n meet at every turn, and not
infrequently exposition is found freely intermingled; while novels have
been written with the avowed sole purpose of changing the beliefs of a
people. _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ is a story of intense dramatic activity, and
abounds in vivid descriptions of places and persons. It is generally
dealing with incidents relating to the characters of the story, yet it
really makes an exposition of the evils of slavery, and certainly was no
small factor in stirring the American people into vigorous action
against the slave dealers. Yet no one would classify the book otherwise
than among the narratives. Although into Burke's _Conciliation_ other
elements enter, yet everyone will admit it to be argumentative in the
highest degree. So while it is well to classify the selections read, yet
fine theoretical distinctions should be abandoned. It is not so
necessary to classify and name as it is to compare and distinguish.

Narratives have been classified variously, but not more satisfactorily
than have other forms of literature. A narrative is true or fictitious,
and there appears the first principle of classification. Truthful
narratives are personal when they are the simple account of the deeds of
some person or thing, biographical when they show a clear and evident
purpose to detail the events in the life of the person, historical when
they deal with larger and more complicated questions and when the actors
are as numerous as the actions are various. Fictitious narratives
comprise short stories and novels. One prominent writer notes the
following types: (1) The realistic novel that is true to actual life and
often enters into the discussion of important questions of record. (2)
The novel of life and manners which is largely descriptive and in which
the exigencies of the plot give way to the study of customs. (3) The
novel of incident in which the plot is everything and description and
character study are avoided or subordinated to action. (4) The romance
which usually deals with things as they were in days long past and with
actions that little concern the present. Marvelous and even supernatural
incidents crowd its pages. (5) The idealistic novel which paints the
world as it should be and makes its actors more nearly perfect than the
world accepts as typical. (6) The novel with a purpose which seeks to
convert its readers by the vividness of its portraits rather than by
argument, though by means of many detaile