At any rate, in him, and for English prose and secular fiction, we have first that mysterious charm of the _real that is not real_--of the "human creation"-- which constitutes the appeal of the novel.

In some of the books there is hardly any appeal of any other sort.

Moll Flanders, though not unkindly, and "improper" rather from the force of circumstances than from any specially vicious inclination, is certainly not a person for whom one has much liking.

Colonel Jack, after his youthful experiences in pocket-picking, is rather a nonentity, something of a coward, a fellow of no particular wits, parts, or definite qualities of any kind.

Singleton is a rascal who "plays Charlemagne," as the French gambling term has it, and endows his repentance with the profits of his sin.