Excerpt from The English Novel: Being a Short Sketch of Its History From the Earliest Times to the Appearance of Waverley This is a little book on a great subject. Its aim is critical and historical; to furnish studies of the work of the chief English novelists before Scott, connected by certain general lines of reasoning and speculation on the nature and development of the novel. Much material has been omitted, and many works silently passed over, in the effort to attain a fair perspective and a reasonable continuity of treatment within a narrow compass. I much regret that my limited opportunities of access to a great library forbid my attempting a bibliography of the English Novel. Such a work would be the best companion to the present history. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.