Defoe did it more; Smollett more still; and since the great war there had been naval and military novels in abundance, as well as novels political, clerical, sporting, and what not.

But these special interests had been as a rule drawn upon too onesidedly.

The eighteenth century found its mistaken fondness for episodes, inset stories, and the like, particularly convenient here: the naval, military, sporting, and other novels of the nineteenth were apt to rely too exclusively on these differences.

Such things as the Oxbridge scenes and the journalism scenes of _Pendennis_--both among the most effective and popular, perhaps _the_ most effective and popular, parts of the book--were almost, if not entirely, new.

There had been before, and have since been, plenty of university novels, and their record has been a record of almost uninterrupted failure; there have since, if not before, _Pendennis_ been several "press" novels, and their record has certainly not been a record of unbroken success.