South since the war.

Novels descriptive of Western life have been written by Charles Fenno
Hoffman, James Hall, Timothy Flint, Thomas, and O'Connell. But none of
these writers have given such original sketches of character, or have
so graphically portrayed the spirit of life in the far West as Mr.
Bret Harte. "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and the other stories of this
talented writer have opened a vein of romance where it was least
expected.

American fiction has been exceptionally rich in stories adapted to the
juvenile mind, among which the most prominent are Mrs. Whitney's "Faith
Gartney's Girlhood," Miss Alcott's "Little Women," and Mr. T.B.
Aldrich's "Story of a Bad Boy." Edgar Allan Poe's "Tales of the
Grotesque and the Arabesque," are remarkable for intensity and
vividness of conception, combined with a circumstantial invention
almost equal to that of Defoe. Mrs. Burnett and Mr. J.W. De Forest are
still writing excellent novels of American life; and Mr. Henry James,
Jr., is studying that peculiar form of human nature known as the
American in Europe.[210]


[Footnote 210: Other American writers of fiction:--R.B. Kimball, Herman
Melville, Dr. R. Bird, John Neal, H.W. Longfellow, Washington Allston,
Maria S. Cummins, W.G. Simms, Theodore Winthrop, Mary J. Holmes, Mrs.
Terhune, Augusta Evans Wilson, Catherine Sedgwick Valerio.]



VII.