This edition contains the three most important works of Charles Reade (1814-1884). Reade adapted the social purpose and concern for detail of the realistic novel to the stage. He was much concerned with poverty, the brutality of the prison regime of his time and the abuse of mental asylums. He assigned a specially important role to women in his plays, choosing to write for the charismatic actresses of his day. Masks and Faces (1852) is concerned with the public image and private life of a leading Covent Garden actress; The Courier of Lyons (1854) is based upon a real case of mistaken identity; and It Is Never Too Late to Mend (1865) describes the legal and financial oppression of poor English farming folk. All these plays were very popular and successful, performed and revived many times. Dr Hammet provides alongside them an informative introduction, notes on the text, a short biography of Reade, a full list of his plays and productions, and a bibliography.

" The main purpose of our existence on earth aside from the sacred and paramount duty of securing our salvation is undoubtedly to make ourselves masters of the tangible world around us, as it stands revealed to our senses, and as it was expressly made subject to our will by the Creator. We are, however, at the same time, not le without information about the existence of certain laws and the occurrence of certain phenomena, which belong to a world not accessible to us by means of our ordinary senses, and which yet affect seriously our intercourse with Nature and our personal welfare. this knowledge we obtain sometimes, by special favor, as direct revelation, and at other times, for reasons as yet unknown, at the expense of our health and much suffering. By whatever means it may reach us, it cannot be rejected; to treat it with ridicule or to decline examining it, would be as unwise as unprofitable. The least that we can do is to ascertain the precise nature of these laws, and, after stripping these phenomena of all that can be proved to be merely incidental or delusive, to compare them with each other, and to arrange them carefully according to some standard of classification. The main interest in such a task lies in the discovery of the grain of truth which is often found concealed in a mass of rubbish, and which, when thus brought to light, serves to enlarge our knowledge and to increase our power. The difficulty lies in the absence of all scientific investigation, and in the innate tendency of man to give way, wantonly or unconsciously, to mental as well as to sensual delusion..."