JANE EYRE, by CHARLOTTE BRONTE. 



Charlotte Bronte once told her sisters that they were wrong — 

 even morally wrong — in making their heroines beautiful as a matter 

 of course. They replied that it was impossible to have a heroine 

 interesting on any other terms. The answer was, * ' I will prove to 

 you that you are wrong ; I will show you a heroine as plain and as 

 small as myself, whoshall be as interesting as any of yours." Jane 

 Eyre was the result — a novel full of power and knowledge of life, 

 coming from a quiet Yorkshire parsonage. 



The MS. of Jane Eyre was sent to several publishers. "They 

 all told me it was deficient in ' startling incident ' and ' thrilling 

 excitement'; that it would never suit the circulating libraries." 

 Finally it was sent to Smith, Elder & Co. Their reader of the MS. 

 "was so powerfully struck by the character of the tale that he 

 reported his impressions in very strong terms to Mr. Smith. . . . 

 When a second reader had taken the MS. home in the evening and 

 became so deeply interested in it as to sit up half the night to finish 

 it, Mr. Smith's curiosity was sufficiently excited to prompt him to 

 read it for himself; and great as were the praises which had been 

 bestowed upon it, he found that they had not exceeded the truth." 



One of the first to acknowledge the extraordinary merit oi Jane 

 Eyre was Thackeray, to whom the second edition was dedicated. 

 Mrs. Gaskell says that " the whole reading world of England was 

 in a ferment to discover the unknown author." 



THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, by 

 JOHN BUNYAN. 



The Pilgrim's Progress has been called " the greatest example of 

 allegory in literature," and the "prose epic of English Puritanism." 

 Froude says that Bunyan, if his "importance may be measured by 

 the influence which he has exerted over succeeding generations, must 

 be counted among the most extraordinary persons whom England 

 produced." 



"The characteristic peculiarity of The Pilgrim* s Progress" says 

 Macaulay, " is that it is the only work of its kind which possesses a 

 strong human interest." "The style of Bunyan," he adds, "is 

 delightful to every reader, and invaluable as a study to every person 

 who wishes to obtain a wide command over the English language. . . 

 Though there were many clever men in England during the latter 

 half of the seventeenth century, there were only two great creative 

 minds. One of those minds produced Paradise Lost and the other 

 The Pilgrim's Progress.''' 



WESTWARD HO! by CHARLES KINGSLEY. 



Westward Ho ! is regarded as Kingsley's finest piece of work. 

 "Few better historical works have ever been written," says Mr. 

 Saintsbury. " Where Westward Ho I deserves the preference, and 



