and manly simplicity with which it touches on the history of the unfortunate subject of the mrs s ball a christmas book was published in december but its author had long been preparing for a more serious undertaking some time before he had some chapters entitled pencil sketches of english society which he had offered to the late mr for in the now monthly magazine it formed a portion of a continuous story of a length not yet determined and was rejected by mr after consideration the papers which mr had contributed to the new monthly were chiefly slight comic stories � perhaps the least favourable specimens of his powers they wore indeed not inferior to the common run of magazine papers and were certainly not equal to his to � in fact as a to the new the monthly he had achieved no remarkable success and his papers appear to have been little in demand there whether the manuscript had been offered to � the magazine in which had secured popularity and where he was certainly more at home we cannot say � happily the author of pencil sketches of english society though his projected work did not abandon it he saw in its opening chapters � certainly not the best portions of the story when completed � the foundations of a work which was to secure him at last a fame among contemporary writers in his own proper name the success of mr s shilling monthly parts suggested to him to make it the commencement of a work of fiction to be month by month with illustrations by the author the work grew up by degrees and finally took shape under the better title of vanity fair it was during this time the latter part of that he removed to his house at no young street a favourite locality with him in which house he resided for some years he also at this time occupied chambers at and the m m of letters no crown office row temple the comfortable retirement in which up four pair of stairs with its grand view when the sun was shining of the chimney pots over the way he has himself described his friend mr tom the and had chambers in the same house and we believe on the of no crown office row wrote a poem published in the pages of punch in which if we remember rightly mention is made of the fact of s having resided there mr was called to the bar by the hon society of the middle temple in though he never practised and never probably intended to do so the however were not insensible to the addition to the numerous literary associations with their venerable and quiet retreat which they thus gained after his death there was some proposition to bury him in the temple of which he was a member amid those towers the which on thames broad back do ride where now the student lawyers have their where wont the knights to bide tiu they decayed through pride there is buried and s ashes the would have been laid near those of the author of the of whose brilliant genius he so heartily and whose many he so tenderly touched upon in the lectures on the but after consultation with his family it was deemed better that he should rest with his own people in green this decision the sanction of the to within the of the temple church had been asked and cheerfully accorded and when the green was finally decided upon the were requested to permit the of a memorial in their church their reply to this was that not only should they be honoured by such a but that if allowed they would have it erected at their own cost letter of mr in the art and the of letters chapter iy van it v fair � first monthly number � notices of the � a little christmas book � let ter on the dignity of literature � annoyed by criticism � notice of the times begins to deliver his in america � his success � notices of news papers � preface to an american edition of his publication of henry � incident in with the publication of the � second journey to the united states � lectures on the � address to the of oxford � the election � and � correspondence the first monthly portion of vanity fair was published on the st of february in the yellow which served to distinguish it from mr s stories and which afterwards became the standard colour for the monthly of mr s stories the work was continued monthly and finished with the number for july of the following year the the friends of mr and all those who had watched his career with special interest saw in it at once a work of greater promise than any that had appeared since the dawn of mr s fame but the critical journals received it somewhat coldly one of the most influential of these journals in the first numbers perhaps best the tone of its reception at this early period it is generally acknowledged that to the thoughtful and article in the review of january the first eleven numbers of the work only is due the merit of first calling attention to the great power it displayed the writer was evidently one who knew mr well for he gives a sketch of his life and having met him some years before painting in the in paris in forming says this judicious writer our general estimate of this writer we wish to be understood as referring principally if not exclusively to i vanity fair a novel in monthly parts though still unfinished so superior in our opinion is this to every other known production of his pen the and the mm of letters great charm of this work is its entire freedom from 