Page:Satire in the Victorian novel (IA satireinvictoria00russrich).pdf/68

 Thackeray   1811          1844-1862              1863 Dickens     1812          1837-1870              1870 Reade       1814          1853-1884              1884 Trollope    1815          1855-1880              1882 Brontë      1816          1847-1853              1855 Kingsley    1819          1848-1871              1875 Eliot       1819          1859-1876              1880 Meredith    1828          1859-1895              1909 Butler      1835          1872-1901              1902

This list, reaching from Scott to Hardy, not inclusive, has been reckoned as a round dozen, but it actually numbers a baker's dozen. The noteworthy thing about it is that it would probably be agreed upon as the preëminent list on any count; so that those who are excluded on the score of being too consistently serious or romantic, as Yonge, Collins, Blackmore, Henry Kingsley, MacDonald, would hardly be included on the score of quality, although some of them might rival some of the least among those chosen as members of the satirico-realistic group.

A glance at the preceding table reveals an obvious chronological division into five parts; although the first and the two last consist of one man each. The second contains only two names; and their separation from the main group occurs at the beginning rather than at the end, for Lytton's race ran beyond five of those who started