with unabated delight by several generations of readers, both in England and America. Young and old alike delight in Miss Edgeworth's Tales.

The best English edition of the Novels and Tales is in 18 vols. The following are the titles of some of the principal: Castle Rackrent; Belinda; Patronage; Ormond; Helen; Out of Debt, out of Danger; The Modern Griselda; The Good French Governess; Murad the Unlucky, etc.

est.

Walter Scott was a great admirer of Miss Edgeworth's novels. The visit which she paid to him at Abbotsford is described by Lockhart as a scene of extraordinary inter"Never did I see a brighter day at Abbotsford than that on which Miss Edgeworth first arrived there."- Lockhart. "If I could but hit Miss Edgeworth's wonderful power of vivifying all her persons, and making them live as beings in your mind, I should not be afraid."- Walter Scott. "Some one has described the novels of Miss Edgeworth as a sort of essence of common sense, and the definition is not inappropriate." -Walter Scott.

"The writings of Miss Edgeworth exhibit so singular an union of sober sense and inexhaustible invention,- so minute a knowledge of all that distinguishes manners, or touches on happiness in every condition of human fortune, and so just an estimate both of the real sources of enjoyment and of the illusions by which they are often obstructed, that it cannot be thought wonderful that we should separate her from the ordinary manufacturer of novels, and speak of her tales as works of more serious importance than most of the true history and solemn philosophy that come daily under our inspection."-Jeffrey, in Ed. Rev.

"As a writer of tales and novels, she has a very marked peculiarity. It is that of venturing to dispense common sense to her readers, and to bring them within her precincts of real life and natural feeling."-London Quarterly Rev.

RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH, 1744-1817, was distinguished as a writer of some important and popular works on education, but still more as the father of Maria Edgeworth.

He was born in Bath, England, but succeeded in 1782 to a family estate in Ireland, and continued to reside there afterwards. He was married four times. Maria was a daughter by the first marriage. He wrote in conjunction with his daughter: Practical Education; Easy Lessons; Essay on Irish Bulls. His separate works are: Poetry Explained for the Use of Young People; Essays on Professional Education; Essay on the Construction of Roads and Carriages; On the Telegraph; Memoirs of himself (completed by his daughter). He contributed papers on mechanical subjects to the Philosophical Transactions. He was much distinguished for mechanical ingenuity.

Miss Austen.

JANE AUSTEN, 1775-1817, was the author of several novels of a high order of merit.

Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Emma, were pub lished during her lifetime, but anonymously. Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey appeared after her death. Critics of the highest order, such as Whately in the London Quarterly, speak of Miss Austen's novels in terms of the strongest commendation. Sir Walter Scott says, her portraits of society are far superior to anything of a like nature produced by writers of the other sex. "I have read again, and for the third

time, Miss Austen's very finely written novel of Pride and Prejudice. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements, feelings, and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I have ever met with. The big bow-wow I can do myself like any one going; but the exquisite touch, which renders commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me. What a pity so gifted a creature died so early!"

Lady Blessington.

MARGARET, COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON, 1787-1849, was celebrated in her day for her literary abilities and her personal charms, and her attractions in both respects were greatly increased by her high social position.

Lady Blessington was the daughter of an Irish gentleman, Edmund Power. She was married, first, at the age of fifteen, to Captain Farmer of the British army, and afterwards, at the age of thirty-one, to the Earl of Blessington. The Earl and Countess resided chiefly on the continent. On his death, Lady Blessington, then at the age of forty-two, established herself in London, where for twenty years, from 1829 to 1849, her house was the centre both of fashion and of letters, for a large and brilliant circle. She was celebrated equally for her beauty and her wit; and she wrote with the same ease and grace with which she talked. Lord Byron was a great admirer of her, and one of her most charming works is that in which she gives an account of her conversations with him. Her publications are numerous.

Besides writing a good deal for the magazines, and for the annuals, which were then in high repute, Lady Blessington wrote many separate volumes, some of which were very popular. The following are the chief: Conversations with Lord Byron; The Magic-Lantern; Tour in the Netherlands; The Victims of Society; The Repealers; The Two Friends; The Governess; Confessions of an Elderly Gentleman; Confessions of an Elderly Lady; The Idler in Italy; The Idler in France; The Belles of a Season; Memoirs of a Femme de Chambre; and a good many others. The novels of Lady Blessington "are peculiarly Romans de Societé- the characters that move and breathe throughout them are the actual persons of the great world; and the reflections with which they abound belong to the philosophy of one who has well examined the existing manners. Her portraiture of familiar scenes and of every-day incidents are matchless for truth and grace."— Edinburgh Review.

MISS MARGARET A. POWER, niece of Lady Blessington, wrote a Memoir of her aunt, and several novels: Evelyn Forrester, The Foresters, Nelly Carew, Sweethearts and Wives, etc., besides Virginia's Hand, a poem.

