37/73 I am inclined to think that his most besetting sin in style,--the little earmark by which he is most conspicuous,--is a certain affected familiarity. He indulges too frequently in little confidences with individual readers, in which pretended allusions to himself are frequent. "What would you do? He describes this practice of his in the preface to _Pendennis_. "It is a sort of confidential talk between writer and reader.... |