The Brontë sisters, Charlotte and Emily, made a tremendous sensation in England when, from their retirement, they sent out certain works of such passionate intensity that readers who had long been familiar with novels were startled into renewed attention. Reading these works now we recognize the genius of the writers, but we recognize also a morbid, unwholesome quality, which is a reflection not of English life but of the personal and unhappy temperament of two girls who looked on life first as a gorgeous romance and then as a gloomy tragedy. Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) was perhaps the more gifted of the two sisters, and her best-known works are _Jane Eyre_ and _Villette_. The date of the latter novel (1853) was made noteworthy by the masterpiece of another woman novelist, Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), who was the exact opposite of the Brontë sisters,--serene, well-balanced, and with a fund of delicious humor. All these qualities and more appeared in _Cranford_ (1853), a series of sketches of country life (first contributed to Dickens's _Household Words_) which together form one of the most charming stories produced during the Victorian era. The same author wrote a few other novels and an admirable _Life of Charlotte Brontë_. [Sidenote: CHARLES READE] Charles Reade (1814-1884) was a follower of Dickens in his earlier novels, such as _Peg Woffington_; but he made one notable departure when he wrote _The Cloister and the Hearth_ (1861). This is a story of student life and vagabond life in Europe, in the stirring times that followed the invention of printing. The action moves rapidly; many different characters appear; the scene shifts from Holland across Europe to Italy, and back again; adventures of a startling kind meet the hero at every stage of his foot journey. It is a stirring tale, remarkably well told; so much will every uncritical reader gladly acknowledge. Moreover, there are critics who, after studying _The Cloister and the Hearth_, rank it with the best historical novels in all literature. [Illustration: MRS. ELIZABETH GASKELL From the portrait by George Richmond, R.A.] [Sidenote: TROLLOPE] Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) began as a follower of Thackeray, but in the immense range of his characters and incidents he soon outstripped his master. Perhaps his best work is _Barchester Towers_ (1857), one of a series of novels which picture with marvelous fidelity the life of a cathedral town in England. Another novelist who followed Thackeray, and then changed his allegiance to Dickens, was Bulwer Lytton (1803-1873). He was essentially an imitator, a follower of the market, and before Thackeray and Dickens were famous he had followed almost every important English novelist from Mrs. Radcliffe to Walter Scott. Two of his historical novels, _Rienzi_ and _The Last Days of Pompeii_, may be mildly recommended. The rest are of the popular and somewhat trashy kind; critics jeer at them, and the public buys them in large numbers.