"The conception is thoughtful, the character-drawing masterly at times, and always intelligent and careful, while toward the end the emotional interests become absorbing. The most striking thing about Mr. Herrick is perhaps the absolute unconventionality of his notions. His characters are not types, they are people; and he is not so much studying a problem as recording facts. The consequence is that the course of his stories is usually as original as real life. Another strong characteristic of his is a subtle, almost feminine knowledge of character."--_Washington Times._ "The title of the book, 'The Real World,' has a subtle intention. It indicates, and is true to the verities in doing so, the strange dreamlike quality of life to the man who has not yet fought his own battles, or come into conscious possession of his will,--only such battles bite into the consciousness."--_Chicago Tribune._ "Intellectually 'The Real World' is an exceptionally powerful work ... prominently among the season's best books."--_Boston Courier._ THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Obvious typographical and printer errors have been corrected without comment. In addition to obvious errors, the following changes have been made: Page 8: "head" changed to "heard" in the phrase, "... I heard the young lady exclaim...." Page 41: "thing" changed to "think" in the phrase, "... I should think...." Page 219: "car-worn" changed to "care-worn" in the phrase, "... a care-worn sort of smile...." Page 310: "their" changed to "there" in the phrase, "... seeing that there might be...." Other than the above, no effort has been made to standardize internal inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, etc. The author's usage is preserved as found in the original publication. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of an American Citizen, by Robert Herrick