R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

52 Walter de la MareNovelists, too, tend probably to write of what theywere familiar with when they were younger. Howeverhospitable they may be to new ways, new ideas, newviews, these are not their spiritual home. But to sorttheir achievements on this basis would be a feat for thekindly ants in a fairy tale.If, then, any great novel had been written by a womanduring the 'seventies it would not much concern us now.So far as I can discover none was. George Eliot's finestwork had been done in the 'sixties, and only Daniel Derondaappeared during the next ten years. Of other than great—of sound, gifted, amusing and edifying fiction therewas an abundant supply. How much of it is read nowadays,I cannot say; probably, little. For each generationin turn gracelessly discards the fiction of its immediatepredecessor. We begin to read grown-up novels in ourlater 'teens, and then read those written for the most partby novelists many years our seniors, but hot from thepress. A novel-reader upwards of forty, then, may bevividly familiar with the fiction current when he cameof age, and yet have the vaguest acquaintance with thatof his childhood. For this reason any little privateexcursion such a reader may nowadays make into theminor fiction of the 'seventies will largely be into almostvirgin country. A variegated scene will spread itselfaround him, a curious adventure may prove his amplereward. If he is tempted to be condescending let himremind himself that current criticism cannot but beaffected to some extent by current taste; that that veerswith the wind; and that a personal judgment, also, isseldom innocent of prejudice, and may be as temporaryas it is assured.In 1897, for example, a large flat volume appeared entitledWomen Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign. It waswritten by a number of ladies ' who had been concerned