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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: everything is said. On the second, you will be somewhat cured of
your admiration, as you perceive how little there is to say. The
head proves to be nothing but a cunning mask, with no brains inside.
Especially is this true of a book, which I must beg those who have
read it already, to recollect. To read it I recommend no human
being. We may consider it, as it was considered in its time, the
typical novel of the Ancien Regime. A picture of Spanish society,
written by a Frenchman, it was held to be--and doubtless with
reason--a picture of the whole European world. Its French editor
(of 1836) calls it a grande epopee; "one of the most prodigious
efforts of intelligence, exhausting all forms of humanity"--in fact,
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