Holmes’s fiction is subordinate both to his essays and his poems, and should be postponed until the reader has become a true lover of the Autocrat. The novels are good for the reason, if for no other, that Holmes was one of the rare geniuses who cannot write otherwise than with wisdom and charm. ANTHONY HOPE (Hawkins). _The Prisoner of Zenda._ The first in point of time and excellence of a now numerous class of historical novels in which the history and the geography as well as the “story” are fictitious. WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS. _A Chance Acquaintance._ _The Lady of the Aroostook._ _Dr. Breen’s Practice._ _A Modern Instance._ _The Rise of Silas Lapham._ _The Minister’s Charge._ _April Hopes._ _The Flight of Pony Baker._ THOMAS HUGHES (1823-96). _Tom Brown’s Schooldays._ _Tom Brown at Oxford._ VICTOR HUGO (1812-85). _Les Miserables._ _Quatrevingt-Treize._ _Notre Dame de Paris._ _Les Travailleurs de la Mer._ Hugo’s novels appear in several English translations. HENRIK IBSEN. _Prose Dramas._ Edited and translated by William Archer and others. The reading of Ibsen, the greatest dramatist of the nineteenth century, may be postponed until the reader has come to mature views of life. WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859). _Sketch-Book._ _Tales of a Traveler._ _Bracebridge Hall._ W. W. JACOBS. _Many Cargoes._ _Light Freights._ _Dialstone Lane._ A teller of delightfully droll stories. Like Frank R. Stockton, a much finer artist than the more serious-minded critics would be disposed to admit. It is difficult to select for this list the best of the score of talented short-story writers of the day. Perhaps this is a good place to slip in the name of a contemporary American whose fresh and original stories have deservedly survived their day in the magazines and been collected in volumes--Mr. Sidney Porter, “O. Henry.” HENRY JAMES. _Roderick Hudson._ _Daisy Miller._ _The American._ _The Portrait of a Lady._ _The Princess Casamassima._ Young readers should beware of misleading chatter about Mr. James which appears in columns of book gossip and newspaper comment; it attempts to turn Mr. James into a joke and caricatures his subtlety and obscurity; it is analogous to the flippant and derisive nonsense through which Browning lived to reach the people at last. “Roderick Hudson” is a great novel and is as clear, strong, and easy to read as the work of any other thoughtful novelist you may choose for comparison. [Illustration: ELIOT] SARAH ORNE JEWETT (1849-1909). _Country By-Ways._ _A Country Doctor._ _A White Heron._ _Strangers and Wayfarers._ _The Country of the Pointed Firs._ Stories of the better classes of New England country folk written in a style of unblemished clarity and sweetness. MARY JOHNSTON. _Lewis Rand._ CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819-75). _Alton Locke._ _Hypatia._ _Westward Ho!_