Part I: The terms of the appeal: Nineteenth to twentieth century -- Dickens: -- I. The reputation revised -- II. The undivided imagination -- III. the revolutionary fate -- Hardy in defense of his art: The aesthetic of incongruity -- Samuel Butler: The victorian insolvency -- Henry James: The act of life -- Part II: The terms of the response: Twentieth century -- Conrad: -- I. Chance and recognition -- II. The east and the sea -- III. The threat to the west -- IV. Conrad in his age -- E.M. Forster: The trophies of the mind -- Ford Madox Ford: Yesturday and after.