Trollope, Thomas Hardy, James Payn, George Augustus Sala, William
Thornbury, the author of "The Bachelor of the Albany," Mortimer
Collins, G.H. Lewes, Shirley Brooks, Douglas Jerrold, C. Crowley, T. de
Quincey, S.W. Fullom, J. Hannay, W. Howitt, C. Mackay, G.J.
Whyte-Melville, T. Miller, L. Ritchie, F.E. Smedley, J.A. St. John, M.F.
Tupper, F.M. Whitly, F. Williams, C.L. Wraxall, and others.]
[Footnote 209: T.H. Lister, Marquis of Normanby, Lady Caroline Lamb,
Countess of Morley, Lady Charlotte Bury, Lady Dacre, Mrs. Gore, Lady
Blessington.]
VI.
James Fenimore Cooper said in regard to the materials for American
fiction: "There is a familiarity of the subject, a scarcity of events,
and a poverty in the accompaniments that drive an author from the
undertaking in despair." But the truth of this statement has been
greatly modified, if not quite refuted, by the work of that great
novelist and of several others who have succeeded him. It is true that
American life presents less salient characteristics than that of
Europe; that class distinctions are less marked; and that the energies
of the nation are still so much confined to strictly utilitarian
objects, that life moves along with unpicturesque sameness and
evenness. But mankind remains equally complicated and equally
interesting under whatever circumstances it may be placed.
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