I have spoken elsewhere of Miss Tytler's Life of Jane Austen as being little more than a reproduction of Mr. Austen Leigh's ‘Memoir.’ I have, I confess, a much greater objection to her manner of treating the novels; for, although she speaks of touching them ‘with a reverent hand,’ she appears to me to have done just the reverse, and to have given an account of each book, sometimes in Jane Austen's words, with a running commentary, but generally in her own words, paraphrasing the original in such a manner as to spoil the symmetry of the work and destroy much of the beauty of the literary structure. Jane Austen's works did not, and do not, require this kind of handling. They should be read just as they were written, and it may be truly said of them that no books are more suitable for reading aloud. If well read, by a person who can understand the characters, and is in sympathy with the spirit of the book, they are admirably adapted for this purpose; but as a great number of people dislike anything of the kind, it is a comfort to be able to add that they are equally delightful to read to oneself.