Gautier: his burden of "style"--Abstract (with translations) of _La Morte Amoureuse_--Criticism thereof--A parallel from painting--The reality--And the passion of it--Other short stories--Gautier's humour: _Les Jeune-France_--Return to _Fortunio_--And others--Longer books: _Le Capitaine Fracasse_ and others--_Mlle. De Maupin_--Merimee--Carmen--_Colomba_--Its smaller companions: _Mateo Falcone_, etc.--Those of _Carmen_; _Arsene Guillot_--And _L'Abbe Aubain_--_La Prise de la Redoute_--The _Dernieres Nouvelles_; _Il Viccolo di Madama Lucrezia_--_Djoumane_--_Lokis_--_La Chambre Bleue_--The _Chronique de Charles IX_--The semi-dramatic stories: _La Jacquerie_--_Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement_, etc.--Musset: charm of his dramatised stories; his pure narration unsuccessful--_Frederic et Bernerette_--_Les Deux Maitresses_, _Le Fils du Titien_, etc.--_Emmeline_--Gerard de Nerval: his peculiar position--_La Boheme Galante_, _Les Filles du Feu_, and _Le Reve et la Vie_--Their general character--Particular examples--_Aurelia_--And especially _Sylvie_--Alfred de Vigny: _Cinq-Mars_--The faults in its general scheme--And in its details--_Stello_ less of a novel, but containing better novel-stuff--Its framework and "anecdotes"--The death of Gilbert--The satiric episode: contrast--The Chatterton part--The tragedy of Andre Chenier--_Servitude et Grandeur Militaires_--The first story--The second--and third--The moral of the three--Note on Fromentin's _Dominique_: its altogether exceptional character. CHAPTER VII THE MINORS OF 1830 281 Sainte-Beuve: _Volupte_--Its "puff-book"--Itself--Its character in various aspects--Jules Sandeau and Charles de Bernard--Sandeau's work--Bernard's--Sue, Soulie, and the novel of melodrama: _Le Juif Errant_, etc.--Melodramatic fiction generally--_Le Chateau des Pyrenees_--_Les Memoires du Diable_--Later writers and writings of the class--Murger--The _Vie de Boheme_--_Les Buveurs d'Eau_ and the Miscellanies--Reybaud: _Jerome Paturot_, and Thackeray on its earlier part--The windfall of Malvina--The difference of the Second Part--Not much of a novel--But an invaluable document--Mery--_Les Nuits Anglaises_--The minor stories--_Histoire d'une Colline_--The "Manchester" article--Karr--Roger de Beauvoir: _Les Cabaret des Morts_--Ourliac: _Contes du Bocage_--Achard--Souvestre, Feval, etc.--Borel's _Champavert_. CHAPTER VIII DUMAS THE ELDER 323 The case of Dumas--Charge and discharge--Morality--Plagiarism and devilling--The collaborators?--The positive value as fiction and as literature of the books: the less worthy works--The worthier: treatment of them not so much individually as under heads--His attitude to plot--To character--To description (and "style")--To conversation. CHAPTER IX THE FRENCH NOVEL IN 1850 343