ABSTRACT
There is no species of writing that has been more popular among young readers since its first appearance, than the novel or romance. It is this art of making much out of little that reconciles people to a course of novel-reading, they find how tame and insipid real life is. They awake in the morning, dress themselves, go out shopping or visiting, and return in perfect safety to the same employments or amusements this day that they returned to yesterday, and which will probably engage the time tomorrow. Murder is certainly a very fruitful topic: it can be contrived in so many ways, and if once people return to the old-fashioned belief in ghosts, it is incredible with what ease they may increase the stock of personages, for every one mentioned in the work may have a ghost, and, living or dead, they may in this way exactly double the amusement.
