were _The Paris Sketch-book_ (1840) and _The
Irish Sketch-book_ (1843). His work in _Fraser_, while it was appreciated
at its true worth by a select circle, had not brought him any very wide
recognition: it was his contributions to _Punch_--the _Book of Snobs_ and
_Jeames's Diary_--which first caught the ear of the wider public. The
turning point in his career, however, was the publication in monthly
numbers of _Vanity Fair_ (1847-48). This extraordinary work gave him at
once a place beside Fielding at the head of English novelists, and left
him no living competitor except Dickens. _Pendennis_, largely
autobiographical, followed in 1848-50, and fully maintained his
reputation. In 1851 he broke new ground, and appeared, with great
success, as a lecturer, taking for his subject _The English Humourists of
the Eighteenth Century_, following this up in 1855 with the _Four
Georges_, first delivered in America. Meanwhile _Esmond_, perhaps his
masterpiece, and probably the greatest novel of its kind in existence,
had appeared in 1852, and _The Newcomes_ (1853), _The Virginians_, a
sequel to _Esmond_, which, though containing much fine work, is generally
considered to show a falling off as compared with its two immediate
predecessors, came out in 1857-59. In 1860 the _Cornhill Magazine_ was
started with T. for its ed., and to it he contributed _Lovell the
Widower_ (1860), _The Adventures of Philip_ (1861-62), _The Roundabout
Papers_, a series of charming essays, and _Denis Duval_, left a mere
fragment by his sudden death, but which gave promise of a return to his
highest level of performance. In addition to the works mentioned, T. for
some years produced Christmas books and burlesques, of which the best
were _The Rose and the Ring_ and _The Kickleburys on the Rhine_. He also
wrote graceful verses, some of which, like _Bouillabaisse_, are in a
strain of humour shot through with pathos, while others are the purest
rollicking fun. For some years T. suffered from spasms of the heart, and
he _d._ suddenly during the night of December 23, 1863, in his 53rd year.
He was a man of the tenderest heart, and had an intense enjoyment of
domestic happiness; and the interruption of this, caused by the permanent
breakdown of his wife's health, was a heavy calamity. This, along with
his own latterly broken health, and a sensitiveness which made him keenly
alive to criticism, doubtless fostered the tendency to what was often
superficially called h