The Cloister and the Hearth, Volume One of Four by Charles Reade, Fiction, Classics

Cloister and the Hearth, Volume I& 34;The Cloister and the Hearth& 34; is Charles Reade& 39;s greatest work--and, I believe, the greatest historical novel in the language. . . .& 34;One can only say that this great writer--there is no greater praise--paints women as they are, men as they are, things as they are. What we call genius is first the power of seeing men, women, and things as they are--most of us, being without genius, are purblind--and then the power of showing them by means of& 34;invention& 34;--by the grafting of& 34;invention& 34; upon fact. No man has shown greater power of grasping fact and of weaving invention upon it than Charles Reade.& 34; -- from Walter Besant& 39;s introduction