wanton read the classic authors or prefer " new book in the Judging from the entries in the competition arranged by Messrs. Collins, the publishers, with the idea of arriving at the literary taste of to-day, there seems to be some reason to suppose that women pre-for the "latest" to the best.
'AS women are great novel readers, it was expected that they would send in the great majority of So far, this has not hai pened. More than half the compet tors appear to be men.
The most likely explanation seems to be that the competition to authors who have becor such as Dickens, Dui Austen, and George Borrow. Apparently the woman of to-day is not so interested as men in writers who have a permanent place on the bookshelf.
Here is obviously a man's estimate of the 12 most popular classic authors:
Dickens, Dumas.
R. L, Stevenson.
Scott, Thackeray. Jane Austei Wilkie Collins, Mrs, Gaskell, What woman would place Stevenson—with his lack of "love interest"— third in the list, and would any. woman put Wilkie Collins even at the end?
Entries continue to reach the organizers at the rate of well over 100 a day from all parts. of the country, and the result should be a thoroughly representative one, The first prize of £100 will go to the competitor whose list most nearly corresponds with that arrived at by the votes of the majority.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.