Paul Bourget 
Love Crime 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Neither has he been afraid of allowing his stories to point a moral. Art for art’s sake is all very well, but it does not detract from the artistic quality of a work of fiction that it should inculcate an ethical lesson. Charles Reade, Dickens, Thackery — and how many others — have fought some abuse of public administration, or, with the weapons of irony and invective, attacked some darling vice, some pet dereliction of our faulty, stumbling human nature. And it is because they get right down to human nature that these masters, and such as they, are able to move us.