But I have always thought that the opening passage more than entitles the book to an honourable place in the history of English fiction.

I do not know where to look, before it, for such an "interior"-- such a complete Dutch picture of room and furniture and accessories generally.

Even so learned a critic as the late M.Brunetiere thought that things of the kind were not older than Balzac.

I have known English readers, not ignorant, who thought they were scarcely older than Dickens.

Dickens, however, undoubtedly took them from Smollett, of whom we know that he was an early and enthusiastic admirer: and Scott, who has them much earlier than Dickens, not improbably was in some degree indebted for them to his countryman.