SOURCE: "Richard Jefferies' Amaryllis at the Fair," in Modern English Essays, Vol. 5, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1922, pp. 102-11.

Garnett was a prominent editor for several London publishing houses, and discovered or greatly influenced the work of many important English writers. He also published several volumes of criticism, all of which are characterized by thorough research and sound critical judgments. In the following essay, Garnett challenges the opinion of most critics that Jefferies was not a novelist, emphasizing the merit of his Amaryllis at the Fair.

"The book is not a novel" is a phrase often in the mouth of critics, who on second thoughts might, perhaps, add with less emphasis, "it does not conform to the common type of novel." Fortified, however, with that sense of rectitude that dictates conformity to our neighbours and a safe acquiescence in the mysterious movements of public taste, Victorian critics have...