"THE LIBRARY OF SELECT NOVELS" has become an institution, a reliable
and unfailing recreative resource essential to the comfort of countless
readers. The most available entertainment of modern times is fiction:
from the cares of busy life, from the monotonous routine of a special
vocation, in the intervals of business and in hours of depression, a
good story, with faithful descriptions of nature, with true pictures of
life, with authentic characterization, lifts the mind out of the domain
of care, refreshes the feelings, and enlists the imagination. The
Harpers' "Library of Select Novels" is rapidly approaching its four
hundredth number, and it is safe to say that no series of books exists
which combines attractiveness and economy, local pictures and beguiling
narrative, to such an extent and in so convenient a shape. In
railway-cars and steamships, in boudoirs and studios, libraries and
chimney corners, on verandas and in private sanctums, the familiar brown
covers are to be seen. These books are enjoyed by all classes; they
appear of an average merit, and with a constant succession that is
marvelous; and in subject and style offer a remarkable variety.
--_Boston Transcript._