F. T. R. CONTENTS _PART I_ PREMISES CHAPTER I THE SATIRIC SPIRIT PAGE Various interpretations because of various manifestations. Chief constituents, criticism and humor. Relation of these in the formula. Testimony of satirists as to the presence of humor, criticism being taken for granted. The satiric motive; temperamental cause and ethical intent. Testimony as to both. Symposium on the discrepancy between prospectus and performance. The realizable ideal. Objects: empiric data on vice, folly, and deception. Reason for universal criticism and ridicule of deception. Criteria of good satire. Difficulties, limitations, and real function 1 CHAPTER II THE CONFLUENCE Relationship between satire and fiction. Ancient but incomplete and uneven alliance. Union in the nineteenth century. The Victorian novelists. Their chronology and background. Classification as satirists. Testimony of the novelists themselves as to satire 41 _PART II_ METHODS CHAPTER I THE ROMANTIC Possible methodic categories. Reason for present choice. Proportion of the romantic or fantastic type. Peacock and Butler. Lytton and Disraeli. Thackeray and Meredith. Characteristics of this form of satire: wit, invention, exaggeration, and concentration 59 CHAPTER II THE REALISTIC Character of Victorian realism. Nature of realistic satire. Subdivisions, based on authors’ methods and devices. The direct or didactic satirists: Lytton, Thackeray, Dickens, Meredith. Satire in plot or situation: _Martin Chuzzlewit_, _Vanity Fair_, _The Egoist_. Minor episodes. Satire expressed by witty characters, of various types 84 CHAPTER III THE IRONIC