Reasons for beginning with Mme. de Stael--_Delphine_--The tone--The story--_Corinne_--Its improved conditions--An illustrated edition of it--The story--The character of Nelvil--And the book's absurdities--Compensations: Corinne herself--Nelvil again--Its aesthetics--The author's position in the History of the Novel--Chateaubriand: his peculiar position as a novelist--And the remarkable interconnection of his works in fiction--_Atala_--_Rene_--Difference between its importance and its merit--_Les Natchez_--_Les Martyrs_--The story--Its "panoramic" quality--And its remarkable advance in style--Chateaubriand's Janus-position in this--Illustrated. CHAPTER II PAUL DE KOCK, OTHER MINORS OF 1800-1830, AND NODIER 39 The fate of popular minor novelists--Examples of them--Paul de Kock--_L'Enfant de ma Femme_--_Petits Tableaux de Moeurs_--_Gustave_--The caricatured _Anglais_--_Edmond et sa Cousine_--_Andre le Savoyard_--_Jean_--_La Femme_, _le Mari et l'Amant_--_Mon Voisin Raymond_--_Le Barbier de Paris_--The Pauline grisette--Others--The minors before 1830--Mme. de Montolieu: _Caroline de Lichtfield_--Its advance on "Sensibility"--Madame de Genlis _iterum_--The minor popular novel--Ducray-Duminil: _Le Petit Carillonneur_--V. Ducange--_L'Artiste et le Soldat_--_Ludovica_--Auguste Ricard: _L'Ouvreuse de Loges_--The importance of these minors not inconsiderable--The Vicomte d'Arlincourt: _Le Solitaire_--Nodier--His short stories--_Trilby_--_Le Songe d'Or_--The minors--_La Fee aux Miettes_--_Smarra_ and _Soeur Beatrix_--_Ines de las Sierras_--Nodier's special quality. CHAPTER III VICTOR HUGO 96 Limitations--_Han d'Islande_--_Bug-Jargal_--_Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamne_--_Claude Gueux_--_Notre-Dame de Paris_--The story easy to anticipate--Importance of the actual _title_--The working out of the one under the other--The story recovers itself latterly--But the characters?--The thirty years' interval--_Les Miserables_--_Les Travailleurs de la Mer_--The _genius loci_--Guernsey at the time--_L'Homme Qui Rit_--_Quatre-Vingt-Treize_--Final remarks. CHAPTER IV BEYLE AND BALZAC 133