But notwithstanding all the trash, and worse than trash, which has gone into circulation under the broad and attractive term of novel, it is evident that the English speaking public on both sides of the Atlantic demand purity in the works of fiction which are submitted to its judgment.  While no literary work can present a greater claim to permanent favor than a really good novel, none is more certain to be quite ephemeral than a bad one, whether its badness consist in the manner or the matter.  For more than a hundred years “The Vicar of Wakefield” has held its own, while hundreds of novels which created more sensation at the time of their appearance have fallen into everlasting oblivion.  And this triumph is not only due to literary excellence, but to the human excellence of the conception which Goldsmith gave to the world.

CHAPTER VIII.

   I.—­THE NOVEL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
  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.

I.

Fiction has absorbed so much of the literary talent of the present century, and has attained so important a place in the lives and thoughts of the reading public, that, in this chapter, we will attempt a description of its varied forms, and an inquiry into its uses and abuses, rather than an extended criticism of individual writers.  Allibone’s “Dictionary of Authors” contains two thousand two hundred and fifty-seven names of writers of fiction, by far the greater number of which belong to the nineteenth century, and every year adds to the list.

There is no better example of the closeness of the connection between society and its literature than is supplied by the novel.  Every change in the public taste has been followed by a corresponding variety of fiction, until it is difficult to enumerate all the schools into which novelists have divided themselves.  During the present century, life has become far more complex and the reading public far more exacting, varied, and extended than ever before.  Steam and electricity have brought distant countries into close communion, and have awakened a feeling of fellowship among the different nations of the civilised world which has greatly widened the horizon of human interests.  The spread of education, the increase and distribution of wealth, together with the cheapness of printing, have largely increased the number and variety of those who seek entertainment from works of fiction.  The novel-reader is no longer content with the description of scenes and characters among which his own life is passed.  He wishes to be introduced to foreign countries, to past ages, and to societies and ranks apart from his own.  He wishes also to find in fiction the reflection of his own tastes and the discussion of his own interests.  He seeks psychology, or study of character, or the excitement of a complicated plot, or the details and events of sea-faring, criminal, or fashionable life.  All of these different tastes the novelist has undertaken to gratify.