herself in the men and manners she saw, she seized on the ethical side of her subject, and treated it in a caustic, satirical style. In a humbler, yet simple and natural manner, Mrs Hall worked in the field of Irish life and character, so successfully cultivated by her predecessor, Miss Edgeworth; while Mrs Gore trod in the footsteps of Miss Austen, though she made a much nearer approach to the fashionable novel in its latest development than did that lady. In "Jane Eyre" the novel-reading public hailed the advent of a new genius, "capable of depicting the strong, self-reliant, racy, and individual characters which linb. 1816.) gered still in the north." The authoress was Charlotte d. 1855. Š Bronté, one of three sisters, all endowed with remarkable power, whose personal history is as singular as their genius. Emily wrote the weird tale of "Wuthering Heights," and Anne the less successful "Agnes Gray." "Jane Eyre" belongs to what is called the real school of novels, and brings into the domain of literature an outlying portion of fiction, previously considered unworthy of artistic treatment in its provincialisms and commonplace experiences. The innovation is notable as forming the beginning of a tendency which has since been strongly developed. The strange life of these sisters has been narrated, b. 1811. with all the interest of romance, by Mrs Gaskell, who, herd. 1865. self a novelist, did for her native Lancashire what Charlotte Bronté did for Yorkshire. "She was a prose Crabbe,-earnest, faithful, and often spirited in her delineations of humble life.” b. 1805. ·} The Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Lytton have combined literary pursuits with active political life. During the career of the former-interrupted by a protracted and ardent devotion to politics, but recently resumed in "Lothair he produced more than a dozen novels, of which the most notable are "Vivian Grey" and "Coningsby." These exhibit a mastery over gorgeous description, and neat and pointed sarcasm; but they are light, brilliant, and clever political essays rather than works of fiction. b. 1805. : Lord Lytton-a rare example of literary fecundity and } versatility-wrote, during a period of about thirty-five years, many high-class novels; and, in addition, advanced substantial claims to rank as a poet, a dramatist, a metrical translator, an essayist, a historian, a politician, and an orator. Prose fiction owes much to him, for he has tested its capabilities in many departments; and that with scientific notions of his art rarely found among other novelists. Nothing is more notable in his novels than the progressive improvement in design and execution which they display their philosophy deepens and mellows; their morality becomes sounder and nobler; and the author strengthens more and more his hold on the attention and affections of the reader. Beginning with a work of a strongly Byronic cast, and a fashionable novel in the style of Theodore Hook-brilliantly witty and sarcastic-he advanced from those idealistic sketches of illustrious criminals, "Paul Clifford" and "Eugene Aram," to those gorgeous romances which form one of the most secure pillars of his fame. His "Pompeii" and "Rienzi " restored classic and medieval Rome, -his "Harold" and "Last of the Barons," Saxon and Norman England. Every reader must admire the stately interest, the breadth of colour, and the imaginative grandeur of these historic pictures. Leaving such solid ground, his art has soared aloft, in Zanoni," into the aërial realms of prose phantasy, and, as in "A Strange Story," sounded the depths of philosophy and spiritualism; but it attained its greatest perfection in the delightful Caxton series of domestic fiction. In these exquisite pictures of English life, we have a charming interchange of town and country, interesting portraiture, and the wise suggestion of a matured intellect. The works of Thackeray and Dickens connect and explain the b. 1811. latest stages in the development of British fiction, of which they were for many years the acknowledged leaders. The historical relation between them reminds us of that existing between Tennyson and Browning. Like Tennyson, Dickens was first in the field: Thackeray, again, like Browning, had written much that won the attention of the appreciative few before he commanded general respect and admiration. Other analogies suggest themselves as existing among these writers, which cannot here be followed. William Makepeace Thackeray, though a year older than d. 1864. Dickens, wrote his first great novel eight years after the "Pickwick Papers" had appeared. Not till his thirtieth year was he seriously reconciled to literature. His short and lively sketches, communicated to magazines and humorous journals, under facetious soubriquets, looked more like trifles thrown off by an original but unsettled genius than earnest work. His early life, slightly reproduced in his character of Clive Newcome, had been somewhat singular. Born in Calcutta, but educated in England, Thackeray had studied, at home and on the Continent, as an artist, when the loss of most of his fortune led him into the kindred walk of literature. Slowly, and after much labour, did he work himself into that profound acquaintance with men and manners in their ethical aspects which his difficult variety of fiction demanded. Less generally pleasing than that of Dickens, but more bracing, corrective, and searching, his style was not calculated to win immediate success. Dealing with the higher circles of society and the foibles and frivolity of fashionable life, and intermingling his sketches with caustic satire on the innate knavery and pretence common to mankind at large, his views contrasted unfavourably with the genial idealized human nature of his great contemporary. Thackeray was fond of exhibiting the moral and intellectual development of his heroes in the fashion set by Goethe, inducing in them, through the medium of a foolish youthful attachment, a mocking sceptical spirit, and leaving them, after a period of perplexity and feud with the orthodox and conventional, sobered and disciplined, in the prosaic sphere of wedded life. This is specially observable in "Pendennis," "The Newcomes," "The Virginians," and "Esmond." "The Newcomes" is considered his most pleasing and most artistically complete novel, and worthily stands at the head of that powerful series of pictures of modern society-" Vanity Fair," "Pendennis," ," "Lovel the Widower," and " Philip." Beside these we place those historical novels-" Esmond," a scholarly and sympathetic sketch of the wits and men of action in the reign of Anne; and "The Virginians," a somewhat disjointed tale of the time of |