MASTERPIECES OF THE
MASTERS OF FICTION
OTHER BOOKS
BY
WILLIAM DUDLEY FOULKE
SLAV OR SAXON
LIFE OF OLIVER P. MORTON
MAYA (A Romance in Prose)
PROTEAN PAPERS
ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF HISTORY OF THE LANGOBARDS BY PAUL THE DEACON
MAYA (A Dramatic Poem)
DOROTHY DAY
page: [3][View Page [3]]MASTERPIECES OF THE
MASTERS OF FICTION
BYWILLIAM DUDLEY FOULKE
NEW YORK THE COSMOPOLITAN PRESS 1912
Copyright, 1912, by
William Dudley Foulke
MASTERPIECES OF THE MASTERS OF FICTION
PREFACE
A SHORT time ago I determined that instead of taking up any new works of fiction I would go over the masterpieces which I had read long since and see what changes time had made in my impressions of them. To do this I chose some forty of the most distinguished authors and decided to select one story from each,— the best one, if I could make up my mind which that was — at all events, one which stood in the first rank of his productions. I determined to read these in succession, one after another, in the shortest time possible, and thus get a comprehensive notion of the whole. Of course under such conditions exhaustive criticism would be out of the question, but I thought that the general perspective and the comparative merits and faults of each work would appear more vividly in this manner than in any other way.
The productions of living authors were discarded, as well as all fiction in verse.
Arranged chronologically, the selections I made were as follows:
| 1535 | RABELAIS | "Gargantua." |
| 1605-1615 | CERVANTES | "Don Quixote." |
| 1715-1735 | LE SAGE | "Gil Bias." |
| 1719 | DEFOE | "Robinson Crusoe." |
| 1726 | SWIFT | "Gulliver's Travels." |
| 1733 | PREVOST | "Manon Lescaut." |
| 1749 | FIELDING | "Tom Jones." |
| 1759 | JOHNSON | "Rasselas." |
| 1759 | VOLTAIRE | "Candide." |
| 1759-1767 | STERNE | "Tristram Shandy." |
| 1766 | GOLDSMITH | "The Vicar of Wakefield." |
| 1774 | GOETHE | "The Sorrows of Young Werther." |
| 1787 | SAINT PIERRE | "Paul and Virginia." |
| 1807 | CHATEAUBRIAND | "Atala." |
| 1813 | AUSTEN | "Pride and Prejudice." |
| 1813 | FOUQUE | "Undine." |
| 1814 | CHAMISSO | "Peter Schlemihl." |
| 1820 | IRVING | "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." |
| 1820 | SCOTT | "Ivanhoe." |
| 1827 | MANZONI | "The Betrothed." |
| 1835 | BALZAC | "Eugenie Grandet." |
| 1841 | GOGOL | "Dead Souls." |
| 1845 | DUMAS | "The Three Guardsmen." |
| 1847 | BRONTE | "Jane Eyre." |
| 1847 | MERIMÉE | "Carmen." |
| 1850 | DICKENS | "David Copperfield." |
| 1850 | HAWTHORNE | "The Scarlet Letter." |
| 1852 | THACKERAY | "Henry Esmond." |
| 1852 | STOWE | "Uncle Tom's Cabin." |
| 1853 | GASKELL | "Cranford." |
| 1856 | AUERBACH | "Barfüssele." |
| 1857 | VON SCHEFFEL | "Ekkehard." |
| 1857 | FEUILLET | "The Romance of a Poor Young Man." |
| 1857 | FLAUBERT | "Madame Bovary." |
| 1859 | MEREDITH | "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel." |
| 1861 | READE | "The Cloister and the Hearth." |
| 1862 | HUGO | "Les Miserables." |
| 1863 | ELIOT | "Romola."! |
| 1866 | DOSTOYEVSKY | "Crime and Punishment." |
| 1868 | TURGENIEFF | "Smoke." |
| 1869 | BLACKMORE | "Lorna Doone." |
| 1878 | TOLSTOI | "Anna Karenina." |
| 1883 | STEVENSON | "Treasure Island." |
I think I see many picking out here and there a name, and hear them saying, "What a bad selection! Wilkie Collins ought to be in the list rather than Charles Reade; 'Vanity Fair' ought to be in the place of 'Henry Esmond,' 'Waverly' in the place of 'Ivanhoe'," etc., etc. But if we except two or three names like Manzoni and Gogol, who are not yet estimated at their full value by English and American readers, I think common opinion will justify, in a general way, my catalogue of authors, and I feel sure that the works chosen, if not the masterpieces, are at least fairly typical of each.
page: [9][View Page [9]]CONTENTS
- PREFACE 5
- RABELAIS "Gargantua" 11
- CERVANTES "Don Quixote" 16
- LE SAGE "Gil Bias" 25
- DEFOE "Robinson Crusoe" 36
- SWIFT "Gulliver's Travels" 39
- PREVOST "Manon Lescaut" 43
- FIELDING "Tom Jones" 45
- JOHNSON "Rasselas" 49
- VOLTAIRE "Candide" 55
- STERNE "Tristram Shandy" 60
- GOLDSMITH "The Vicar of Wakefield" 64
- GOETHE "The Sorows of Young Werther" 72
- SAINT PIERRE "Paul and Virginia" 76
- CHATEAUBRIAND "Atala" 79
- AUSTEN "Pride and Prejudice" 82
- FOUQUE "Undine" 93
- CHAMISSO "Peter Schlemihl" 95
- IRVING "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" 99
- SCOTT "Ivanhoe" 101
- MANZONI "The Betrothed" 107
- BALZAC "Eugenie Grandet" 125
- GOGOL "Dead Souls" 130
- DUMAS "The Three Guardsmen" 132
- BRONTE "Jane Eyre" 134
- MERIMEE "Carmen" 138
- DICKENS "David Copperfield" 141
- HAWTHORNE "The Scarlet Letter" 150
- THACKERAY "Henry Esmond" 158
- STOWE "Uncle Tom's Cabin" 176
- GASKELL "Cranford" 180
- AUERBACH "Barfüssele" 183
- page: 10[View Page 10]
- VON SCHEFFEL "Ekkehard" 189
- FEUILLET "The Romance of a Poor Young Man" 192
- MEREDITH "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" 196
- READE "The Cloister and the Hearth" 200
- HUGO "Les Miserables" 209
- ELIOT "Romola" 215
- DOSTOYEVSKY "Crime and Punishment" 228
- TURGENIEFF "Smoke" 231
- BLACKMORE "Lorna Doone" 237
- STEVENSON "Treasure Island" 267
