It forms an introduction to
Gibbon, and displays a thorough grasp of the great epoch, varied
scholarship, and excellent taste. His analyses of Roman literature are
very valuable, and his pictures of social life so vivid that we seem to
live in the times of the Caesars as we read.
CHAPTER XL.
THE LATER NOVELISTS AS SOCIAL REFORMERS.
Bulwer. Changes in Writing. Dickens's Novels. American Notes. His
Varied Powers. Second Visit to America. Thackeray. Vanity Fair. Henry
Esmond. The Newcomes. The Georges. Estimate of his Powers.
The great feature in the realm of prose fiction, since the appearance of
the works of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, had been the Waverley
novels of Sir Walter Scott; but these apart, the prose romance had not
played a brilliant part in literature until the appearance of Bulwer, who
began, in his youth, to write novels in the old style; but who underwent
several organic changes in modes of thought and expression, and at last
stood confessed as the founder of a new school.
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