uted to the single department of
fiction concerned with English domestic life. Many other names almost
equally deserving and equally celebrated might be added to the list.
The enduring popularity of their works is sufficient commentary on the
success with which woman's talent has been directed toward fiction. Not
only have the productions of these writers a high literary value, but
their widespread circulation has afforded a really healthful amusement
to tens of thousands, and their influence has been uniformly for
good.[206]

The novels of English domestic life written by men have been little
more numerous or able, but much more extended in scope. "Tremaine" and
"De Vere," of R. Plumer Ward, contain clever sketches of character, but
the narrative is loaded down with political and philosophical
disquisitions. Theodore Hook's stories were as unequal as his life.
Almost all bear the marks of haste and carelessness, and yet very few
are without some portion of that pointed wit and delicate humor which
delineated Jack Brag, or described Mr. Abberley's dinner party in the
"Man of Many Friends." Richard Harris Barham is well known as the
author of the witty "Ingoldsby Legends," and Samuel Warren as the
author of "Ten Thousand a Year." Charles Kingsley described the life
and grievances of mechanics in "Alton Locke." Charles Reade began a
long series of popular novels with "Peg Woffington" and "Christie
Johnstone." His best work is "Never Too Late to Mend," in which he
criticized prison discipline, and described the striking scenes of the
Australian gold-fields. Few novels of the present day contain a more
interesting story or more lifelike delineations of character. Wilkie
Collins' greatest power lies in the construction of his plot; the
"Moonstone" and the "Woman in White," are among the most absorbing
narratives in the whole range of fiction. His studies of the morbid
workings of the mind are often striking, but with the exception of
Count Fosco and a few others, his characters are not strongly marked.
Thomas Hughes accomplished a truly noble work in the composition of
"Tom Brown's School Days" and "Tom Brown at Oxford,"--books which have
found their way to every boy's heart, and have appealed to all that was
most healthful and manly there. The novels of Benjamin d'Israeli are
chiefly interesting in their relation to the character of their
illustrious author. As works of art they are faulty in construction,
exaggerated in d