Bayard Tuckerman

by Bayard Tuckerman

It is attempted in this volume to trace the gradual progress of English Prose Fiction from the early romance to the novel of the present day, in such connection with the social characteristics of the epochs to which these works respectively belong, as may conduce to a better comprehension of their nature and significance.

I

In the history of English intellectual development between the vague ignorance of the Middle Ages and the new growth of learning in the sixteenth century, stands the great figure of Chaucer. The first English writer possessing dramatic power, he is the first also to unite with the art of story-telling, the delineation and study of human character. In his translation of the “Romaunt of the Rose” he belongs to the Middle Ages,—a period of uncontrolled imagination, of unsubstantial creations, of external appearances copied without reflection.

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  I.—ENGLAND UNDER ANNE AND THE FIRST TWO GEORGES. 
 II.—SWIFT, ADDISON, DEFOE. III.—RICHARDSON, FIELDING, SMOLLETT.

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  I.—THE RELIGIOUS REVIVAL. 
 II.—STERNE, JOHNSON, GOLDSMITH, AND OTHERS. III.—MISS BURNEY, AND THE FEMALE NOVELISTS. 
 IV.—THE ROMANTIC REVIVAL.

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  II.—THE NOVEL OF LIFE AND MANNERS. 
 III.—OF SCOTCH LIFE. 
  IV.—OF IRISH LIFE. 
   V.—OF ENGLISH LIFE. 
  VI.—OF AMERICAN LIFE. 
 VII.—THE HISTORICAL NOVEL. VIII.—THE NOVEL OF PURPOSE. 
  IX.—THE NOVEL OF FANCY. 
   X.—USE AND ABUSE OF FICTION.

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