English military life has been ably described by such writers as E. Napier, G.R.  Gleig, W.H.  Maxwell, and James Grant.  But as a maritime nation, England has been much more prolific of naval novelists.  At the head of these stands Captain Marryat, who has celebrated the pleasures and described the incidents of sea-faring life in about thirty jovial, dashing books.  Among the great number of odd and entertaining characters sketched by his hand, “Peter Simple” and “Midshipman Easy” are perhaps the most interesting.  Marryat’s narratives are not carefully constructed, but flow on gracefully and easily, enlivened by an inexhaustible fund of humor, and enriched by an endless succession of bright or exciting scenes.  The names of Captain Glassock, Howard, Trelawney, Captain Chamier, Michael Scott, and the author of the “Wreck of the Grosvenor,” are among those most prominently associated with the marine novel.  These writers have not only dealt with the adventures of a sailor’s life and the peculiarities of a sailor’s character, but have studied the influence of the sea on the human mind.

Through the great interest felt by Englishmen in the manners and customs of Eastern nations, Oriental novels have become a recognized department of English fiction.  In the eighteenth century, Johnson, in “Rasselas,” and Beckford, in “Vathek,” had drawn on the romantic features of Eastern life.  In the present century successful attempts have been made to study Oriental character through the medium of the realistic novel.  Hope, in “Anastasius,” described the vices and degradation of Turkey and Greece in the person of his hero.  In James Morier’s “Hajji Baba of Ispahan” and “Ayesha,” are vivid delineations of Eastern character and highly humorous sketches of Persian life.  James Baillie Fraser, in “The Kuzzilbash,” and Miss Pardoe in a number of tales, have still further enriched the department of Oriental fiction.

[Footnote 206:  Other women who have contributed to the English domestic novel—.  Mary K. Mitford, Mrs. Crowe, Mrs. Marsh, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, Miss Kavanaugh, Geraldine Jewsbury, Mrs. Alexander, S. Bunbury, C. Sinclair, A. Strickland, M.C.  Clarke, L.S.  Costello, C. Crowe, A.H.  Drury, G. Ellis, M. Howitt, Mrs. Hubback, Hon. Mrs. Norton, M.A.  Power, E. Sewell, Mrs. Marquoid, Hesba Stretton, Florence Marryat, Elizabeth Wetherell, Sarah Tytler, C.C.  Fraser-Tytler, C. Craik, Hon. Mrs. Chetwind, M.M.  Grant, A.E.  Bray, and others.]

[Footnote 207:  “Pendennis,” Chap. v.]

[Footnote 208:  Many other well-known writers have contributed to the English domestic novel:  Thomas Love Peacock, H. Coke, Samuel Philips, Angus B. Reach, Albert Smith, R. Cobbold, Edmund Yates, Thomas A. Trollope, Thomas Hardy, James Payn, George Augustus Sala, William Thornbury, the author of “The Bachelor of the Albany,” Mortimer Collins, G.H.  Lewes, Shirley Brooks, Douglas Jerrold, C. Crowley, T. de Quincey, S.W.  Fullom, J. Hannay, W. Howitt, C. Mackay, G.J.  Whyte-Melville, T. Miller, L. Ritchie, F.E.  Smedley, J.A.  St. John, M.F.  Tupper, F.M.  Whitly, F. Williams, C.L.  Wraxall, and others.]