Italy in this period produced Count Leopardi (1798-1837), an exquisite poet of pessimism, Casanova (or Giovanni Giacomo Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1803), a poet and adventurer whose memoirs (written in French) are a classic, and Mazzini, the genius of the Italian rebellion. But reaction kept back Italy until the latter part of the nineteenth century and it is no part of my plan to notice recent works. The same must be said of Spain, Portugal and Austria. Switzerland had in H. F. Amiel (1821-81), a poet and essayist whose diary, or _Intimate Journal_, is a classic of its kind: a rare and beautiful expression of a mystic mind struggling with modern doubt. In the far north Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), brought Norway into the field of letters by a series of plays which made him at the time the greatest dramatist of the world. They are modern problem-plays, of advanced thought and rather somber atmosphere. Björnsen (1832-1910), his compatriot and contemporary, also made a world-reputation by his novels, dramas and poems, and won the Nobel Prize. His work does not live as that of Ibsen does, yet there were distinguished literary critics who at his death ranked him with Victor Hugo. In Denmark, a classic of a kind was produced by Hans Andersen (1805-75), the great fairytale writer. At the same time Russia opened its literary age, with a number of brilliant novelists. Pushkin (1799-1837), Nikolai Gogol (1800-52), Ivan Turgenieff (1818-83), Feodor Dostoeffsky (1821-81), and Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), were a group of realistic novelists, poets and essayists who commanded the attention of the world. Tolstoi’s _Anna Karenina_, at least, is another Russian work of the classic order, and Maxim Gorki sustained the brilliant tradition of story-writing in recent times. §3. MODERN ENGLISH WRITERS The crowd of writers of distinction in every country now becomes embarrassing, and I must either be content with a mere list of names or omit many whom one or other critic chooses to regard as classics. The reader must bear in mind, however, that this is not a history of literature, even in outline, and for the modern period we will choose a compromise, including the names of some who will certainly not live as Vergil and Horace live today, yet omitting many quite familiar names. I chose to begin the “modern” period with the poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744), because in his work modern ideas begin to show a marked influence. There was at the time a brilliant group of Deistic writers in England, but Pope alone (who vaguely embodies their ideas in his _Essay on Man_, the source of countless quotations), can be called a literary classic. _The Rape of the Lock_ was regarded by his contemporaries as his masterpiece.