CHARLES DICKENS.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (b. July 4, 1804; d. May 18, 1864) exhibits in his numerous fictional works a man’s breadth and strength of imagination and a woman’s quick perception and spiritual insight. Almost gloomy in color, overhung with impending fate, and often uncanny, his stories are yet always fascinating. As has been well said, one catches in them “gleaming wit, tender satire, exquisite natural description, subtle and strange analysis of human life, darkly passionate and weird.”
Count Leo (or Lyoff) Alekseevich Tolstoi (b. August 28, 1828) is a Russian aristocrat by birth, but has assumed the dress and life of a peasant, the better to exploit his doctrines respecting non-resistance, communism, labor, religion, politics, government, and society. His numerous writings show a combination of keenness of realistic insight and wealth of poetical imagination, of a wonderful breadth of view with perfect handling of minute detail, seldom rivaled in all literature. Whether or not he will prove to be the forerunner of a great revolution in the world’s national and social life, there is no disputing his genius and pertinacity.
Edward George Earle Bulwer (Baron Lytton), of England (b. May 25, 1803; d. January 18, 1873), was novelist, poet, dramatist, and essayist, and ranked as one of the most versatile and classical authors of the century. Through his plays, poetry, and novels he introduced a new literary era, and was the leader, if not actual founder, of the school of melodramatic romance.
Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe (b. June 14, 1811; d. July 1, 1896) acquired great fame as authoress of the epoch-making book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It proved to be a powerful contribution to the anti-slavery cause, and served to electrify readers in twenty different languages. In dramatized form it has delighted millions of auditors. The authoress represents woman’s efforts for the overthrow of slavery; efforts she put forth modestly, completely unconscious of their great power and future influence.
George Eliot, pseudonym of Marian Evans, afterwards Mrs. Lewes, then Mrs. Cross, of England (b. November 22, 1819; d. December 22, 1880), was one of the ablest of the world’s female novelists, and had but few equals among men. She was a leading epoch-maker in that introspective school which always with astonishing skill uses the “plot” in all its events, environments, and circumstances to develop each character in strict logical accord, whether for good or evil.
Victor Hugo, of France (b. February 20, 1802; d. May 22, 1885), was, in his day, the most popular author who has ever lived. Few poems, no drama, and absolutely no novel have ever produced the immediate and tremendous effect of his earlier poems, his “Hernani,” and his “Les Misérables.” Through “Hernani” he completely defeated the classic school and became the leader of the romantic school of revolutionary individualists, thus creating a new epoch in literature. He invented novelties in poetry and prose which produced strength, variety, delicacy, harmony, and richness of imagery and coloring, absolutely unparalleled and original.
