ABSTRACT
Of the novelist it is enough to ask: Is the story well written and interesting? but of the humorist and satirist we want more than an agreeable tale. We want to know what he teaches, and we demand that he shall instruct us what not to do as well as what to do. The novelist may content himself with amusing, but the humorist must direct his readers. With this general opinion Thackeray was thoroughly in accord. ‘The humorous writer,’ he said in a lecture, professes to awaken and direct your love, your pity, your kindness, your scorn of untruth, pretension, imposture, your tenderness for the weak, the poor, the oppressed, the unhappy. To the best of his means and ability he comments on all the ordinary actions and passions of life almost.’
