Project Gutenberg's A History of English Prose Fiction, by Bayard Tuckerman

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Title: A History of English Prose Fiction

Author: Bayard Tuckerman

Release Date: March 13, 2005 [EBook #15350]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF ENGLISH PROSE FICTION ***

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A HISTORY

OF

ENGLISH PROSE FICTION

BY

BAYARD TUCKERMAN

NEW YORK & LONDON
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press
1894

COPYRIGHT BY
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
1882

TO
MY FATHER,
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

PREFACE.

It is attempted in this volume to trace the gradual progress of English
Prose Fiction from the early romance to the novel of the present day,
in such connection with the social characteristics of the epochs to
which these works respectively belong, as may conduce to a better
comprehension of their nature and significance.

As many of the earlier specimens of English fiction are of a character
or a rarity which makes any acquaintance with them difficult to the
general public, I have endeavored so to describe their style and
contents that the reader may obtain, to some degree, a personal
knowledge of them.

The novels of the nineteenth century are so numerous and so generally
familiar, that, in the chapter devoted to this period, I have sought
rather to point out the great importance which fiction has assumed, and
the variety of forms which it has taken, than to attempt any exhaustive
criticism of individual authors--a task already sufficiently performed
by writers far more able to do it justice.

THE AUTHOR.

B.T.

"_The Benedick._"
NEW YORK, Aug. 22, 1882.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

THE ROMANCE OF CHIVALRY ........................................ 1

CHAPTER II

CHAUCER, TALES OF THE YEOMANRY, SIR T. MORE'S "UTOPIA".......... 42

CHAPTER III

THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. LYLY, GREENE, LODGE, SIDNEY ............. 60

CHAPTER IV.

THE PURITANS, "THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS" ......................... 102

CHAPTER V.