t is lacking in most of our writers of fiction. With the exception of an
occasional visit to the watering place of Bath, her whole life was spent in
small country parishes, whose simple country people became the characters
of her novels. Her brothers were in the navy, and so naval officers furnish
the only exciting elements in her stories; but even these alleged heroes
lay aside their imposing martial ways and act like themselves and other
people. Such was her literary field, in which the chief duties were of the
household, the chief pleasures in country gatherings, and the chief
interests in matrimony. Life, with its mighty interests, its passions,
ambitions, and tragic struggles, swept by like a great river; while the
secluded interests of a country parish went round and round quietly, like
an eddy behind a sheltering rock. We can easily understand, therefore, the
limitations of Jane Austen; but within her own field she is unequaled. Her
characters are absolutely true to life, and all her work has the perfection
of a delicate miniature painting. The most widely read of her novels is
_Pride and Prejudice;_ but three others, _Sense and Sensibility, Emma_, and
_Mansfield Park_, have slowly won their way to the front rank of fiction.
From a literary view point _Northanger Abbey_ is perhaps the best; for in
it we find that touch of humor and delicate satire with which this gentle
little woman combated the grotesque popular novels of the _Udolpho_ type.
Reading any of these works, one is inclined to accept the hearty
indorsement of Sir Walter Scott: "That young lady has a talent for
describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life
which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big bowwow strain I
can do myself, like any now going; but the exquisite touch which renders
ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of
the description and the sentiment, is denied to me. What a pity such a
gifted creature died so early!"

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR (1775-1864)

While Hazlitt, Lamb, De Quincey, and other romantic critics went back to
early English literature for their inspiration, Landor shows a reaction
from the prevailing Romanticism by his imitation of the ancient classic
writers. His life was an extraordinary one and, like his work, abounded in
sharp contrasts. On the one hand, there are his egoism, his unncontrollable
anger, his perpetual lawsuits, and the last sad tragedy