MISS MARY FERRIER, 1782-1855, a contemporary and friend of Sir Walter Scott, wrote three novels, all highly commended: The Marriage; The Inheritance; Destiny, or The Chief's Daughter. Miss Ferrier's novels were great favorites with Scott, and she herself was a frequent guest at Abbotsford. "Edgeworth, Ferrier, Austen, have all given portraits of real society far superior to anything man vain man-has produced of the like nature."-Sir Walter Scott. "To a warm heart, a lively fancy, and great powers of discrimination, Miss Ferrier has added a variety of knowledge, and a graphic art of describing all she sees and all she feels, which give her a distinguished place among the novelists of the day."- Allan Cunningham.

HARRIET and SOPHIA LEE.- Harriet Lee, 1756-1851, and Sophia Lee, 1750-1824, sisters, were daughters of an actor of some note, and gained for themselves considerable reputation by their writings.

They were engaged for many years at Eath, in the management of a Young Ladies' Seminary. They wrote several works, which were well received. Those of Harriet were: The Errors of Innocence, a Novel, 5 vols.; The Young Lady's Tale; The Clergyman's Tale; The New Peerage, a Comedy; and all except two of The Canterbury Tales. Sophia wrote The Ruin, a Tale of Other Times, 6 vols: The Life of a Lover, a Novel, 6 vols.; Ormand, or the Debauchee, 3 vols.; The Chapter of Accidents, a Comedy; Almeyda, Queen of Granada, a Tragedy; The Assignation, a Comedy; The Hermit's Tale, a Poem. Two or three of these plays were acted, and had considerable success. The Canterbury Tales, already named, extended to five volumes, and were held in high repute.

GRACE KENNEDY, 1782-1824, was a native of Ayrshire, Scotland, but resided in Edinburgh. She was the author of a number of novels or tales, which have been very popular, and have been held in high estimation by the critics: Decision; Profession not Principle; Father Clement; Dunallan, or Know what you Judge; Jenny Allan, the Lame Girl; Anna Ross, the Orphan of Waterloo; Philip Colville, a Covenanter's Story, etc.

LADY CAROLINE LAMB, 1785-1828, daughter of the Earl of Besborough, and wife of Hon. William Larab, afterwards Lord Melbourne, wrote several novels which gained some reputation: Glenarvon, supposed to be a portrait of Lady Byron; Graham Hamilton; and Ada Reis.

MISS REGINA MARIA ROCHE, 1765-1845, a famous English novelist, is the rival of Mrs. Radcliffe. Miss Roche's most celebrated work is The Children of the Abbey, which has been widely read in England and the United States. Among the others are The Vicar of Lansdowne, Maid of the Hamlet, Monastery of St. Colombe, etc.

Galt.

John Galt, 1779-1839, wrote a very large number of works, and on a great variety of subjects. The works in which he was most successful were his novels.

Galt was born at Greenock, in Scotland. He began to study the law, but abandoned it for a literary life. He was employed for some time as agent for an emigration company, to promote settlement in Canada, but quarrelling with the Government, and being dismissed by the company, he thenceforward devoted himself entirely to authorship.

Galt's works are numerous, and are open to criticism. The histories and biographies are mostly compilations, and have the character of job work done for the booksellers. His novels, however, are thoroughly original and fresh, and though not uniformly up to the highest mark, yet always contain much that is first-rate. The following is a list of his principal works: The Ayrshire Legatees; The Annals of the Parish; The Wandering Jew; The Entail; The Provost; The Spaewife; Rothelan; The Last of the

Lairds; Laurie Todd; Southennan; The Omen; Glenfell; The Bachelor's Wife; Rockinghorse; The Stolen Child; The Majolo; Andrew of Padna; The Earthquake; Sir Andrew Wylie; The Steamboat; Ringan Gilbaize; Eben Erksine; Gathering of the West; The Member; The Radical; Bogel Corbet; Stanley Buxton; New British Theatre; Stories of the Study; Pictures from English, Scotch, and Irish History; Guide to the Canadas; Reflections on Political and Commercial Subjects; Voyages and Travels; Lives of the Players; Life of West; Life of Byron; Life of Wolsey; Apotheosis of Sir Walter Scott; Four Tragedies; Poems; Autobiography of John Galt.

"There is a thorough quaintness of phrase and dialogue in Mr. Galt's last works, which places him apart from all other Scotch novelists; much knowledge of life, variety of character, liveliness and humour are displayed in these novels, and render them justly popular. This humor and truth were recognized as admirable by Sir Walter Scott. The public will not soon forget his Ayrshire Legatees, his Annals of the Parish, nor the Entail; which last we think one of his best novels. Mr. Galt's biographies, and many of his other later works, manufactured for the booksellers, are of a very different character.” — Gentleman's Magazine.

