Lytton's later works, that atmosphere of a home which we always breathe in the novels of the greater writers. After the Italian novels Lytton for a time turned his energies to dramatic writing. The fantastic romance of _Zanoni_ (1842) and _The Last of the Barons_, which followed it, are exceptions. With _The Caxtons_ (1849) we find him entering upon a new period of prose fiction. _My Novel_ (1853) was a sequel to it; and these two are generally ranked with _What will He do with It?_ (1859) as a group devoted to contemporary life. Perhaps _Kenelm Chillingly_ (1873) ought to be added. These novels are altogether mellower than the historical romances, and wholesomer than what may be called the criminal group. To a great extent the theatrical glare has disappeared. It is clear that in writing these novels Lytton was catering for the taste which had been partly indicated and partly created by Dickens and Thackeray. The difference is that, whereas Dickens and Thackeray are habitually in touch with nature, Lytton is so only in moments of inspiration. His true field was not the natural, but rather the fanciful and fantastic. Two of his most successful works are _Zanoni_, which flings probability to the winds, and _The Coming Race_ (1871), in which the faculty exercised is that of prophecy. In the latter Lytton showed again his extraordinary sensitiveness. Forecasts like _The Coming Race_ have been characteristic of recent literature, and he seems to have divined their approach. Lytton's dramas are remarkably like in tone to his novels, and the popularity they have enjoyed has been due to much the same causes. But whereas the novels are overshadowed, in critical opinion at least, and largely even in popularity, the dramas remain what they were when they were written, among the best plays of a non-dramatic age. Not that they can compare in literary merit with even such semi-failures as Browning's plays, still less with Tennyson's one great success, _Becket_. They are melodramatic, and the striving for stage effect is evident; but yet they are interesting and well adapted for representation, and the melodrama is good of its kind. Lytton's first play, _The Duchess de la Vallière_, was a failure; but _The Lady of Lyons_ (1838) speedily became, and still remains, a favourite on the stage. It is the best specimen of Lytton's dramatic work. Attempts have been made to put the prose comedy, _Money_ (1840) above it; but, though effective, _Money_ is very flimsy in construction and characterisation. Lytton's third drama, _Cardinal Richelieu_ (1838), is like one of the historical novels adapted to the stage; though, curiously enough, it is less meretricious than they are.