his varied experiences in his
writings.

He has some remarkable books, long, careful, full of psychological
problems. His Old Wives' Tale, Anna of the Five Towns and Clay-hanger
all deal with the place and the people with which he was first familiar,
and are graphic pictures of types. In Hilda Lessways he presents a study
rather unlike those in his first books, and in Denry the Audacious and
Buried Alive he has quite another manner and keener humor.

He is singularly direct and painstaking in his work, a master of
realism. For sheer observation, says one critic, he is unequaled. Of
late he has visited America and made a close and remarkably sympathetic
study of our country, our cities, our manners.

Take up Bennett also as a playwright, and note the good work he has done
in this field; contrast his plays with his earlier books. Read from
Hilda Lessways and from the graphic description of the siege of Paris in
the Old Wives' Tale, and also a descriptive chapter from the Five Towns.
Compare his realistic work with that of Henry James, and note the
differences. Quote from his little essay, How to Live on Twenty-four
Hours a Day.

* * * * *

Clubs which wish programs for more than ten meetings may take in
addition to the authors already suggested these others:

De Morgan: read Joseph Vance, Alice for Short, and An Affair of
Dishonor. Conan Doyle: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The White Company.
Eden Phillpotts: Knock at a Venture, The Port-reeve, The Secret Woman.
A. E. W. Mason: Four Feathers, The Truants, Courtship of Morrice. Robert
Hichens: The Garden of Allah, The Dweller on the Threshold. Anthony
Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda, The Dolly Dialogues, Quisante. Agnes and
Egerton Castle: The Pride of Jennico, If Youth But Knew, The Secret
Garden. E. F. Benson: The Challoners, An Act in a Backwater, The Luck of
the Vails. May Sinclair: The Divine Fire, The Judgment of Eve. Mrs.
Henry Dudeney: The Battle of the Weak, The Story of Susan.

Detailed criticisms and complete bibliographies of many novelists here
mentioned may be found in Some English Story Tellers by F. T. Cooper
(1912).

CHAPTER XVI

THE GILDED AGE OF LOUIS XIV

I--THE KING

1. _The Story of His Life_.

2. _The Splendor of the Court_--Compulsory residence of the nobles at
Versailles; Louis's dislike and fear of Paris; effect politically of the
segregation of the court.

3. _The Great Ministers_--Mazarin, C