story
to perfection of form.

It will be helpful to the student to distinguish the following classes:

(1) The _society novel_ is devoted to a portrayal of existing men and
manners. The field is a wide one. The characters may be taken from any
class of society. The society novel may bring before us, as in
Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," what is known as fashionable life. It may
again, as in George Eliot's "Adam Bede" or Goldsmith's "Vicar of
Wakefield," introduce us to the lives of plain people. It may acquaint
us, as in Du Maurier's "Trilby," with the Bohemian or artist class in
our great cities. It may deal, as in Dickens's "Oliver Twist" or
Bulwer's "Paul Clifford," with the criminal class. In short, there is no
class of society or type of character that may not become the subject of
treatment in novels of this class.

(2) _Local novels_ are devoted to the portrayal of the life and manners
of a well-marked locality. They are social novels within a restricted
field. Differences of race, of language, of pursuit, and of
intelligence, as seen in particular localities, are reflected in novels
of this kind. There is scarcely any portion of England that has not been
described in some work of fiction. Charlotte Bronte brings Yorkshire
scenery and character before us in "Shirley"; George Eliot portrays the
scenes of her native Warwick in "The Mill on the Floss"; Blackmore's
"Lorna Doone" portrays the scenery, life, and language of Devonshire.

America has afforded a very rich field for the local novel. Not a few of
its choicest works belong to this class. Scarcely any part of our wide
country or any special phase of its life has escaped the eyes of the
enterprising story-teller. In his "Grandissimes," for example, George W.
Cable gives us a glimpse of the Creole life of Louisiana. In the
"Hoosier Schoolmaster" Edward Eggleston describes pioneer life in
Indiana. In "Gabriel Conroy" Bret Harte brings before us the wild and
lawless life of California a half century ago. In various works Miss
Murfree has described the dwellers in the Tennessee mountains. New
England and the South have been portrayed by various writers.

(3) The _historical novel_ is devoted to the description of life in the
past. It should be based on a careful study of the period to be
portrayed. It may deal with the scenes of a hundred years ago or it may
go back a thousand years before the Christian era.

No other department of fiction has a prouder array of