the villages of 'Pretty Verses,' 'Gallant Epistles,' 'Assiduity,' etc., while elsewhere in the region are the less cheerful localities of 'Levity,' 'Indifference,' 'Perfidy,' and so forth. La Calprenede, a Gascon by birth, was the author of _Cleopatre_ (which ranks perhaps with _Cyrus_ as the chief example of the style), of _Cassandre_ and of _Pharamond_. Gauthier de Coste (which was his personal name) figures, like most of the notable persons of the middle of the century, in the _Historiettes_ of Tallemant, who says of him, 'Il n'y a jamais eu un homme plus Gascon que celui-ci.' The assertion is supported by some characteristic but not easily quotable anecdotes. The criticism of Tallemant, however, does not apply badly to the whole class of compositions. 'Les heros,' says he, speaking of _Cassandre_, 'se ressemblent comme deux gouttes d'eau, parlent tous _Phebus_ (the euphuist jargon of the time), et sont tous des gens a cent mille lieues au dessus des autres hommes.' Marin le Roy, Seigneur de Gomberville, who was something of a Jansenist, attended rather to edification than gallantry in his _Alcidiane_, _Caritee_, _Polexandre_, and _Cytheree_. Though earlier in date he is inferior in power to Mademoiselle de Scudery and to La Calprenede, the first of whom had some wit and much culture, while La Calprenede possessed a decided grasp of heroic character and some notion of the method of composing historical novels. Gomberville, a man of wealth and position, was also a writer of moral works. Putting the artificiality of the general style out of the question, the chief fault to be found with these books is their enormous length. They fill eight, ten, or even twelve volumes; they consist of five, six, or even seven thousand pages, though the pages are not very large and the print by no means close. Even the liveliest work--work like Fielding's or Le Sage's--would become tiresome on such a scale as this; and it is still incomprehensible how any one not having some special object to serve by it could struggle through such enormous wastes of verbiage and unreality as form the bulk of these novels. Even when the passion for the heroic style strictly so called began to wane no great improvement at first manifested itself. Catherine Desjardins[243] (who wrote under the name of Madame de Villedieu) produced numerous books (the chief of which is _Le Grand Alcandre_), not indeed so absolutely preposterous in general conception, but even more vapid and destitute of originality and distinction[244].