"According to our judgment, he has never written better than second-rate books; though we have ever found in what we consider his worst pieces something of his best self, and something which carried us through the whole, at the same time leaving instruction fresh and precise upon our minds. And this is saying a great deal when we consider the catalogue of his writings. Indeed, his mind is such, that it cannot give out anything belonging to it, which partakes not of its original nature. Strong, and what is called rough good sense is ever there; familiar but most expressive thoughts find similar illustrations most readily with him, which we presume could not have been improved by long study. He is, besides, strictly a moral as well as remarkably entertaining writer."- London Monthly Review.

Beckford.

WILLIAM BECKFORD, 1760-1844, was a man of extraordinary genius, who but for his enormous wealth might have achieved the highest distinction as an author.

Beckford was son of a Lord-Mayor of London, and inherited from his father, besides a large English estate, a fortune in the West Indies which yielded him upwards of £100,000 per annum. He was a man of a high order of genius, and he was educated with extreme care. If it had not been for his excessive wealth, he might have made himself one of the greatest ornaments of letters. As it was, he published several works of great literary merit.

Beckford's first work, written at twenty, was Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters. It is a work criticizing with great severity certain English painters. His next and chief literary production was Vathek. This was an oriental romance, written in French, but translated into English by some other author. Byron speaks of it in terms of highest eulogy. It is said to be in such pure French that no one would suspect it to be written by other than a native Frenchman, and its orientalism is so complete that travellers in the East have some difficulty in believing that it is not a translation from some oriental original. With all its beauties, however, it is as audacious as anything in Byron in its licentiousness, and is diabolical in its contempt for mankind. Mr. Beckford published also a book of travels, called Italy, and another called Recollections of an Excursion to the Mountains of Alcobacca and Batalha, which contain passages of a high order of merit.

"He is a poet, and a great one, too, though we know not that he ever wrote a line of verse. His rapture amidst the sublime scenery of mountains and forests, in the Tyrol, especially, and in Spain, is that of a spirit cast originally in one of nature's finest moulds; and he fixes it in language which can scarcely be praised beyond its deserts simple, massive, nervous, apparently little labored, yet reaching, in its effect, the very perfection of art.” — London Quar. Review.

Beckford spent vast sums of money in building Fonthill Abbey, on his estate in England, and in filling it with the rarest and most costly works of art. After abapdoning this fancy, he built another magnificent palace near Bath; also, a mansion near Cintra, in Portugal, where he spent much of the latter part of his life. He was a man singularly gifted with genius and wealth, but utterly selfish and worldly, who had exhausted at twenty all the world had to offer, and lived in sullen grandeur to the age of eighty-four.

Monk Lewis,

MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS, 1775-1818, is often called "Monk" Lewis, after one of his celebrated works.

Mr. Lewis studied at Oxford and also in Germany, and resided during the last five years of his life in Jamaica. He is the author of a number of dramas and novels, which were at one time extremely popular, and exercised a great influence over the then rising generation of authors. The most celebrated are: The Monk, a romance so licentious in passages that the author was for a while in danger of prosecution; The Castle Spectre, a drama; and Timour the Tartar; Rolla, and The Captive, dramas. After Lewis's death there appeared The Journal of a West India Proprietor, also bis Life and Correspondence. The Journal and the Correspondence are easy and entertaining in style, and replete with information.

As a writer of works of imagination, Lewis belongs to what is vulgarly known as the "blood-and-thunder" school. His works, abounding in scenes of horror, resemble those of Mrs. Radcliffe. Lewis was a man of decided imagination and poetic ability, as is shown by the ballads and songs scattered through his plays and novels. But he suffered his imagination to run riot, and although for a while he seemed to have created a new era in literature, his works are gradually falling into that neglect which is the lot of all crude and frantic effort.

CHARLES ROBERT MATURIN, 1782-1824, a native of Ireland, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, was the author of a number of dramas and novels, which enjoyed at one time a good share of popularity, but which have since fallen into neglect.

The principal are Fatal Revenge, a Novel; The Wild Irish Boy, a Novel; Bertram, a Tragedy: Manuel, a Tragedy; Women, a Novel. Maturin's productions are in the Mrs. Radcliff style, abounding in horrors, and his style, although vigorous, is extravagant and unequal.

MICHAEL SCOTT, 1789-1835, was a native of Scotland, educated at the University of Glasgow, and engaged for a number of years in the West India trade. From 1822 until his death he resided in Scotland. Scott is the author of two celebrated serials that appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, and were afterwards reprinted. They are called Tom Cringle's Log, and The Cruise of the Midge. They attracted great attention at the time of their appearance, and are still read and enjoyed by numerous readers.