The World's Great Masterpieces (Volume 25); History, Biography, Science, Philosophy, Poetry, the Drama, Travel, Adventure, Fiction, Etc.

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1901. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHARLES READE. Reade, Charles, an eminent English novelist and dramatist; born at Ipsden House, Oxfordshire, June 8, 1814; died at London, April 11, 1884. He took his degree at Oxford in 1840; became a Fellow of his college in 1842, and in 1843 was called to the bar, as a member of Lincoln's Inn. Between 1850 and 1854 he produced several dramatic pieces. His first novel, Peg Woffington, appeared in 1853. His first play, The Ladies' Battle, appeared in 1851; and he subsequently wrote Masks and Faces, with Tom Taylor; Christie Johnstone (1853); Clouds and Sunshine, and Art (1855); It's Never Too Late to Mend (1856); White Lies (1860); The Course of True Love (1857); Drink (from Zola's L'Assommoir); Love Me Little, Love Me Long(1859); The Cloister and the Hearth (1861); Hard Cash (1863; Griffith Gaunt (1866); Foul Flay (1869); Put Yourself in His Place (1870); A Terrible Temptation (1871); The Wandering Heir (1872); A Simpleton (1873); A Woman Hater (1877); The Scuttled Ship (dramatized, with Dion Boucicault, from Foul Play) (1879); The Perilous Secret (1884); The Jilt, and Other Tales (1884); Good Stories of Men and Other Animals (1884). The Good Fairy. (From Peg Woffiugton.) James Triplet, water in his eye, but fire in his heart, went home on wings. Arrived there, he anticipated curiosity by informing all hands he should answer no questions. Only in the intervals of a work, which was to take the family out of all its troubles, he should gradually unfold a tale, verging on the marvellous, -a tale whose fault was, that fiction, by which alone the family could hope to be great, paled beside it. He then seized some sheets of paper, fished out some old dramatic sketches, and a list of dramatis persona, prepared y...