_Beecher and Higginson._--Henry Ward Beecher (1813-87), amid the many activities of a busy clerical and journalistic life, found time to write one novel, “Norwood, or Village Life in New England” (1867), in which occur descriptive and narrative passages rich in insight and humour. There is only a slight plot; the movement is leisurely; we are chiefly interested in the characters, who include the usual personages to be found in a village and some curious and amusing people as well. The book is partly autobiographical, with a vein of romance running through it. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (born in 1823) is chiefly known as an essayist, but wrote one capital story, “Malbone, an Oldport Romance” (1869), which deserves wider reading as a subtle study of temperament; the scene is obviously Newport, Rhode Island. It “is largely a transcript from actual life, the chief character being drawn from the same friend of Higginson, William Hurlbert, who figures as Densdreth in Winthrop’s ‘Cecil Dreeme.’”[15] In “Madame Delia’s Expectations” (_The Atlantic_, January, 1871, reprinted in “Oldport Days,” 1873), Colonel Higginson showed that he could tell a short story well. _Mark Twain._--The literary productions of Mr. Clemens will be recorded elsewhere; here a few words may be said of his place as a writer of fiction. In technique, it cannot be maintained that he stands high; his narrative wanders whither it listeth, blameless of compact construction or climax; his style is not free from faults. Yet in spite of these defects his name has become “a household word in all places where the English language is spoken, and in many where it is not.” He has created two characters--Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn--who will live long as humorously conceived but true American boys. Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Connecticut Yankee may fade into oblivion, but it seems unlikely that the heroes of Mark Twain’s most typical books will soon be allowed to withdraw from our group of favourites. Moreover, Mr. Clemens has enshrined the Mississippi River of his youth in a kind of homely, virile prose-poetry; he has recorded, in narrative which Mr. Thompson rightly calls “firm and vigorous,” the impression which the great river made upon his youthful mind. Nowhere else shall we find such descriptions of Mississippi River life in the fifties. Artistically defective his work is indeed; but to it cannot be denied the qualities of eloquence, naturalness, and sincerity. The work, like the man, is genuine.