e's Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Read a few of their verses also.
Contrast Charlotte with Jane Austen. Close with several brief selections
from Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte.

IV--THACKERAY

1. _The Story of His Life_--School days at the Charterhouse. Cambridge.
Study of art abroad. _The Constitutional_. Newspaper work. His marriage
and his daughters. His first novel. His lectures. The English Humorist,
and later, The Four Georges. Visits to America. Attempt at political
life. Editor of _Cornhill Magazine_. Read Thackeray's Death, in Spare
Hours, by Dr. John Brown.

2. _Vanity Fair_--The novel without a hero. Becky Sharp: intellect
_minus_ heart; Amelia Sedley: heart _minus_ intellect. Interest of the
historical setting. Read from the Duchess of Richmond's ball.

3. _Henry Esmond, and The Virginians_--Henry Esmond: its place as one of
the few great novels. The historical setting. Character of Beatrix. Is
the estimate of the Duke of Marlborough just? The Virginians: connection
with Henry Esmond. Is the American color correct? Reading: scene between
Beatrix and the Pretender.

4. _Pendennis, and The Newcomes_--Pendennis: London newspaper life.
Compare the characters of Laura and Helen. The Newcomes: most popular of
the novels. Theme: the unhappy marriage. The character of Colonel
Newcome. Reading: the Charterhouse and the death of Colonel Newcome.

5. _Thackeray's Place in the Literary World_--His instant success as a
novelist. His friendships among men of letters. His warmth of
affection. Discussion of his satire. His place as social preacher. Is
Taine's estimate of him just?

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Biographical and Harry Furniss's editions of the
novels (introductions). Melvill: Life of Thackeray. Merivale and
Marzials: Life of Thackeray. Chesterton: Thackeray. Riding: Thackeray's
London.

V--DICKENS

1. _The Man and the Author_--His early life of hardship and the material
it furnished him. Reminiscences in David Copperfield. Newspaper life and
Sketches by Boz. Origin of this name. The launching of Pickwick. Growing
fame. Marriage. Trips to America. Dickens as actor and reader. Home at
Gad's Hill. Grave in Westminster Abbey.

2. _The Humor and Pathos of Dickens_--Pickwick as a type of pure humor.
The grotesque, illustrated by Quilp, Squeers, Uriah Heep. The farcical,
as illustrated by Micawber, Pecksniff, and Sarah Gamp. Pathos in Tiny
Tim, Paul Dombey, and Little Nell. Reading from Bardell vs. Pickwick,
and