Sand and Nodier
again; the adventurous incident of Sue and Soulie and Dumas and the
Dumasians generally; it may content itself with that modified form of
the great Revolt which admits "low" or "middle" subjects and discards
the classical theories that a hero ought to be dignified. But always
there is something of the general Romantic colour about--something over
which M. Nisard has shaken or would have shaken his respectable
_perruque_.[342]

So turn we to the other larger group--the largest group of all that come
under our survey--the New Ordinary Novel, that which concerns itself
with the last shade of his colour just described.

[Sidenote: The "ordinary."]

We had seen, before the beginning of this volume, how Pigault-Lebrun, in
vulgar ways and with restricted talent, had nevertheless made distinct
advances in this direction; and we saw in the beginning of this how Paul
de Kock--with something of the same limitations but with the advantage
of a predecessor in Pigault and of further changes in society towards
the normal--improved upon the earlier progression. But Pigault and Paul
were thrown into the shade by those writers, younger contemporaries of
both, who brought to their task greater genius, better taste, and if not
knowledge of better society, at any rate better knowledge how to use
their knowledge. Whether Balzac's books can be ticketed _sans phrase_,
as "novels of _ordinary_ life," has been, or should have been, duly
discussed already. It is certain that, as a rule, they intend to be so.
So it is with at least the majority of George Sand's; so with all those
of her first lover and half name-father Sandeau; so with Charles de
Bernard; so with some at least of Merimee's best short stories and
Musset's, if not exactly of Gautier's; so with others who have had
places, and a good many more for whom no place could be found. France,
indeed, may be said to have caught up and passed England in this kind,
between the time when Miss Austen died and that when Thackeray at last
did justice to himself with _Vanity Fair_. And this novel of ordinary
life has continued, and shows no signs of ceasing, to be the kind most
in demand, according to the usual law of "Like to Like." We shall see
further developments of it and shall have to exercise careful critical
discretion in deciding whether the apparent improvement only means
nearer approximation to our own standard of ordinariness, or to a more
abstract one. But that it was