It is all stilted,--all of a certain altitude among the clouds.

It has been in its time a popular book, and has had its world of readers.

Those readers no doubt preferred the diluted romance of Mrs.
Radcliff to the condensed realism of Fielding.

At any rate they did not look for realism.

_Pelham_ may be taken as another instance of the sublime, though there is so much in it that is of the world worldly, though an intentional fall to the ludicrous is often made in it.