Excerpt from History of Prose Fiction, Vol. 1 The value of Dunlop's "History of Fiction," now again, after a long lapse of years, placed within reach of the English reader, needs no demonstration; it is amply attested by the numerous quotations from and references to it in all works, even of the most recent date, upon the history of imaginative literature. The explorations in the field of the genesis and genealogy of fiction have, indeed, recently attained such extensive development that probably no single writer could now be found bold enough to review such a vast domain as forms the scope of Dunlop's undertaking. Writing at a period when comparatively little had been done in the ground he occupied, Dunlop was sensible of the magnitude of his task, and found it expedient to keep it within practicable compass by confining his attention to works in prose - a limitation, however, as need hardly be said, altogether artificial in tracing the evolutions of fictive composition, which passes, according to certain social conditions and by laws which might almost be determined, from verse to prose, and again from the latter to the metrical form. In the domain of letters, as of material industries, increase of labour begets its subdivision and specialization. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.