st worth reading,--_Bleak
House, Dombey and Son, Our Mutual Friend_, and _Old Curiosity Shop_,--but
we are not yet far enough away from the first popular success of these
works to determine their permanent value and influence.

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811-1863)

As the two most successful novelists of their day, it is natural for us, as
it was for their personal friends and admirers, to compare Dickens and
Thackeray with respect to their life and work, and their attitude toward
the world in which they lived. Dickens, after a desperately hard struggle
in his boyhood, without friends or higher education, comes into manhood
cheery, self-confident, energetic, filled with the joy of his work; and in
the world, which had at first treated him so harshly, he finds good
everywhere, even in the jails and in the slums, simply because he is
looking for it. Thackeray, after a boyhood spent in the best of English
schools, with money, friends, and comforts of every kind, faces life
timidly, distrustfully, and dislikes the literary work which makes him
famous. He has a gracious and lovable personality, is kind of heart, and
reveres all that is pure and good in life; yet he is almost cynical toward
the world which uses him so well, and finds shams, deceptions, vanities
everywhere, because he looks for them. One finds what one seeks in this
world, but it is perhaps significant that Dickens sought his golden fleece
among plain people, and Thackeray in high society. The chief difference
between the two novelists, however, is not one of environment but of
temperament. Put Thackeray in a workhouse, and he will still find material
for another _Book of Snobs;_ put Dickens in society, and he cannot help
finding undreamed-of possibilities among bewigged and bepowdered high lords
and ladies. For Dickens is romantic and emotional, and interprets the world
largely through his imagination; Thackeray is the realist and moralist, who
judges solely by observation and reflection. He aims to give us a true
picture of the society of his day, and as he finds it pervaded by intrigues
and snobbery he proceeds to satirize it and point out its moral evils. In
his novels he is influenced by Swift and Fielding, but he is entirely free
from the bitterness of the one and the coarseness of the other, and his
satire is generally softened by a noble tenderness. Taken together, the
novels of Dickens and Thackeray give us a remarkable picture of all classes
of