A reactionary movement was attempted when the illustrious actress Rachel appeared with such striking effect in the tragedies of Corneille and Racine. Ponsard and Latour St. Ybars returned to the old form of tragedy; but the Lucrece of the former and the Virginie of the latter enjoyed but ephemeral success, while the "School of Good Sense," as the adherents of this movement were styled, reckons only a few light comedies by Aemile Augier. This school had been preceded in the line of tragedy by Casimir Delavigne, who, gradually deviating from the classical model, attempted to reconcile the classic and the romantic systems, in his Marino Faliero, Les enfants d'Edouard and Louis XI. Meanwhile Eugene Scribe was day by day increasing his enormous stock of successful comedies, or rather vaudevilles, on a larger or smaller scale.-Novels, which, with the exception of De Vigny's Cinq-Mars, had been scarcely noticed during the excitement of dramatic reform, became the rage as soon as this was on the point of being accomplished. Foremost among the novelists of the present century in point of power and celebrity is the poet and dramatist Victor Hugo, whose Notre Dame de Paris, Les mise-rables. Les tracailleurs de la mer, and L'Homme qui rit have achieved a wide renown.

George Sand (Mme. Dudevant) acquired reputation by her Indiana (1832), and established her claim to be considered one of the foremost writers of her time by her subsequent performances, Valentine, Lelia, Jacques, Andre, Simon, Mau-prat, Consuelo, Le champi, La mare au dia-ble, La petite Fadette, La filleule, L'homme de neige, and by her Histoire de ma vie. Alexandre Dumas, the inexhaustible story-teller, won unequalled popularity by his Trois mous-qnetaires, Vingt ans apres, Le vicomte de Bragelonne, Le comte de Monte Cristo, Joseph Balsamo, Le collier de la reine, Ange Pitou, La comtesse de Charny, and other romances, in all filling more than a hundred volumes. Eugene Sue also achieved great popular success with Les mysteres de Paris, Le Juif errant, and Martin l'enfant trouve, depicting in glaring colors the miseries of society. Hono-re de Balzac undertook to present, under the title of La comedie humaine, a daguerrotype of every aspect of French society during his time; this immense work was interrupted by death; but some parts of it, complete in themselves, are invaluable for depth of observation and acuteness of delineation: Eugenie Gran-det, Le pere Goriot, La recherche de l'absolu, Le contrat de mariage, Modeste Mignon, Les parens pauvres, Les scenes de la vie privee, etc.

Frederic Soulie, who, although his popularity is not as great, is nearly the equal of those we have just named, evinced uncommon talents in his historical novels of southern France, among which Le vicomte de Beziers specially deserves to be mentioned. Still greater power characterized his pictures from the social world: La lionne, La comtesse de Montrion, Diane et Louise, Le lion amoureux, and Les memoires du diable. Alphonse Karr, in his Sous les tilleuls, Midi a quatorze heures, Genevieve, Clotilde, and numerous short tales, has given unrivalled specimens of good sense, fine feeling, and genuine humor. By the originality, delicacy of style, and charm of fancy which Alfred de Musset displayed in his nouvelles, such as Frederic et Bernerette, Emmeline, Les deux mattresses, Lefils du Titien, and Mimi Pinson, he is entitled to a high rank as a novelist. Such is also the case with Prosper Merimee, whose Chronique du temps du Charles IX., Colomba, Le vas etrusque, and Arsene Guillot are gems of their kind. Prominent among the comic writers was Paul de Kock, whose novels were nearly as numerous as those of Dumas, and who wrote also many vaudevilles.

Besides these masters of novel writing we can merely mention their contemporaries, Mme. Charles Reybaud, Mme. Emile de Girardin, Theophile Gautier, Charles de Bernard, Elie Berthet, Pon-son du Terrail, Jules Sandeau, Emile Souvestre, Paul Feral, and Mery. Among the later novelists, Henri Murger, Alexandre Dumas fils, Leon Gozlan, Arsene Houssaye, Champfleury. Ernest Feydeau, Gustave Flaubert, Emile Gaboriau, Octave Feuillet, Hector Malot, Edmond About, Cherbuliez, and the literary partners Erckmann-Chatrian, deserve mention. Jules Verne has written remarkable scientific romances, which have been translated into English and widely read. Of nearly the same class are the fanciful scientific works of Guillemin and Elysee Reclus.-Poetry is far from being as popular in France as the novel, and poets have been and are still very slightly regarded by the public; but four of them have such claims to admiration as to be dear even to the least poetical minds; these are Beranger, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, and Alfred de Musset. The first named, who wrote nothing but songs, is at once the most national and the most popular of all, as well as the best known in foreign countries.

Although song-makers are numerous in France, there is only one who deserves to be men-tioned after Beranger; this is Pierre Dupont, who, however, stands far behind his master, Lamartine, whose effusions present a combination of harmony, human feeling, and religious sentiment, is the favorite of minds that incline to sentimentality and reverie. His Meditations, Harmonies, and Recueillements poetiqves, his Jocelyn and Chute d'um ange, are still read and admired. Victor Hugo, though a leader in all departments of French literature, has not been less successful as poet than novelist. His Odes et ballades, Orientates, Feuilles d'automne, Chants du crepuscule, Voix interieures, Les rayons et les ombres, and Contemplations are poems of sentiment and fancy; while his Chatiments are bitter satires against Napoleon III. and his associates. His latest poem, L'Annee terrible, is a passionate lament for the misfortunes of France in 1871. In 1874 he published a novel called Quatre-vingt-treize, which delineates the great year of the first French revolution, 1793. Alfred de Mus-set, perhaps the most original of the four, is less known than either of them outside of France, but in his own country his reputation is very high.