We are here, it must be admitted, on
controversial ground, and under the First Century heading I have
endeavoured to insert romances of the highest quality only. For
instance, I think that Dr. Abbott's "Philochristus" and Wallace's
"Ben Hur" ought to satisfy two different types of readers. And
this is the place, doubtless, to say that in my lists will be found
books of widely differing merit and aim. School teachers, and
others in like capacity, will easily discriminate between authors
suitable for juvenile or untrained tastes, and authors whose appeal
is specially to those of maturer thought and experience. Differing
as much in method and style as in choice of period and character
type, Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" and George Eliot's "Romola" have at
least this in common--they require a very high degree of
intelligence for their due appreciation. Who, among those of us
with any knowledge of such works, would dream of recommending them
to a youthful reader fresh from the perusal of Miss Yonge's "Little
Duke," or Captain Marryatt's "Children of the New Forest"?
Naturally in a list of this kind there is bound to be very great
inequality; certain periods have been wholly ignored by writers of
the first rank, while in others we have something like an embarras
de richesse.
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