Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1

by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook

Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama is the American edition of Ebenezer Cobham Brewer's Reader's Handbook, revised and edited by Marion Harland and published in New York in 1892. Arranged alphabetically, it identifies characters from novels, plays, poems, romances, legends and operas, from classical literature and medieval tales to Shakespeare, Scott, Dickens and the authors of Brewer's own day, giving for each the source, a summary of the role and often a quotation. This first volume is illustrated with photogravures and etchings of famous scenes, among them Ichabod Crane, Sydney Carton, Captain Cuttle and Cinderella. It is a compact guide to the allusions an educated nineteenth-century reader was expected to recognize. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.