Produced by Lee Dawei, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH NOVEL MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . MADRAS MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH NOVEL (TO THE CLOSE OF THE 19TH CENTURY) BY GEORGE SAINTSBURY M.A. AND HON. D.LITT. OXON.; HON. L.L.D. ABERD.; HON. D.LITT. DURH.; FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY; HON. FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD; LATE PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH VOL. II FROM 1800 TO 1900 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1919 Solo a veces, con un dejo de zozobra y de ansiedad, timido tiembla en sus labios un viejo y triste cantar, copla que vibre en el aire como un toque funeral: _La Noche Buena se viene, la Noche Buena se va! Y nosotros nos iremos y no volveremos mas._ CARLOS FERNANDEZ SHAW, _La Balada de los Viejos._ COPYRIGHT PREFACE "The second chantry" (for it would be absurd to keep "temple") of this work "is not like the first"; in one respect especially, which seems to deserve notice in its Preface or porch--if a chantry may be permitted a porch. In Volume I.--though many of its subjects (not quite all) had been handled by me before in more or less summary fashion, or in reviews of individual books, or in other connections than that of the novel--only Hamilton, Lesage, Marivaux, and the minor "Sensibility" men and women had formed the subjects of separate and somewhat detailed studies, wholly or mainly as novelists. The case is altered in respect of the present volume. The _Essays on French Novelists_, to which I there referred, contain a larger number of such studies appertaining to the present division--studies busied with Charles de Bernard, Gautier, Murger, Flaubert, Dumas, Sandeau, Cherbuliez, Feuillet. On Balzac I have previously written two papers of some length, one as an Introduction to Messrs. Dent's almost complete translation of the _Comedie_, with shorter sequels for each book, the other an article in the _Quarterly Review_ for 1907. Some dozen or more years ago I contributed to an American edition[1] of translations of Merimee by various hands, a long "Introduction" to that most remarkable writer, and I had, somewhat earlier, written on Maupassant for the _Fortnightly Review_. One or two additional dealings of some substance with the subject might be mentioned, such as another Introduction to _Corinne_, but not to _Delphine_. These, however, and passages in more general _Histories_, hardly need specification.