rest, and contain some powerfully
drawn characters. Byron was deeply affected by some of them. Of the
"German's Tale," he confessed: "It made a deep impression on me, and
may be said to contain the germ of much that I have since written." It
not only contained the germ of "Werner," but supplied the whole
material for that tragedy. All the characters of the novel are
reproduced by Byron except "Ida," whom he added. The plan of Miss Lee's
work is exactly followed, as the poet admitted, and even the language
is frequently adopted without essential change.

Charlotte Smith was a woman of talent and imagination who was driven to
literature for aid in supporting a large family abandoned by their
spendthrift father. She was among the most prolific novelists of her
time, but only one work, "The Old Manor House," enjoyed more than a
passing reputation, or has any claim to particular mention here. The
chief merit of Charlotte Smith's novels lies in their descriptions of
scenery, an element only just entering into the work of the novelist.

Clara Reeve and the celebrated Mrs. Radcliffe did much to sustain the
prominent position which women were taking in fictitious composition,
and their works will be commented upon in connection with the romantic
revival, to which movement they were eminent contributors.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the number and variety of
works of fiction increased with remarkable rapidity. The female sex
supplied its full share, both in amount and in excellence of work. But
those who desire to see the advent of women into new walks of active
life on the ground that their presence and participation add to the
purity of every occupation they adopt, can find no illustration of the
theory in the connection of women with fictitious composition. Mrs.
Behn, Mrs. Manley, and Mrs. Heywood, the earliest female novelists,
produced the most inflammatory and licentious novels of their time. At
a later period, during the eighteenth century, although some female
writers exhibited a very exceptional refinement, the majority showed in
this respect no marked superiority to their masculine contemporaries.
In our own time, whoever would make a list of those novels which are
most evidently immoral in their teachings and licentious in their tone,
would be obliged to seek them almost quite as much among the works of
female writers, as among those of the rougher sex.

To write a really excellent novel, is among the