“The little volumes of this series truly comport with their title, and are in themselves a Family Library.”—_N. Y. Commercial Advertiser._ “We have met with no work more interesting and deservedly popular than this valuable Family Library.”—_Monthly Repository._ “The plan of the Family Library must be acceptable to the American reading community.”—_N. Y. Journal of Commerce._ “To all portions of the community the entire series may be warmly recommended.”—_American Traveller._ “It is a delightful publication.”—_Truth Teller._ PROSPECTUS OF THE LIBRARY OF SELECT NOVELS. Fictitious composition is now admitted to form an extensive and important portion of literature. Well-wrought novels take their rank by the side of real narratives, and are appealed to as evidence in all questions concerning man. In them the customs of countries, the transitions and shades of character, and even the very peculiarities of costume and dialect, are curiously preserved; and the imperishable spirit that surrounds and keeps them for the use of successive generations renders the rarities for ever fresh and green. In them human life is laid down as on a map. The strong and vivid exhibitions of passion and of character which they furnish, acquire and maintain the strongest hold upon the curiosity, and, it may be added, the affections of every class of readers; for not only is entertainment in all the various moods of tragedy and comedy provided in their pages, but he who reads them attentively may often obtain, without the bitterness and danger of experience, that knowledge of his fellow-creatures which but for such aid could, in the majority of cases, be only acquired at a period of life too late to turn it to account. This “Library of Select Novels” will embrace none but such as have received the impress of general approbation, or have been written by authors of established character; and the publishers hope to receive such encouragement from the public patronage as will enable them in the course of time to produce a series of works of uniform appearance, and including most of the really valuable novels and romances that have been or shall be issued from the modern English and American press.