Four Years of Novel Reading

It is interesting, again, to note that this list of literary authorities includes, not only local friends, or those whose work is education, but sometimes novelists of such rank as Mr. Justin McCarthy, Miss Peard, and the author of John Inglesant. A few representative essays are added, selected from those read at meetings of the Union. They reflect only the opinions of the individual writers; but they will add to the general interest of the present volume.

The reader will understand that what is here introduced is not put forward as a model method of studying fiction. It is too early to talk of models ; fiction-study is in the tentative stage, and only experiment is possible; what is here done is to record an experiment. It is an experiment that can be tried on a larger scale by the formation of similar unions, or on a smaller s