originality for my List. Nearly twenty years ago an excellent
"Descriptive Catalogue of Historical Novels and Tales" was
published; Mr. H. Courthope Bowen was the compiler,* and I would
here mention my indebtedness to him. In Mr. Bowen's list, however,
one finds good and bad alike--all the works of even such moderately
endowed writers as G. P. R. James, Ainsworth, Grant, etc., are
there set down. It seemed to me that, not only was there room for
a new list of Historical Novels (Stevenson, Marion Crawford, Conan
Doyle, Weyman, Mason, and a number of more or less capable
romancists having come forward in the last twenty years), but,
also, that more than ever was there a need for some sort of clue in
the search for such books. In the last year or two there has been
an almost alarming influx in this department of Fiction, and
teachers in schools, besides readers in general, may be glad to be
saved a somewhat tedious investigation.


* "A Descriptive Catalogue of Historical Novels and Tales, for the
use of School Libraries and Teachers of History," compiled and
described by H. Courthope Bowen, M. A. (Edward Stanford, 1882.)


Having thus attempted to justify the existence of my little
"Guide," I pass on to deal with the subject of Historical Fiction
itself. Most of us, I suppose, at one time or another have
experienced a thrill of interest when some prominent personage,
whom we knew well by repute, came before us in the flesh. We
watched his manner, and noted all those shades of expression which
in another's countenance we should have passed by unheeded. Well,
it seems to me that, parallel with this experience, is that which