Note 824 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
"It is most astonishing that there ever could have been people idle enough to write and read such endless heaps of the same stuff. It was, however, the occupation of thousands in the last century, and is still the private though disavowed amusement of young girls and sentimental ladies," wrote Chesterfield in the eighteenth century (Letters to his Son, 1774, p. 242). Even Johnson read and enjoyed these lengthy romances.