But they are quite different in subject and treatment.

The first is a sketch of country society, uppermost and lowermost:[25] the second one of town-artisan and lower-trade life with passages of university and other contrast.

Both are young and crude enough, intentionally or unintentionally; both, intentionally beyond all doubt, are fantastic and extravagant; but both are full of genius.
Argemone Lavington, the heroine of _Yeast_, is, though not of the most elaborately drawn, one of the most fascinating and real heroines of English fiction; an important secondary character of the second book, the bookseller Sandy Mackaye, is one of its most successful "character-parts." Both, but especially _Yeast_, are full of admirable descriptive writing, not entirely without indebtedness to Mr.Ruskin, but very often independently carried out, and always worthy of a "place on the line" in any gallery.

There is much accurate and real dialogue, not a little firm character-drawing.

Above all, both are full of blood--of things lived and seen, not vamped up from reading or day-dreaming--and yet full of dreams, day and other, and full of literature.