THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS JOINT EDITORS ARTHUR MEE Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge J. A. HAMMERTON Editor of Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia VOL. II FICTION MCMX _Table of Contents_ BORROW, GEORGE Lavengro Romany Rye BRADDON, M.E. Lady Audley's Secret BRADLEY, EDWARD ("COTHBERT BEDE") Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green BRONTË, CHARLOTTE Jane Eyre Shirley Villette BRONTË, EMILY Wuthering Heights BUCHANAN, ROBERT Shadow of the Sword BUNYAN, JOHN Holy War Pilgrim's Progress BURNEY, FANNY Evelina CARLETON, WILLIAM The Black Prophet CARROLL, LEWIS Alice's Adventures in Wonderland CERVANTES Don Quixote CHAMISSO, ADALBERT VON Peter Schlemihl, the Shadowless Man CHATEAUBRIAND, FRANÇOIS RENÉ DE Atala CHERBULIEZ, CHARLES VICTOR Samuel Brohl & Co. COLLINS, WILKIE No Name The Woman in White CONWAY, HUGH Called Back COOPER, FENIMORE Last of the Mohicans The Spy CRAIK, MRS. John Halifax, Gentleman CROLY, GEORGE Salathiel, or Tarry Thou Till I Come DANA, RICHARD HENRY Two Years before the Mast A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end of Volume XX. * * * * * GEORGE BORROW Lavengro George Henry Borrow was born at East Dereham, Norfolk, England, July 5, 1803. His father was an army captain, and Borrow's boyhood was spent at military stations in various parts of the kingdom. From his earliest youth he had a taste for roving and fraternising with gipsies and other vagrants. In 1819 he entered a solicitor's office at Norwich. After a long spell of drudgery and literary effort, he went to London in 1824, but left a year later, and for some time afterwards his movements were obscure. For a period of about five years, beginning 1835, he acted as the Bible Society's agent, selling and distributing Bibles in Spain, and in 1842 he published "The Bible in Spain." which appears in another volume of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS. (See TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE.) "Lavengro," written in 1851, enhanced the fame which Borrow had already secured by his earlier works. The book teems with character sketches drawn from real life in quarters which few could penetrate, and although they are often extremely eccentric, they are never grotesque, and never strike the mind with a sense of merely invented unreality. Here and there occur illuminating outbursts of reflection in philosophic accent which reveal in startling style the working of Borrow's mind. The linguistic lore is phenomenal, as in all his books. But though the wild, passionate scenes make the whole narrative an indescribable phantasmagoria, the diction is always free from turgidity, and from involved periods. Borrow died at Oulton, Suffolk, on July 26, 1881. A mighty athlete, an inveterate wanderer, a philological enthusiast, and a man