Sorts and Conditions of Men_ (1882), the first of the kind apparently
that Besant wrote alone, as _Dorothy Forster_ (1884), and as the
powerful if not exactly delightful _Children of Gibeon_ (1886) were
perhaps more vigorous than anything earlier, and certainly not less
original. But the curse of the "machine-made" novel, which has been
already dwelt upon, did not quite spare Besant: and in these later
stories critics could point, without complete unfairness, to an
increasing obsession of the "London" subject, especially in regard to
the actual gloom and possible illumination of the East End, and on the
other to a resort to historical subjects, less as suggestions or
canvases than as giving the substance of the book. The first class of
work, however (which actually resulted in a "People's Palace" and was
supposed to have obtained his knighthood for him), is distinctly
remarkable, especially in the light of succeeding events. Most of the
unfavourable criticisms passed upon Besant's novel-work were in the main
the utterances of raw reviewers, who thought it necessary to "down"
established reputations. But it would be impossible for any competent
critic, however much he might be biassed off the bench by friendship,
not to admit, on it, that he also shows the effect, which we have been
illustrating from others, of the system of novel-production _à la
douzaine_. In such a case, and on the, in themselves, salutary
conditions of the new novel, the experiences and interests of life may
or must come to be regarded too regularly as supplying "grist for the
mill"; nay, the whole of life and literature, which no doubt ought in
all cases to furnish suggestion and help to art and inspiration, are too
often set to a sort of _corvèe_, a day-task, a tale of bricks. It is,
one allows, hard to prevent this: and yet nothing is more certain that
bricks so made are not the best material to be wrought into any really
"star-y-pointing pyramid" that shall defy the operations of time.